Star chef Reinhard Gerer died shortly before his 70th birthday

The restaurateur celebrated his greatest successes in the 1990s and 2000s with the Vienna Korso at the State Opera. Turbulent and economically difficult times followed for Gerer until the end. Next week (April 12) the native of Styria would have been 70 years old. For his birthday, an acquaintance from the gastro scene had collected video messages from friends and companions in order to surprise Gerer with them.

Gerer, who also wrote several standard works about his passion, was able to learn his craft from great chefs such as Paul Bocuse, Eckart Witzigmann and Heinz Winkler. According to his publisher Kremayr & Scheriau, when he took over the culinary management of the “Korso” restaurant in Vienna, he led it to “internationally renowned top gastronomy”. During his career he was voted Austria’s best chef and was the country’s first four-toque chef.

Austrian cuisine in a new dress

In 2009 he opened his own restaurant on Bisamberg, “Gerers Magdalenenhof”. Gault&Millau 2011 awarded him a toque for this. Gault&Millau described the restaurant as “exactly the right idea, but unfortunately there was no commercial success”. Critics praised the fact that he gave traditional Austrian cuisine a new look. He liked to surround himself with prominent companions.

Two bankruptcies

In 2013, after ten years, Gerer also retired from the well-known gourmet theater “Palazzo” in Vienna. He had worked together with his former student Toni Mörwald. The successful Palazzo shows combined Gerer’s haute cuisine with acrobatics, comedy and music and attracted several hundred thousand guests. He celebrated less success with the follow-up project “Teatro”. After sluggish ticket sales, bankruptcy had to be filed with the Vienna Gasometers for the cooking spectacle. Most recently, in 2022, he converted his last restaurant “Bella und Waldemar” to the production of high-quality dog ​​food. He was inspired to the idea by his dog Shiva. At the end of last year, however, this too slipped into insolvency.