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Offering up a taste of Austria

Austria House was really cookin' during the Paralympics, dishing up authentic Viennese dishes at their fancy digs in Lost Lake Park as they played host to athletes, coaches and curious members of the public.

Austria House was really cookin' during the Paralympics, dishing up authentic Viennese dishes at their fancy digs in Lost Lake Park as they played host to athletes, coaches and curious members of the public.

Chef Gottfried Gansterer is the mustachioed man behind the traditional tastes on offer during the Paralympic Games. This wasn't his first trip to the Olympic rodeo; he was also at the helm of the kitchens of Austria Houses at the Nagano and Salt Lake City Winter Games, and the Summer Games held in Sydney in 2000.

But he was pleasantly surprised by B.C.'s bounty of fresh fruit, veggies and meat available at his fingertips.

"I've never had a good quality of meat like here," he enthused.

Chef Gansterer came armed with a team of 14 students and staff members from the culinary school where he teaches who were put to work whipping up delicious and authentic Viennese specialties for the 50 to 80 guests who visited Austria house each day during the Paralympic Games.

On Saturday afternoon, the chef and his culinary team were at The Grocery Store, stocking up for their last supper in Whistler, which featured Tyrolean ham served with bell pepper cream cheese, bread, pickles and silver onions, Viennese potato soup, breaded pork schnitzel, roast sirloin served "esterhazy"-style, with julienned veggies and small dumplings, and Hungarian-style goulash with sausage and pickles. If those savory dishes weren't enough to tantalize your taste buds, they also whipped up some sweeter dishes like apple strudel, "kaiserschmarrn" (thick diced pancakes with plum jam), "sachertorte" (chocolate layer cake with apricot jam and chocolate glaze) and "maronicreme" (chestnut puree with raspberry sauce) to tempt people into sampling their national cuisine. With a menu like that, I don't think anyone walked away disappointed.

"My job is to give you an idea about the Austrian cuisine. I don't like to mix it up!" Chef Gansterer explained. "We have the apple strudel, we have the kaiserschmarrn, we have the traditional Austrian dishes, and that's why we are here, to present our country on the culinary side."

Of course, a chef is only as good as the ingredients they have to work with. And according to Chef Gansterer, the large quantities of fresh produce and meat they had The Grocery Store deliver to their doorstep each and every day was fresh and top-notch quality.

"It was really, really very important to me to have helping hands on this side," chef Gansterer said, gesturing around the store. "Because if you don't have a good quality on food, if you don't have a good supplier who is bringing big amounts of food to the Austrian House, I can't do it!"

Bruce Thibeault is the butcher at The Grocery Store. He explained that they source the majority of their pork from the Lower Mainland, while their Triple-A beef comes from Alberta.

"It's like the top 10 per cent of the meat that comes out of Canada, basically," Thibeault explained.

This was the first time The Grocery Store has worked hand-in-hand with a chef cooking for such a big event. Gansterer's team would fax in an order each morning, then the staff at The Grocery Store would counter with what was actually feasible. At the end of the two weeks, both parties were very pleased with the partnership.

"This is the first time that we've really worked with a chef," Thibeault admitted. "We've worked with personal chefs that might do 10 people, but nothing on this scale."

The working partnership was a last-minute surprise for the long-time locally owned business, as Chef Gansterer simply showed up at the store with his "meat forecast" - a five-day order of meat that changed day-to-day - at the beginning of the Paralympic Games.

"The first day, they sent in an order and it said, '5 carrots, 10 potatoes,' like that," said owner Bob Adams, chuckling. "Normally, when we get faxed shopping lists, its just for a family, so we went out and got all these things."

They packed up the little basket of groceries, and received a confused phone call soon after; the chef actually wanted five kilograms of carrots and 10 kilograms of potatoes.

The Austrian culinary team has donated the remaining ingredients to Whistler Community Services Society and Squamish's Helping Hands, giving back to the community that has played host to their athletes and dignitaries throughout the Games-time period.

 

An extra scoop

A candlelight dinner is always a romantic proposition, but on Saturday, March 27, people will be dining in the dark for a different reason: they're observing Earth Hour.

Started by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007, the Earth Hour initiative quickly spread from its origin in Sydney, Australia to more than 4,000 cities around the world. This year, at least three local restaurants - Araxi, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler's Wildflower Restaurant and the Four Season's Fifty-Two 80 Bistro and Bar - are getting in on the energy-saving action, hosting candlelight dinners. Araxi goes dim at 8:30 p.m., while the Four Seasons and Fairmont have opted for a full evening of candlelight dining, starting at 5 p.m. and running until 10 p.m.