Excellence – a lasting memory

Walter Klose has been cooking at the “Gupf” in Rehetobel for 23 years. His understanding of quality has developed with experience. His goal is to create dishes that will never be forgotten.

“Quality”, says Walter Klose, “has constantly changing dimensions. It adapts to the life of a chef, his personality and his guests.” For 23 years, Klose and his wife Manuela have been responsible for nourishing and entertaining those who call in at the “Gupf”, located at an altitude of 1,083 metres. During this period, the idyllic country pub has become a restaurant with 18 Gault-Millau points and one Michelin star.

Naturally, Walter Klose finds that his idea of excellent quality has developed over this long period of his life, and it has also – quite literally – grown to fit the available resources and the surrounding environment. By this, the likeable chef with Bavarian roots is referring to his own farm, which belongs to the “Gupf” and where pigs and cattle are reared. “With the expansion of the farm, my understanding of meat quality has also increased. And once you achieve a certain level of quality, you never want to go back”, says Klose. Put simply, this means that meat that does not come from their own farm has a hard time in comparison with “Gupf”-quality meat.

He has certainly grown into his role over the years, but Walter Klose says that his conviction that only excellent quality counts has always been there. This is clear on a large scale, when it comes to selecting cuts of meat, but it is also in the small details: “You need to think about quality when it comes to herbs, too. If a sprig of parsley doesn’t look so good, it’s discarded. But then I encourage my employees to think about what else it could be used for – for flavouring a stock, for example.”

Just as the chef and his impression of excellent quality have developed over time, so have the possibilities of technology. In his small kitchen at the “Gupf” stands a new-generation Excellence Line Combi-Steamer. “It is without a doubt the visual highlight of my workplace”, says Klose and adds with a smile: “The front panel of the Combi-Steamer shines so beautifully that it’s even replaced my mirror.”

Regardless of the fact that appliances such as this one have completely changed the perception of a kitchen with their sophisticated aesthetics, it is obviously also a great advantage for chefs that they can now work even more efficiently. “We’re now in a position to get even more out of it in even less time”, explains Walter Klose.

Ultimately, the goal of these efforts is always the same: “For me, excellence in the kitchen means I can get the best out of a basic product. A little butter, salt and sugar is enough to bring out the natural flavour of Rheintal asparagus”, muses Klose. And at the end of the day, he wants to be able to cook dishes “that people remember. If a guest never forgets a certain flavour, then it was excellent.”

More impressions in the video