Delicious food, excellent wine, fast cars and a breathtaking landscape- all that was waiting for us on the 25th of July in St. Anton am Arlberg in Austria. Thanks to Audi we had the possibility to attend the „3. Arlberger Wettbewerb für Jungköche“ (a competition for young cooks), test drive the new Audi Q7 and the TT and had an awesome evening at the „Gourmet-Gondel-Gipfelsturm“ hosted by the W³.
We started in the early morning: around 7am Florian picked us up with a A8 L (well, I am one of the girls who needs a car which can drive and has space … I had N O idea, what kind of car was expecting us!), the most luxurious limousine Audi offers at the moment. It also has 500 PS – so it is not just very, very fast, it is also really relaxing to travel with it. In less than three hours we arrived in St. Anton, we just checked our room and refreshed up (well, actually we did not need that!) a little bit before we had the chance to check out the first car.
I had the honor to be the first driving the new Q7. Automatic transmission, high sitting and a navigation system made it easy for me to start quickly and I was looking forward to drive this car in the streets of the Arlberg. Markus ( you can see him on the picture above) gave me a quick introduction to the car and supported me with all information needed while driving. Well, Michi, who sat on the backseat surely understand everything, for me it was the first time to explore a world full of V6 engines, 3,5 liter TFSI and what is the context of kW and PS. 😉
Thanks to all the traffic I did not have the chance to go even near to full speed but Audi has definitely one fan more now. An beautiful design – inside and out, enough space for me (and my luggage / shopping bags), an absolutely safe feeling while driving and most important: Well being!
After driving around for around about one hour we went back to the hotel where delicious food was waiting for us: The next generation of Austrias top cooks were picked for the finals and the three last competitors were battling each other and one meal was more delicious than the next one! We were able to watch them preparing the meals, ask them about the food they use (and there was A LOT to ask!) and of course taste it! The jury were the créme de la créme from Austrias nowadays cooks: Eckart Witzigmann, Heinz Winkler and Hans-Peter Wodarz.
My favorite cook was the André Schönnach from Hotel Autelio in Lech who did the second place. Maybe it was about all the greens he used, maybe it just was his charming smile. Anyways, at the end it was really a neck to neck race but I think all of the three are definitely winners. Even for me, who likes to try new thinks and products it is really fascinating to see what one can do with food. How you can combine, cook and decorate it.
On this weekend I met Eva and Lisa from Foodtastic.at for the first time, you should definitely check out their blog!
After lunch the next highlight was waiting for us: We had the chance to do a testdriving with the new Audi TT! This one is definitely ( a lot ! ) lower, sleeker and faster than the Q7 I drove before and therefore a totally different feeling of driving. I have to admit: I am not a fan of sports cars. I think they are too small, too tight and I always feel like I don’t have enough overview of what’s going on outside. BUT: I enjoyed this drive a lot, it was awesome to feel the power of the car and to really put the foot down. I wouldn’t mind having this car as a second car and use it from time to time! 😉
After I changed seats with Markus I felt like a real grandma. He knows how to drive this car, how to speed up and taking each curve. I went from feeling really afraid, to exciting in just a few seconds. So, as you can guess, my next „to-do“ is definitely a testtrail, a really fast car and someone by my side who shows me how (fast) to drive this car.
Back in the hotel we quickly refreshed and went to the highlight of the day: The „Gourmet-Gondel-Gipfelsturm“! This is an extraordinary event, where you have your meals in different height. We started at Galzig Valley station (at 1.320 m) and went up with some stops for food to the Vallugo on 2.811 meters!
Top cooks as Norbert Niederkofler (2 stars), Eduard Hitzberger, Justav Jantscher or Hans Jörg Bachmeier (who runs the Blauer Bock in Munich) let us enjoy the best food. Exclusive wine and superior brandies as well as the best apple juice EVER („Bergapfelsaft Thomas Kohl“) and live music acts made this event to one of my best so far.
We did not jut pictures but also a little video- feel free to watch it here on my Youtube channel!
Thanks a lot to the team of Audi for the invitation, the implementation and those unforgettable moments!
