After BLUEf!t TV with Lars, our video series on Youtube goes into a new round with The Taste of TUI BLUE with Stefan. He is Corporate Executive Chef at TUI BLUE and was in Austria in autumn with a film crew to shoot a video at TUI BLUE Montafon. What exactly they did there and what The Taste of TUI BLUE is, Stefan reveals in this interview. Finally, here is a recipe from the video series.
Stefan, you are Corporate Executive Chef at TUI BLUE. What does your working day look like?
My day starts very early, as you know it from a chef working for a hotel. Now, as a Corporate Executive Chef, you have to think in different dimensions as I have more than one hotel in my portfolio and therefore I maintain communication with the individual chefs in each hotel. My working day consists of meetings, calls from the home office and when on business trips, 80% hands-on training in the kitchen. The day usually ends late and starts early again.
What do you teach the chefs on site?
I don’t need to teach them how to cook, they already know how to cook. It’s more about expanding the recipes, incorporating new and especially local ingredients. Especially with vegan dishes, the local colleagues are sceptical at first, because they think vegan cooking involves a disproportionate amount of effort. But afterwards they are very enthusiastic!
In September, you were at the TUI BLUE Montafon in Austria with a film crew shooting footage for the new series “The Taste of TUI BLUE” for YouTube. What is The Taste of TUI BLUE?
BLUE Taste combines regional cuisine with local/seasonal products, international cuisine, the latest trends in nutrition, e.g. authentic, vegetarian, vegan and allergy-friendly dishes. This has resulted in the video series “The Taste of TUI BLUE“, where we filmed the first edition at TUI BLUE Montafon in September. We prepared various typical TUI BLUE dishes in front of the camera.
How does a shoot like this work? Has anything ever gone wrong?
You prepare a single recipe, cook it once without the camera and then you cook it in front of the camera. And as it happens, you do everything wrong (*laughs*) and have to repeat a lot of moments because you make mistakes, take breaks that are too long, the cameraman isn’t happy, the light is wrong, you hear background noises… So a day of shooting takes quite a long time and it might take three to four hours to make a video. But the main thing is to have fun, and we did! The vibes between the film crew and the chef or cooks also have to be right. In my case, I had the chef Benjamin at my side from the beautiful TUI BLUE Montafon.
When can we watch the first videos?
The videos are now in production and hope to be live to watch very soon. As we have shot 18 videos in total, it may take a little while. I guess January.
Here’s a taste of what the guys have been cooking:
What food trends do you see coming?
Food trends? I don’t go by trends. Honestly I look that we are constantly evolving as far as food is concerned. Sustainability is very important to me. Local, regional products and above all seasonal is important to offer our guests a good variety. Freshness and quality is a trend for me and vegan/vegetarian/low carb are also becoming more and more popular. So I’m always on the lookout for new ingredients, especially when I travel to other countries you always find something new.
What for example?
I was just recently at the reopening of the TUI BLUE Bahari in Zanzibar. There, I saw fish species at a local fish market that I had not seen before. But it can also be spices or other ingredients, which I then try to incorporate into the menu.
Do you have a recipe for us from one of the dishes you prepared at “The Taste of TUI BLUE” ?
Of course something very quick for home: “White wine sabayon with wild berries and pistachios“. A delicious dessert in 10 minutes:
Whisk 3 egg yolks and 50 grams of sugar over a warm water bath. Gradually add 100 ml white wine until the volume increases considerably and is firm. Then pour some forest fruits (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries) into a martini glass or another glass. Then add the sabayon until the glass is half full. You can flambé it (if you have a flambé). Then chop a few pistachios and put them on top. A light dessert is ready. Bon appetit!
And this is what it looks like:
Stay tuned for the videos and subscribe to TUI BLUE on Youtube so you don’t miss The Taste of TUI BLUE!