Some of the local produce for breakfast at the Mühltalhof hotel in the Austrian town of Unternberg.
At the Mühltalhof hotel and restaurant, chef Philip Rachinger makes jam with the minimum amount of sugar. The secret is not in an ancestral recipe of his family, owner of this legendary establishment for six generations, but in apricots from the Wachau Valley with which he makes them, so sweet that they don't need much more.
There is little to add when starting from raw materials such as those that the chef works with. if anything a splash of honey on homemade curd, a pinch of salt and pepper to farm eggs... and bread, yes. A lot of bread.
The idyllic and gastronomic hotel Mühltalhof sits on the banks of the Mühl river.
Bread to spread with butter from the Hackl farm, where it is still churned by hand, and apricot jam. For that, to make bread, in Mühltalhof they work four types of wood oven.
Despite these workshop facilities, the chef Rachinger prefers to continue buying the Semmeln (typical round rolls) in the mythical bakery Gerald Wolfmayr, in Altenfelden. And, although he could expand the chicken coop, it seems to him a better idea that it be Egger Fritz's farm, five kilometers away, that provides them with fresh eggs every morning. He knows that the complicity with the producers is key to being able to transfer the emotions of the forests, hills and grasslands to the plate from the beautiful Mühlviertel region.
Chef Philip Rachinger, sixth generation in charge of the Mühltalhof hotel and restaurant
***This report was published in *number 144 of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (Spring 2021) . Subscribe to the printed edition (€18.00, annual subscription, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The April issue of Condé Nast Traveler is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device