Ikarus Team as Guest chefs in the Ikarus

August 2011 at Restaurant Ikarus: Ikarus Team

Nothing is impossible

Is there such a thing as complete freedom in the kitchen? Unlimited scope? Untrammelled creativity?

Of course not.
Unless you're talking to Executive Chef Roland Trettl and his chef de cuisine Martin Klein. That may be when complete freedom exists.

Cooking is always the practical manifestation of what is theoretically feasible, but everything has its limit – the technical possibilities in a kitchen, the variety and quality of produce, the chef's creativity and, of course, first and foremost the chef's actual ability.
Which brings us back to Roland Trettl, Martin Klein and the team at "Ikarus".
For more than eight years now, Roland Trettl and Martin Klein have been in constant dialogue with the world's best in the catering trade. They both know everything – all the produce, recipes, the tricks used by the world's best. Even better, they not only know the theory behind it, they have actually practiced it all, in person, both in the kitchens of their celebrated colleagues, and on a daily basis at "Ikarus".

It's in the nature of the Hangar-7 guest chef concept that the future guest chef welcomes Roland Trettl into his or her kitchen and passes on to Roland the idiosyncrasies of the chef's recipes, so that he or she can be certain that their name will be properly represented and that Roland Trettl, Martin Klein and the whole "Ikarus" team will be able to reproduce the guest chef's skill and cookery achievements exactly as if he or she were in the kitchen for the whole month. This is only possible with absolute transparency, one hundred percent honesty and unconditional trust.

Roland Trettl's experiences over the last eight years are unique. It makes no difference whether it's classical French, Spanish avant-garde, traditional Japanese or diverse Chinese, Australian crossover or American "Big Apple" cooking, South African or South American – the team at "Ikarus" have cooked it all.

And suddenly there it is; the boundless freedom, the unlimited scope, creativity fully unleashed. If you've mastered everything, you really can cook anything.

What does this mean for the month of August at "Ikarus"? It could mean an Iberian pork loin steak with sobrasada noodles, fennel and orange, or carpaccio of beef with parmesan mousse. Or even octopus with smoked paprika and aubergines. Or something completely different.

Universal knowledge and skill brings security. Both chefs have long since said farewell to keeping one eye on the professional critics. Both earned their first Michelin star at a very young age. Now they both know that the "Ikarus" guest chef concept bears no comparison. A new top chef every month – how are you supposed to rate that?

It is more important for the setting as a whole to be world class, and this is where head of service Ondrej Kovar comes in. The Czech national learned his trade in Germany and for more than 18 years has worked at top establishments, such as the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, where he cemented his reputation as a "living wine list" during his time as head sommelier. In 2009 he accepted the challenge of the guest chef concept and moved to Restaurant Ikarus.

What all three, Roland Trettl, Martin Klein and Ondrej Kovar, have in common is that August is THEIR big month, their chance to shine. The possibility of showing "Ikarus" diners how they have developed after eleven months of guest chefs, all the new things they have learned and how cookery is coalescing into an international cultural asset at Salzburg's Hangar-7.

And finally, as their total freedom of creativity and skills only strives to achieve one very last, crucial aim: the complete culinary satisfaction of the “Ikarus” guest.