Salt Of The Earth

Salzburgerland is establishing itself as a food destination through its excellent organic produce, world-class chefs and unique ‘culinary pathways’.

- James Draven

Hermann Oberreiter, Restaurant Hoagascht’s owner and head chef, doesn’t shout about his cuisine; if anything, he sells himself short. The stickers heralding eight consecutive years of Falstaff Awards are slapped higgledy-piggledy on the front door of this former cow shed, now every inch an alpine lodge.

On a roadside lay-by in the Austrian village of Flachau, the restaurant is on the ‘Culinary Pathway for Meat Lovers’ — part of the Via Culinaria, a network of routes stretching across Salzburgerland that includes 260 foodie experiences. Children whoop as they hurtle down the slide that winds from the elevated beer garden into, rather oddly, the car park. “Welcome to Paradise,” reads a chalk-written sign beneath a cow’s skull on the wall.

“You have to give people what they expect,” says Hermann, sitting next to me on his unassuming terrace, giving me a wry smile as I eye a starter that I certainly hadn’t expected.

A pair of handmade spring rolls perch atop two delicate piles, one of grated carrot in a ginger sauce, the other of creamy ribbons of cucumber. Adorning a narrow rectangular plate between sweeping sauce strokes, the dish looks like a calligraphied Asian banner, with tiny dollops of wasabi and concentrated satay as little punctuation points.

“When I started this restaurant 18 years ago, everyone in Flachau said, ‘You’re crazy! Nobody will eat this food. Full stop’,” laughs Hermann. “We opened and were fully booked every night, but not with people from Flachau. It took another five years for the locals to start coming.”