Norbert Niederkofler – Mountain Chef who made an art out of thinking differently
Around the turn of the Century, Alain Passard of L’Arpège, had a major change of heart about what he liked to cook – he decided to remove all red meat from his menu. The catalyst was the spread of Mad Cow Disease in Britain plus a general uneasiness about celebrating portions of dead animals on his plates. This was not without risk, as he was considered one of the great French chefs and it was by no means certain that he would maintain his rank and status if he suddenly devoted himself to making vegetables his predominant ingredients. Fortunately, he managed to pull it off to such an extent that the celebration of vegetables as main ingredients became a worldwide trend in haute cuisine.
Shortly after this, Norbert Niederkofler, a young chef from the Dolomites in Northern Italy, made a similarly abrupt decision to fundamentally change his cuisine, starting with removing his signature dish of foie gras four ways. Nearly 90% of his clients at St Hubertus at the Rosa Alpina Hotel in San Cassiano, used to order this dish, along with more exotic international produce like abalone from Tasmania or catfish from Norway. Norbert’s decision to abandon foie gras wasn’t because he was squeamish about removing fattened livers from unsuspecting geese or the feelings of eviscerated abalone. Instead, it was a realisation that here he was in the middle of a mountain range and instead of exploring the culinary possibilities of his region, he was shipping in rarefied luxury ingredients from all around the globe. He was also bored, like many of us, of always coming across the same French-inspired haute cuisine dishes, whether he was in Helsinki, Munich, New York or Melbourne. The Michelin inspectors agreed and last year, he was awarded three Michelin stars.
Curiously, he was initially inspired by restaurants as diverse as Ferran Adria’s el Bulli in Spain and René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen, not because he in any ways replicates them, but the fact that they were thinking outside the box inspired him to do the same. “Everybody was running behind them and so there was no sense in copying everything, so I started to think about what to do next, started to ask questions about what my diners wanted when they came here. I realised that although very little was written down about Alpine Cuisine, there were oral traditions and culture and especially sustainability, which affects everything.”
On the back of this reflection, he developed a concept called “Cook the Mountain”, which is shorthand for making your immediate environment the source of virtually all of your ingredients. This is relatively easy to do in the summer, as there are all of the usual vegetables along with local asparagus, though it only has a season of five weeks or so. Norbert realised he would have to dig deeper into local practices, which included fermentation of products for the winter months. “So, for the past decade, I have being building up a network of farmers and now we have 50 that are working directly with us. Initially, we were ordering everything through middlemen and then when it arrived we were not happy with the product, so we eliminated all the intermediaries and spoke directly to the farmers. They are all in the Alpine region, including Austria – I am not bothered about zero kilometres as it doesn’t work – mountain culture is more important. We reset the whole type of cuisine – we started to use everything, especially with the meat, so we use the entire animal in one way it is respect for the animal and in another we help the farmer because he can sell the entire carcase, so it works out really well.”
Then they decided we wouldn’t use any citrus fruits because at 1700 metres above sea level, there were no citrus trees in the neighbourhood. Vinegar became a useful substitute. When it came to olive oil, that was also eliminated and replaced with grape seed oil with the addition of various local herbs.
“When you close one door, you have to look around and you end up opening 10. We have a lot more work in the summer because we have to store things for the winter and it is always a bet on nature, because you have to take what the farmer produces and then learn how to preserve it and now the biggest problem is we are running out of space.”
I recently flew to Venice and took a three-hour car journey north to spend a long weekend with Norbert, just before he ended his Summer/Autumn season before reopening in December for the ski season. There is nothing boring or predictable in his signature dishes, starting with a dish called “Tomatoes?” This originated after Valentin, one of his fruit and vegetable suppliers, brought in several hundred ripe plums. Rather than use them in a dessert dish, Norbert and his sous chef decided to ferment them and check out the different flavours month by month. By five months old, it had a rich Umami taste with a dash of acid and they discovered by adding some basil leaves and sour breadcrumbs, it tasted exactly like bruschetta with tomato.
The point of starting with this dish is to show how with a creative approach, it is possible to substitute local ingredients to become a stimulating alternative to classic ingredients.
Another example was “Tartare di Coregone” or raw char. The flesh was seasoned in salt and sugar and served at room temperature with its scales dehydrated, fried and then sprinkled on top with its bones and guts reduced for the sauce. The next dish was an exquisite herb salad of 20 or so local examples – something that is only available in the summer months. Then there was a kaleidoscope of local mushrooms, which were served with an exceptionally memorable glazed eel.
The main event of the weekend was a four hands dinner with Albert Adria, the younger brother of Ferran Adria, who has several restaurants in Barcelona, including Michelin-starred Tickets and Enigma. Albert had never been to the South Tyrol and hadn’t even met Norbert before the event, which was held in AlpiNN, Norbert’s James Bond style Modernist restaurant in Kronplatz at the peak of Plan de Corones, reachable only by a 20 minute cable car ride to the 2300 metre peak.
Albert arrived with his sous chef and managed to conjure up several of his own dishes in this surreal environment with views stretching over the Austrian Alps to the north and the craggy Dolomites to the south. While Norbert offered simple but superb renditions of barbequed lambs hearts or his famous char tartare, Albert offered classically executed dishes of lettuce soup with avocado and fresh pistachio or charcoal grilled lobster cured in aged ox fat. The alternate dishes couldn’t have been more contrasting but with dishes of this calibre, there were no complaints from the hundred or so guests.
Interestingly, there are no local people working in Norbert’s St Hubertus restaurant but instead the 20 or so people in the kitchen come from all over Italy. They have obviously learned a lot by their exposure to his approach as his former workers now hold 15 Michelin stars throughout the country.
Spreading the word is something that Norbert takes enormous pride – “I have shown that you can reach all the way up to three Michelin stars, purely using local produce. Before, everyone thought you had to use French products or other luxury ones from abroad – I have nothing against French products, but young people in say Sicily, or Naples or Calabria, can also achieve what I have, merely using the products around them –I am not going to change the world, but this is the best message I can offer.”
St Hubertus www.rosalpina.it Menus: €200 – €300
AlpiNN Food Space & Restaurant https://alpinn.it/en/ From €35