Best of Austria 2.0

Philip Rachinger’s path into gastronomy was more or less predetermined; after all, his family has been running the Mühltalhof in tranquil Neufelden in the Mühlviertel for six generations. The 33-year-old describes his style as “Austrian with vision” and focuses on natural, authentic dishes and regional ingredients in his restaurant Ois. The cuisine is intended to be straightforward, but subtle finesse is always allowed to shine through. Guests and Gault&Millau are equally enthusiastic and have awarded the restaurant four toques. The number 5 of the current “50 Best Chefs Austria” is also notorious as a member of the “Healthy Boy Band”, where, in a trio with Lukas Mraz and Felix Schellhorn, he questions culinary conventions, goes on a creative rampage and also encourages critical thinking about upscale gastronomy.

Max Natmessnig has made it to the top. Not only does he cook at around 1500 metres above sea level on the Arlberg, but he has also reached spheres within his guild where the air is quite thin. Gault&Millau awards his creations at the Rote Wand Chef’s Table in the Schualhus with four toques and celebrates the Lower Austrian native as Chef of the Year 2022. His path to the Arlberg led Max Natmessnig among others via the Steirereck in Vienna, Sergio Herman’s Oud Sluis and formative stopovers in New York at Daniel Humm’s NoMad and Cesar Ramirez’s Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare. These international influences are also palpable and palatable in the fine, alpine-influenced cuisine of the Rote Wand Chef’s Table.

Benjamin Parth is also an advocate of purist, clear compositions without gimmickry. His approach is never to combine more than three gustatory components in one dish. His daring but sharply executed creations are spiced with a strong pinch of cosmopolitanism and imagination. At the age of only 19, Benjamin Parth earned his first Gault&Millau toque. At the time, he was head chef at his parents’ Hotel Yscla and Restaurant Stüva and the youngest chef in the whole of Austria to be awarded a toque by Gault&Millau. Ten years later, Gault&Millau named him Chef of the Year 2019 and today even lists the gourmet restaurant Stüva as number 1 in the province of Tyrol with four toques and 18.5 points.

Why look into the distance? In April 2022, three cooking virtuosos from neighbouring Tyrol and Upper Austria will demonstrate at Restaurant Ikarus why they are already celebrating great success at a young age. Best of Austria 2.0 becomes a stage for newly conceived Austrian cuisine, because sometimes the best is right in front of you.