Restaurant Ikarus

From dream to reality: Restaurant Ikarus's guest chef concept

Gleaming white chefs' hats, checked trousers, hustle and bustle – if you're expecting the usual Michelin-starred gastronomic clichés at Restaurant Ikarus, you'll be sadly disappointed.

The powerful stereo system is the only source of noise, the chefs' whites are jet black and the chefs wear black baseball caps bearing the Hangar-7 logo instead of toques. They are not just for appearances' sake; they express executive chef Roland Trettl's philosophy that the only tradition by which he is bound is the quality of his creations.

Quite a few things about Restaurant Ikarus in Hangar-7 are different anyway. Usually if a restaurant frequently changes head chef, it's not likely to show the establishment's quality. Restaurant Ikarus, on the other hand, has fulfilled the long-nurtured dream of every leading gastronome, because one of the culinary world's greatest challenges and visions, the guest chef concept, has been embodied and implemented there since October 2003. Every month a different top international chef takes the culinary baton from Roland Trettl.

Under the patronage of chef of the century Eckart Witzigmann, old masters and young guns from the best restaurants in the world, including Rainer Becker, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Xavier Pellicer, Carlo Cracco and Grant Achatz, have accepted the invitation to Salzburg. A massive logistical effort is required behind the scenes so guests can enjoy this culinary world tour. Exotic ingredients have to be flown in, for example. Restaurant Ikarus's grand culinary tour is also evident from the kitchen equipment: worktops with tailor-made warming plates, or a tandoori oven, have been procured for individual guest chefs. The idea is that every guest chef should find the optimum conditions enabling him or her to prepare menus as if he or she were back home. But the greatest challenge facing the team of chefs and serving staff every month is constantly adapting to the individual cooking style of the guest chefs.

Guest Chefs 2013

January, Davide Scabin
February, Enrique Olvera
March, Bertrand Grébaut
April, Claude Bosi
May, Dylan Jones & Bo Songvisava

Guest Chefs 2012

December, Ramon Freixa
November, Jacob Jan Boerma
October, Peter Gilmore
September, Rasmus Kofoed
August, Ikarus Team
July, Pascal Barbot
June, Daniel Patterson
May, Pino Lavarra
April, Tanja Grandits
March, Ryan Clift
February, Tim Raue
January, Nuno Mendes

Xavier Pellicer & Santi Santamaria

Guest Chefs 2011

December, Daniel Redondo & Helena Rizzo
November, Björn Frantzén & Daniel Lindeberg
October, Xavier Pellicer für Santi Santamaria
September, Alvin Leung
August, Ikarus Team
July, Peter Goossens
June, Emmanuel Renaut
May, Anatoly Komm
April, Daniel Humm
March, Claus-Peter Lumpp
February, Marcus G. Lindner
January, Enrico & Roberto Cerea

Xavier Pellicer & Santi Santamaria

Guest Chefs 2007

December, Roland Trettl
November, Jean-Marie Gautier
October, Greg Malouf
September, Andrea Berton
August, Gary Danko
July, Jonnie Boer
June, Heinz von Holzen
May, Rainer Sigg
April, Marc Fosh
March, Marcus Samuelsson
February, Susur Lee
January, Mario Lohninger

Guest Chefs 2006

December, Alex Atala
November, Jean-Georges Klein
October, Jin Jie Zhang
September, Andrés Madrigal Garcia
August, Roland Trettl
July, Ryuichi Yoshii
June, Robert Feenie
May, Frank Zlomke
April, Gianluigi Bonelli
March, Vivek Singh
February, Gabriel Kreuther
January, Juan Amador

Andrés Madrigal Garcia

Guest Chefs 2005

December, Martha Ortiz Chapa
November, Dieter Müller
October, Jereme Leung
September, Gennaro Esposito
August, Roland Trettl
July, Christian Delouvrier
June, Cheong Liew
May, Eduard Hitzberger
April, Xavier Pellicer
March, Wolfgang von Wieser
February, Marc Haeberlin
January, Ralf Zacherl

Guest Chefs 2004

December, Gray Kunz
November, Rainer Becker
October, David Thompson
September, Jean-Georges Vongerichten
August, Thomas Kammaier
July, Norbert Niederkofler
June, Lea Linster
May, André Jäger
April, Dieter Koschina
March, Carlo Cracco
February, Martin Dalsass
January, Roland Trettl

Guest chefs 2003

December, Roland Trettl
November, Jörg Sackmann
October, Gerhard Schwaiger

Further Information

Opening Hours Restaurant Ikarus

Daily, lunch 12:00 to 02:00 pm,
dinner 07:00 pm to 10:00 pm

In order to better facilitate the Ikarus kitchen's transition from one guest chef to the next, the restaurant will be closed for lunch the first day of every month.

However, evening opening hours on these days will remain the same: the restaurant will open at 07:00 pm.

Books at the Hangar-7 Online-ShopShop

All books are available at the Hangar-7 Shop as well as at the Hangar-7 Online-Shop.

Online-Shop

Rating Systems for Gourmet Restaurants

Gourmet restaurants are rated in various publications such as the Guide Michelin, Falstaff and GaultMillau.

The GaultMillau, for example, evaluates restaurants according to the French school grade system awarding 0 to 20 points. In keeping with the original ethos of the guide's two founders,Gault and Millau, the highest 20 point rating cannot be awarded in Austria.

As the globally-recognised Guide Michelin has pulled out of Austria, local gourmets can now only look to the "Michelin Guide Main Cities of Europe" for pointers. Of the 44 cities in 20 featured countries, only Vienna and Salzburg are rated here.

The most democratic of all ratings is conducted by Falstaff:
The results are gathered by polling members of the "Falstaf" gourmet club.
For the Falstaff Restaurant Guide 2010, 15,000 gourmet club members tested more than 1,100 restaurants and submitted a total of 176,000 reviews.
This further consolidates Austria's only independent and democratic restaurant guide's position as the most important mouthpiece of the gourmet community.

The restaurant Ikarus in Hangar-7 was for the first time awarded a record rating of 100 points in March 2011.