How a successful young chef develops his creativity with Pacojet
Simon Harrer, chef de partie at the Bootshaus Traunsee restaurant
From the Next Chef Award in Hamburg to the Pacojet headquarters
In March the Austrian took second place at the Next Chef Award at Internorga, where he won a Pacojet 4: Simon Harrer, chef de partie at the Bootshaus Traunsee, Austria. We invited the young chef to Switzerland, where he and his sous-chef Darina Pastrnakova pacotized® at the Pacojet headquarters and prepared a very special menu with leading Swiss chef Giovanni Melis.
Harrer developed his own recipes for his visit to Pacojet. “The preparations were exciting. Cooking in a strange kitchen for the first time is very nerve-racking”, he said. Numerous pacotizing® beakers were then filled and prepared in Pacojet’s show kitchen. Some of them were used and appeared on dinner guests’ plates the very next day at “La Colombe Restaurant Zur Taube”, in Zug.
The menu
Simon Harrer, Darina Pastrnakova and Giovanni Melis’s team prepared “THE MENU” of six courses along with six chefs, each supervising their own creations. They told an enthralling story of delights and surprises, creating excellent, authentic dishes made from high-quality products with a regional focus. Naturally, Pacojet played the leading role in this evening.
Tomato and basil stock and creamed soft goat’s cheese
For the appetizer, Harrer served his own tomato and basil stock. The dessert was creamed soft goat’s cheese. The result was not exactly as planned for the creamed goat’s cheese using the Pacojet, as Swiss cream is different to Austrian whipped cream. This did not detract from the taste experience though.
The art of improvisation
“That is one of the challenges when you cook in a different country. Products may behave differently. That’s when the art of improvisation is required. But this is precisely what makes the work of a chef so exciting.”
Chilled cucumber soup from the Pacojet
Back at the Pacojet headquarters, the Pacojet team enjoyed a unique chilled cucumber soup with whey and elderberry granita - Harrer’s favorite Pacojet recipe, which he developed himself. “The whole dish is made exclusively with the Pacojet. You don’t need any other bowl to prepare it”, enthused the talented young chef.
Typical Austrian dish: Grammelknödel
A typical Austrian dish was then sampled – Grammelknödel – potato dumplings filled with finely chopped bacon. It took just a few steps to prepare the filling, which was very easy to process using the Pacojet. The bread croûtons, which were chopped using the Pacojet Coupe Set and later toasted in the oven, provided the perfect complement to the dish.
Exploit potential to the full
Simon Harrer created his recipes in his free time, devoting himself totally to pacotizing®. He discovered even more of the Pacojet’s creative potential in the process. Indeed, the device is already very widely used at Bootshaus Traunsee: for creams, stuffings, ice creams, mousses, sorbets, breakfast spreads, to whip butter and for crab chips. “But in the future, I want to give more thought to how we can make life in the kitchen even easier for ourselves using the Pacojet”, said Harrer.
The Pacojet is foolproof
“Working with the Pacojet is fun too. The consistent results are unbeatable and it’s a delight when you can produce a perfect dumpling or make a superb mousse - without using eggs or lots of kitchen utensils. In short, it's always foolproof.”
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