Severin Corti - The Wiener Schnitzel Love Book!

Preface Meissl & Schadn = Vienna & Schnitzel When a dish has become the culinary landmark of a city, it is only right and proper that a celebratory temple should be dedicated to it. Many world-famous delicacies have already been honoured in this way. True carpaccio is only available at Harry’s Bar in Venice. The legendary “Petit Nice” in Marseilles is the original home of bouillabaisse, and in order to enjoy proper steak “Café de Paris” you will need to visit the establishment of the same name in Geneva. Outstanding Viennese food can be savoured at many locations here in our city. However, one thing remained missing over a period of many years. The world capital of the Wiener Schnitzel lacked a single address to define this unique dish and to provide the devotion and awareness needed to raise it onto the pedestal it deserves to occupy. Meissl & Schadn on Schubertring is dedicating itself to this noble task. Our restaurant bears a traditional name, and in a sense it represents a perfect reminder of everything which made Viennese cuisine great and famous in the first place. When the historic Meissl & Schadn Hotel and Restaurant opened in 1896, fin-de-siècle Vienna was effectively the centre of the world. Stefan Zweig, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Schnitzler and Sigmund Freud were the great spirits of the age. They all came to dine at Meissl & Schadn because it was a place where food was served up with quintessential elegance and ease. We are delighted that artists and creative people still hold Meissl & Schadn in high regard today. Some of them have helped to shape this book.

FLORIAN WEITZER

Chaste and yet sprightly.

Why Wiener Schnitzel is a religion

SEVERIN CORTI

Travnicek in the Mediterranean. Travnicek in the Mediterranean GERHARD BRONNER Gerhard Bronner was an Austrian cabaret performer, known amongst other things for his humorous two-handed “Travnicek” dialogues in Viennese dialect. This is an example in which the schnitzel features . Helmut Qualtinger (left) and Gerhard Bronner (right) formed a legendary cabaret duo in the post-war period. The deck of a cruise ship on the Mediterranean. Two deck chairs. Two Austrians sitting on them. It is full moon, and the strumming of a guitar can be heard in the background . TRAVNICEK (morosely) : This is some kind of country! Look down there … FRIEND: And, what am I supposed to be looking at? TRAVNICEK: Nothing but salt water … and these guitars! Unlistenable … If only they had a bit of Viennese folk music … And the moon shining right in your face … It’s unbearable … FRIEND: Not enjoying the Mediterranean nights, Travnicek? TRAVNICEK: Don’t talk to me about the Mediterranean. It was all right while we were still sitting on the train. I still had my cold schnitzels that I’d brought from home. And a jar of potato salad. But once we got down here … They keep wanting me to eat these ćevapi. FRIEND: What? TRAVNICEK: They look like dog pooh with onions. No schnitzel to be found anywhere. And no potato salad. If I’d spent the same money at Lake Wörth (popular bathing destination in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia), people would take me for a foreigner … and there’s no good wine to be had either. Sorrel in all the food and slivovitz is the only hard stuff available … No one to talk to either, except you. Standards are low …

No schnitzel in sight in this cabaret classic from the 1950’s Travnicek in the Mediterranean GERHARD BRONNER Gerhard Bronner was an Austrian cabaret performer, known amongst other things for his humorous two-handed “Travnicek” dialogues in Viennese dialect. This is an example in which the schnitzel features . Helmut Qualtinger (left) and Gerhard Bronner (right) formed a legendary cabaret duo in the post-war period. The deck of a cruise ship on the Mediterranean. Two deck chairs. Two Austrians sitting on them. It is full moon, and the strumming of a guitar can be heard in the background . TRAVNICEK (morosely) : This is some kind of country! Look down there … FRIEND: And, what am I supposed to be looking at? TRAVNICEK: Nothing but salt water … and these guitars! Unlistenable … If only they had a bit of Viennese folk music … And the moon shining right in your face … It’s unbearable … FRIEND: Not enjoying the Mediterranean nights, Travnicek? TRAVNICEK: Don’t talk to me about the Mediterranean. It was all right while we were still sitting on the train. I still had my cold schnitzels that I’d brought from home. And a jar of potato salad. But once we got down here … They keep wanting me to eat these ćevapi. FRIEND: What? TRAVNICEK: They look like dog pooh with onions. No schnitzel to be found anywhere. And no potato salad. If I’d spent the same money at Lake Wörth (popular bathing destination in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia), people would take me for a foreigner … and there’s no good wine to be had either. Sorrel in all the food and slivovitz is the only hard stuff available … No one to talk to either, except you. Standards are low …

GERHARD BRONNER

The schnitzel of my youth. The schnitzel of my youth JOSEPH WECHSBERG With photographs by INGO PERTRAMER Whilst living in exile in New York, the great columnist Joseph Wechsberg indulged in some precise reminiscences of the cooking he had enjoyed in Vienna in the 1920’s . He and his friends devised a special test to determine the quality of a schnitzel beyond any doubt .

The seat of the trousers schnitzel test The schnitzel of my youth JOSEPH WECHSBERG With photographs by INGO PERTRAMER Whilst living in exile in New York, the great columnist Joseph Wechsberg indulged in some precise reminiscences of the cooking he had enjoyed in Vienna in the 1920’s . He and his friends devised a special test to determine the quality of a schnitzel beyond any doubt .

JOSEPH WECHSBERG

Schnitzel to the people!

How the city’s state of mind depends on the schnitzel

MANFRED REBHANDL

Good food.

Breaded schnitzel with cucumber salad

ALFRED POLGAR

“Baked in fat”.

A legendary dialogue about cooking food the schnitzel way taken from the Austrian cult film “Indien”

PAUL HARATHER

The Ten Commandments of the Wiener Schnitzel.

The schnitzel decalogue

WOLFGANG KRALICEK

The other capital city of the schnitzel.

Paying tribute to Milan and the costoletta Milanese

GEORGES DESRUES

“I never cook a Milanese!”

Italy’s most famous chef talks about his relationship with the schnitzel

MASSIMO BOTTURA

The most beautiful sound in Vienna.

An ode to the schnitzel

SARAH KELLY

The schnitzel whisperer

A self-experiment with the help of Franz Ruhm, Katharina Prato, Marcia Morton, Ewald Plachutta, Wolfgang Puck and others besides

CHRISTIAN SEILER

“Schnitzel Wiener” vs. “Schnitzel Tourist”.

A pictorial comparison between two archetypes of love for the schnitzel

ANDREA MARIA DUSL

Where schnitzel tastes the best.

A Russian’s schnitzel passion

WLADIMIR KAMINER

Schnitzel unlimited.

Different countries, but the schnitzel remains the same. Or does it? An inventory from Tel Aviv to Teheran

GEORGES DESRUES