What I've Learned in Vienna: My Experiences

The Essence

In Vienna, what you see is what you get. The city is very honest. Closed and open at the same time. That only seems to be a contradiction at first glance: Vienna seems tough, but once you’ve cracked the city, felt your way in, and adapted, then it’s a great place to live. There is room for everything and everyone here. Vienna is a melting pot of different cultures whose contrasts are reflected everywhere: in art, music, and gastronomy.

The People

Before I moved to Vienna in 2015, I had been in a long-distance relationship with my partner, a Viennese, for six years and therefore regularly spent a lot of time in the city. The advantage: I was able to build up a social infrastructure, people were able to adapt to me, and I was able to adapt to them. If you get along with the people here, you can rely on them completely. Of course, the Viennese are grumpy, but nowhere else is unfriendliness as nice and charming as it is in Vienna. It isn’t condescending, but rather, I think, a kind of protective wall. And that must not change. Imagine if the waiters in a coffeehouse suddenly came to your table with uncharacteristic exuberance – Yes, Madam! Awesome, sir! – you would ask yourself: Where am I?

The Splendor

The Vienna Opera, the magnificent buildings on the Ringstrasse, the historic luxury hotels – Vienna is a magnificent city. But this splendor seems so casual. This also applies to St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It just stands there and seems to take itself less seriously than the landmarks of other major cities.

The Pleasure

Good food is celebrated in Vienna – even the “Eitrige,” as Käsekrainer (a sausage filled with cheese) is called here, at the sausage stand. I am impressed by the offal cuisine and the Viennese pub culture. Honest home-style cooking, where everything is cooked properly and no convenience products or any other charlatanry are used, has almost died out in other countries. Here, restaurateurs are having great success with it. Vienna is also the only big city with a significant wine-growing industry. The vineyards start just 50 to 100 meters from my apartment. Very typical is the Gemischter Satz. This is not simply a cuvée, but at least three grape varieties grow together in one plot, forming a symbiosis. The grapes are harvested at the same time and vinified together, resulting in something very special that cannot be found anywhere else. In this respect, the Wiener Gemischter Satz reflects the city.

The Inspiration

Although my culinary origins lie more in France and Spain, also in terms of the products, it does happen that Breton turbot ends up in a goulash juice or Lammbeuschel, an Austrian offal ragout, is on my menu. It doesn't necessarily have to be the ingredients that reflect a region, it can also be the taste. For example, the Austrian pastries on our menu, such as Kaiserschmarrn and apple strudel. We deconstruct these classics, which then look completely different but taste exactly like the original.

For Friends

My favorite restaurant at the moment is Reznicek in the 9th district, which is run by guys who originally come from the world of fine dining. Now they offer great wines and honest food – and above all the best cordon bleu in the world. I also like going to Mraz & Sohn. Lukas Mraz is a former employee of mine and is the third generation to take over the restaurant. He cooks from the gut; for me, it's the most democratic two-star restaurant ever.

My favorite places in the summer: the Buschenschanken (seasonal wine taverns where winegrowers serve their own wine and offer small dishes) like our Hans & Fritz am Steinberg and Wieninger am Nussberg. I would recommend sitting outside the traditional restaurant Zum Schwarzen Kameel for a few hours in the afternoon, just watching the hustle and bustle and listening to the people. I would like to do that myself, but as there are also many guests and acquaintances here, I am constantly being approached. Maybe I’ll give it a try this year, dressed up like you see in Louis de Funès comedies.

One of the most beautiful parts of the city is the Servitenviertel in the 9th district. The best thing to do is simply stroll through and take in Little Paris, as the locals call the district. Vienna’s museums are always worth a visit: I love the Albertina and its offshoot, the Albertina Klosterneuburg, in the Vienna countryside. However, I find the Kunsthistorisches Museum the most moving, with its magnificent rooms in which these gigantic large formats of the Old Masters hang. And next to it, modern art. I remember a Baselitz exhibition, for example. There are 500 years between his work and the Renaissance paintings – and yet they work wonderfully side by side.

About

In Germany, chef Juan Amador cooked his way to three stars; he moved to Vienna in 2015 for love. In the Austrian capital, he achieved the feat of once again receiving the highest accolade in the Michelin Guide with the Amador Restaurant, the first restaurant in Austria ever to do so.