To this day, the love of farmland lies at the winemaker’s heart. It is said that generosity can be loved more.
It’s true, but only later did I understand why this was so. When I was a kid, I saw my parents see how much they do generosity and how persistent they are. I thought if this job was bitter, I would never be a farmer. Later, with an adult head, after starting a family, I began to understand why grapes are more than if someone had land. Because with this fruit I can create an enjoyable value that can bring happiness to myself, my friends, and acquaintances. Sitting next to the wine, talking, after a glass or two we have a good mood, we can be happy with things, we will have fun. The magic of grapes begins there when one falls in love with wine.
Did your parents encourage you to taste wine when you were a kid?
My dad – being a Swabian – called him lukewarm – he always said:
Drink wine son, this is the healthiest drink!
But I resisted and only drank beer until I was 20, and then when I got married, my head grew soft and I started dealing with wine. One of my friends wisely said that you must reach a certain age in order for someone to handle grapes and wine. Fortunately, viticulture and winemaking soon entered. Unfortunately, my dad passed away too early, so I had to continue making wine on my own. As long as he lived, we would always greet each other on Christmas Eve with Tokaj Aszo on Christmas Eve.
Slowly, I understood that grapes and winemaking are more than landed property. I feel so happy when I meet someone and grateful in their heart that says, “You know we roasted your wine on Christmas Eve!”
What food was on the table when you were a kid, what food did you like the most?
I grew up in a poor family, so we lived modestly, but I never got hungry because the amateurs – this is what my mom called it – was cooking very tasty food. We ate roast rooster or paprika at harvest time.
On weekdays, I would whip up a lot of bread with jam, as well as greasy bread, which I still love to this day, with onions and peppers.
My parents learned: If you have two fortings, just spend one, and keep the other in your pocket, because you may need it at any time. Then, as soon as I had the opportunity to go abroad for a business trip, I decided to buy one of those half a million containers for processing grapes.
When did you feel the urge to cook?
Cooking for me for a long time consisted of watching others as they do. However, there was a time when Eddie Tiffan was knocking on pots at trade union meetings that he was going to lose a pound of flesh per head, and then I told myself I would try it too.
It started as seen from Ede, without a prescription and without a description, and it was a huge success. Encouraged by that, I decided to try steak bread too, as it’s one of my favorite dishes anyway. Once we sailed through Croatia with my sister-in-law, his wife, and two of his friends – to this day they mention the venison steak I baked on the boat.
If you travel, do you taste the national dishes, or would you rather stay loyal to steak?
Wherever I travel, I taste steaks everywhere: in the Dusseldorf wine style, for example, there is a Spanish restaurant I visit twice during the four-day fair, and my wife eats fish and I roast beef. Since steak is on the menu in our restaurant, I feel like it is my duty to taste it elsewhere. The biggest challenge of my life was in Chicago when a “T-Bone” was put in front of me. It was a “jar steak” about a pound, and the sirloin and sirloin were fried together, and the bone was left in too. I have to admit it tastes really good, but this part attracted me, I just couldn’t eat it.
What comes on the festive table at home?
Without chicken soup, there is no Sunday lunch, after which the fried meat that my wife makes is placed on the table, thighs and wings, which is what my daughter really loves. Of course we drink our own wine.
What does wine and gastronomy mean to you?
Life. Wine is closely related to gastronomy, which enhances the flavors of food. How to eat puck steak with water or raspberry syrup? To do this, Bock cuvée dukes!
In addition to winemaking, he also has another passion, which is fishing.
I really love nature and hunting gives me a chance to hike. I recently shot a six-pound deer antler; I found it from 213 meters high. Recently, on the other hand, mouflons have worked a lot: on Sunday we went hunting and we walked in the Gunk forest for twelve kilometers, in forty centuries of snow. He was already within range when he suddenly turned away. Four days later, after another three or four kilometers of walking, I managed to spread it, it was a nice specimen, and the century was 65-67 cm.
How do you respond to challenges?
If I fail, I’ll book soon, and if I succeed, I’ll go ahead and think how I can improve my performance tomorrow. I think it will always improve, so I only see the positives in front of me.
What makes your heart happy?
When my great-granddaughter ran into the yard and shouted, “Hey daddy!”
The boy is so fond of the basement that we are looking at barrels and what the boys are doing. I love my job, and my big dream is for someone to bring this up in the family so that I feel like I didn’t work in vain. Of course, I don’t tell anyone this, but I make them feel as if the grapes, the basement, are waiting for someone.
Ingredients
(For 4 people, one serving is 300g)
1.2 kg of comfortably ripe Argentinian tenderloin, 2 pieces of television peppers, 2 pieces of medium tomatoes, 400 grams of zucchini, 200 grams of spinach, 300 grams of mushrooms, 16 cloves of garlic, 1 dl olive oil, 150 grams of butter, 4 pieces of whole sirloin bread 600gm peeled potatoes, salt, ground pepper to taste, tartar sauce, spring onion and garlic (made with olive oil)
Preparation:
The remaining sirloin is peeled, sprinkled with ground pepper, cut into 300 grams, salted, and then fried on a fiber plate at 170 ° C with as little olive oil as possible for 4-5 minutes (this is the base temperature 68-70 ° C) ). If there is no fiberboard, fry it in a cast-iron skillet in the same way as frying on a fiberboard. Cut the pepper in half, fry with a pinch of salt plus the steak, and fry the bread. When the steak is ready, leave in the melted butter at 60 ° C for 5-6 minutes.
Meanwhile, saute the whole garlic cloves, sliced tomatoes, sliced zucchini (about 1-1.5 cm) and sliced porcini mushrooms. Add salt and pepper, season with crushed garlic, stir spinach leaves at the end, then roll quickly.
Boil the cooked potatoes in their peel, fry until hot golden yellow, plenty of oil, a little salt, and pepper, then shake them with garlic oil and sprinkle with chopped parsley. If possible, serve it on a wooden plate, and serve the garlic and onion sauce.
