Every year Eckart Witzigmann, Roland Trettl and Ondrej Kovar invite twelve of the world’s best chefs to present their cuisine for a month at Restaurant Ikarus. The Restaurant Ikarus guest chef concept is as visionary as it is unique, taking diners on a culinary tour of the world without the hassle of travelling.

January 2010

»Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli«
Gargnano, Italy

Stefano Baiocco’s gift for cooking is unique. He turns home cooking into haute cuisine in a very simple and understandable way. His homemade pasta served at Villa Feltrinelli is among Italy’s best. Cause a culinary furore with simple things and the Michelin Guide may reward you with one star. It’s clear to more than just Baiocco that his first star will not be his last.

February 2010

»Casa Marcelo«
Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Diners will look in vain for a menu at Marcelo Tejedor’s restaurant Casa Marcelo. The Galician simply cooks what he fancies, and for that he doesn’t need a menu. If one were to give his menu, which changes daily, a name, the most appropriate description would be “Galician surprise”. His reinterpretation of traditional dishes has made him one of the Spanish culinary scene’s most avant-garde chefs.

March 2010

»The Restaurant, The Dolder Grand«
Zurich, Switzerland

Heiko Nieder’s secret lies in the wide range of flavours that do not follow typical taste patterns. The result is a veritable symphony for the palate: aspic of crustaceans is combined with shrimps, fennel and coffee oil, and rock crabs with coconut. The Gault Millau restaurant guide honoured the German chef as the discovery of the year 2003, and almost concurrently the Guide Michelin also expressed its admiration for his skills by awarding him a Michelin Star.

April 2010

»Rust en Vrede Restaurant«
Stellenbosch, South Africa

For almost 20 years David Higgs has been responsible for a country’s culinary fate – that of his homeland, South Africa. His style is classic, with French roots, placing the emphasis on select ingredients, and only then concentrating on the execution. Freshness of produce takes the lead, and this is ensured by his own herb and vegetable garden, and a farm in the Kalahari Desert.

May 2010

»Poletto«
Hamburg, Germany

Cornelia Poletto is one of a handful of top female chefs who can call a Michelin Star their own. She has a geographical miracle to thank for this, because how else would 301,338 km2 of Italy fit into 145, Eppendorfer Landstraße, Hamburg? There’s nothing supernatural about it, just a love of the southern cooking tradition that lends her dishes a Mediterranean note.

June 2010

»Spice Market«
Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok, Thailand

The Four Seasons Hotel, Bangkok has become a place of culinary pilgrimage as a result of the harmonious collision between two culinary worlds. French native Nicolas Schneller directs the fate of the hotel’s four in-house gourmet restaurants: Madison, Shintaro, Biscotti and Spice Market. He is assisted by Thai chef Supanut Khanarak, who has turned Spice Market into Bangkok’s best Thai restaurant.

JULY 2010

»EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA«
GIRONA, SPAIN

THE THREE ROCA BROTHERS HAVE TAKEN THE CONCEPT OF A FAMILY RESTAURANT TO A NEW LEVEL, WITH A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF MOLECULAR CUISINE AND TRADITIONAL CATALAN DISHES, WHICH HAS TODAY ELEVATED EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA TO THE CIRCLE OF SPAIN’S BEST RESTAURANTS. JOAN, THE ELDEST, HEADS UP THE KITCHEN. JOSEP IS THE SOMMELIER, AND AS THE DESSERT CHEF JORDI, THE YOUNGEST, ENSURES A FITTING END TO THE MEAL.

August 2010

»Ikarus, Hangar-7«
Salzburg, Austria

Heinz Reitbauer
»Restaurant Steirereck«
im Stadtpark, Vienna

Thomas Dorfer
»Landhaus Bacher«
Mautern, Lower Austria

August is the month of the Restaurant Ikarus’ Executive Chef. This year, Roland Trettl and his team welcome three fellow Austrians to their kitchen. Our guests can not only look forward to three of the most renowned celebrity chefs in Austria, but also to an expedition featuring the local regions and their specialities, with many culinary surprises to be savoured.

September 2010

»Oud Sluis«
Sluis, Netherlands

A three-star chef without a well-known teacher is a culinary rarity – especially one with 20 Gault Millau Points. But this is exactly what Sergio Herman is – a self-taught culinary prodigy who turned his father’s modest eatery into a gourmet temple. Sergio’s unmistakeable style focuses on regional and seasonal ingredients and combines experimental cuisine with modern traditional cooking.

October 2010

»Chez Dominique«
Helsinki, Finland

Välimäki entered his kitchen at Chez Dominique for the first time in 1998. With this step he not only changed the restaurant’s culinary tradition, but that of an entire country too. His technique stems from France, the land of great chefs, but when it comes to ingredients the Finn values Finnish produce. For his culinary patriotism Hans received his second Michelin Star in 2003.

November 2010

»Aqua«
The Ritz-Carlton in automobile city Wolfsburg, Germany

Sven Elverfeld cooks up the ideas for his new creations in his head, with serious culinary consequences – three Michelin Stars and 19 points from Gault Millau. The independent cookery style of the man from Hesse, Germany, who deconstructs dishes into their original components and puts them together again differently, must surely have contributed to this. The top chef also cares about where his ingredients come from and obtains them locally.

December 2010

»Mirazur«
Menton, France

Colagreco’s kitchen can be found in Menton, the most easterly French town on the Côte d’Azur. There the exceptional chef combines Argentinian and Italian cuisine with great finesse. His culinary fireworks have earned him the title Chef of the Year 2009, awarded by Gault Millau in France. He was helped in this by the garden at his restaurant, Mirazur, where fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs wait to be used.