The GELINAZ! gang yesterday afternoon braved the cold waters (for some at least) of the river in front of the Mühltalhof in Neufelden, Upper Austria to symbolically build a bridge across the river which shortens the distance between the restaurant of father and son duo Helmut and Philip Rachinger and the art gallery of Joachim Eckl called The Heim.Art* Station just across the river.
Joachim Eckl said that the building of the bridge was not only just functional, i.e. to enable the chefs and guests to cross from one spot to the other but also symbolic as the chefs were here from all corners of the world to exchange ideas, experiences and work together in a unique setting.
The Austrian artist, who likes to call himself a ‘social engineer’ is currently working on realising “Draw the Danube – Build a Bridge’ – a project based on the collaboration of 2000 people along the whole stream of the Danube.
Preparations were going ahead in full swing yesterday. The teams have started to exchange ideas on how they will deconstruct, dismantle, cut the original recipes of 3 matrix dishes that have been prepared by the Rachingers. The final chef to arrive from New York was Lima based Virgilio Martinez of Restaurant Central in Peru. He immediately stopped to talk with the two members of his team Antonia Klugmann and Lukas Nagl. After listening to their ideas he told them he had got some ingredients with him from Peru.
Teams worked together though there was also time for them to relax and exchange ideas in what most chefs explain is a unique environment away from spotlight of their fine dining restaurants.
The exchange of ideas may have led to intense and heated discussions but today these will culminate into concrete ideas as the dishes come closer to their final fruition.
The evening ended with a dinner at the Heim.Art Station which will be the venue of the GELINAZ! DOES UPPER AUSTRIA event on Sunday. The mother of all storms had us rushing to help Joachim Eckl and the Rachingers to remove all the chairs and tables as the wind blew and the torrential rainfall threatened to leave us stranded.
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