Benjamin e Clara Weatherall
Shellfish cevicheby Gastón Acurio
Dall'Italia I Conoscenti: piccolo scrigno di ospitalità a Bologna
On the 17th July, Heinz Winkler had celebrated his 73rd birthday. Last Friday, the German-Italian chef passed away, as his family announced in a note on Facebook: ‘On 28.10.2022 our boss, friend, life companion, grandfather, father Heinz Winkler, a culinary legend, passed away after a short, serious illness. Residence Heinz Winkler, in Aschau in Chiemgau in Bavaria, was his passion and the greatest work of his life, a passion and commitment that will live on in his chosen land. May he rest in peace and may his memory live on’.
A chosen land, an important passage because, although many have discovered him this weekend due to his young age, Winkler was Italian by birth, as he was born in 1949 in Bressanone, Brixen in German. Ten siblings, his mother having died when he was 3, he was Italian by birth. It’s important to mention this because this borderland region is South Tyrol if you look at it from the north, from Austria, and Alto Adige if you look at it from the south, from Trentino.
A young Heinz Winkler cooks under the eyes of the legendary Paul Bocuse
Winkler holds an important place in the history of international and Italian fine dining. When Michelin awarded Tantris in Munich its third star in 1991, he was 32 years old, the youngest ever winner of three stars. Then came Marco Pierre White in London in 1994, same record age, and, above all, Massimiliano Alajmo in 2002 at just 28, patron of Le Calandre in Rubano in the province of Padua. And we’ve stopped there since then.
Heinz Winkler, a South Tyrolean from Bressanone, and Eckart Witzigmann, an Austrian from Badgastein, two superstar chefs linked to the epic of Tantris in Munich. They both introduced the three stars to the Germans, but neither was German by birth
Tantris kept its three stars until 1991, for ten years. For his part, the chef would move halfway between Munich and Salzburg, intermittently loved by the red guide, which promoted him to three stars in only two editions, 1994 and 1995, then relegated him to two, then back to three from 2001 to 2008, and finally back to two at the end of the Noughties. And there his castle still stands, in that golden purgatory between the crowd of single stars and the paradise of three. He loved to think up and prepare game dishes with a French stamp, but before that he loved herbs and spices so much that he christened his philosophy Cucina Vitale, a sensual cuisine, never heavy, that was meant to be a source of inspiration. Among the many who have passed through his doors at Tantris, the most famous is Heinz Beck, three stars at La Pergola in Rome and his former pastry chef. May he rest in peace.
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
born in Milan in March 1955, at Il Giornale for 31 years dividing himself between sports and food, since 2004 he's the creator and curator of Identità Golose. twitter @oloapmarchi
A mouth watering page, published every Sunday in Il Giornale from November 1999 to the autumn of 2010. Stories and personalities that continue to live in this website