Chef Stockner and Zum Weissen Rauchfangkehrer

Wolfgang Pucher took us to dinner at Zum Weissen Rauchfangkehrer where Chef Manfred Stockner prepared dinner for us.

On most of our trip we'd been eating at farmers' homes. At Zum Weissen Rauchfangkehrer (literally "at the white chimneysweep's"), Chef Manfred Stockner served us a multi-course meal based on Mangalitsa.

The portions were small, tasty and excellently presented.

Whipped lard & Salami
Speck
Ham
Filet
Greaves dumpling

What we ate:

  • Sülze (cubed pork snouts in spiced gelatine with diced pickles and carrots) - not shown
  • Hungarian sausage with whipped lard
  • Speck - cured fatback
  • Air-Cured Ham
  • Filet
  • Greaves dumpling (Grammelknödel)

Chef Stockner and Alexander Stauder (the owner) answered our questions about the Mangalitsa and how they use it within their restaurant. As they explained, they buy entire pigs from Mr. Pucher and other farmers who raise similar pigs. They transform the entire pig into food - from head to tail.

By transforming the entire pig - for example, 300 portions of soup from the feet - they make a lot of money from one pig. It takes skill and time, but they are extra profitable.

Chef Stockner explained that it takes them only two weeks to use up a hog. Mr. Stauder said they can't get enough of the pigs.

Chef Stockner, who has also cooked with the Iberian Black (aka Iberico), the Spanish lard-type pig similar to Mangalitsa, says that Iberico and Mangalitsa are basically the same. He's happy that he can now buy Mangalitsa locally, because he was having some hygiene problems with shipped in Iberico.

Mr. Stauder said the Mangalitsa is very popular, because customers are not used to seeing pork as an entree in such a fancy restaurant. Normally things like lamb and beef take priority. Mangalitsa tastes good enough that it can compete. When they don't have Mangalitsa or similar pork, they do not put pork on the menu.

As the restaurant serves haute cuisine, things are a lot lighter, smaller and fancier than anywhere else. We'd just spent time at farmhouses, where food tended to be more traditional, so the contrast was very interesting.

The attention that Chef Stockner and his crew pay to detail is simply amazing. His meal helped to make this one of our best trips ever.

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