MARIO LOHNINGER

Star cook Mario Lohninger started his carrer in Maria Alm near Zell am See, Austria – when he was only four years old. Passing Munich, Los Angeles, New York and Paris, Mario (today 33 years old) landed in Frankfurt, where he realized his ideas in an own gastronomic concept: the Silk Bed Restaurant and the Micro Fine Dining Restaurant. His grandfather being a baker, Mario had already helped forming the bread in his early childhood, and not much later every evening in the kitchen of the family-owned restaurant, which was guided by his father, the chef de cuisine. He knew by then he wanted to become a cook, too. Mario trained as an apprentice in Tyrol before starting to work at the two Michelin star awarded restaurant of Rudi and Karl Obauer.

His respect for the virtuosity of both masters of Austrian cuisine is still noticeable today. They know how to prepare regional and seasonal ingredients in a traditional way and at the same time grant them the necessary finesse of gourmet cuisine.

When Mario was 19 he started working at the Tantris restaurant in Munich, which is under the direction of “Bocuse dʼOr”-finalist Hans Haas. After he had become acquainted to his exquisite gourmet cuisine, the young and ambitious cook went to the US and worked in New York for Theo Schönegger from Southtyrol and afterwards in L.A. for gourmet cook Wolfgang Puck. As much as he liked it in the US he soon realized that he was missing one professional
station: France. One call to Hans Haas was enough and a few weeks later he could start in Paris at Guy Savoyʼs, one of the most famous French chefs.

His mind full of recipes and ideas from Tyrol, Munich, New York, L.A. and Paris, Mario went back to the US. As sous-chef at Puckʼs restaurant in Palo Alto, for the first time, he could test his own creativity and he learned to direct a kitchen crew. Puck was one of the first cooks in the US to introduce Asian influences into gourmet cuisine, so that Mario worked alongside with a
Japanese Chef and several Asian cooks.

In 1999, in Palo Alto, Mario met David Bouley, one of the most innovative restaurateurs of New Yorkʼs gastronomic scene. He was just planning a new restaurant, inspired by the noble and yet easygoing Viennese way of life. The young Austrian Mario was the right man to implement his plans and Mario, as the future Chef of the Danube, created for Bouley a selection of meals which would soon cause a sensation even in the spoiled city of New York. New Yorkʼs gourmets were enthusiastic about Marios creative, technically perfect cuisine with Austrian origins. The Danube was awarded the distinction “Best New Restaurant” by the worldwide restaurant guide Zagat in 2000, had a brilliant three star awarded review by the New York Times, two stars in the
Michelin Guide and was nominated for the gastronomic Oscar, the “James Beard”, as “Best New Restaurant” in the US. He then realized several caterings for Bill Clinton and New Yorkʼs society.

A regular guest at Danube was the Princess of Thailand, who, impressed by his cuisine, finally invited Mario to move the Danube for two weeks to Bangkok. So Mario, together with Thai gourmet cooks, organised a gala dinner for the King and the Queen of Thailand and therefore enjoyed the hospitality of the royal family.

His second trip to Asia took him to Japan where Mario was able to teach in one of the best cooking schools of the country (Tsuji) as a guest cook. His recipes were taken over in to the teaching programme. In return he gained a deep, informative and inspiring insight into Japanese cuisine.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 brought Mario Lohninger into the most concussive and exciting situation of his life. He cooked for the rescue teams at Ground Zero and organised 30.000 meals a day in peak times in the following three months together with his 200-man crew.

Besides the Princess of Thailand, the famous Danube was also the favourite restaurant of New Yorkʼs socialite political and art scene. One of the regular guests was also DJ Sven Väth, who in the beginnings of 2004 was able to enthuse Mario for his plans of a club with two restaurants in Frankfurt. Mario flew to the Main metropolis and was instantly convinced of the exceptional
concept of the CocoonClub. At Silk Bed Restaurant and Micro Fine Dining Restaurant with Bar and Lounge he is able to implement his own cooking style.

Mario Lohninger was New York Magazineʼs “Cook of the Year” in 2002 and the “Discovery of the Year” of Gault Millau in 2005: “At the Micro Restaurant Pasta, Sushi, Euro-Asian and Austrian cuisine are not being cooked to an international potpourri but so greatly brought to the point that you have the sensation of being in different gourmet cuisines at the same time. Mario
Lohninger brilliantly brings them together.”, the comment of the gourmet guide which awards the Micro Restaurant two and the Silk Bed Restaurant three of four chefʼs hats.

Being invited by Lufthansa, Lohninger created the menus of the First and the Business Class in July and August 2005. The same year he won the first prize for the best gastronomic concept of the magazine BUNTE and the restaurant guide Tafelspitz.

Another highlight in Mario Lohningerʼs successful career is the award of one Michelin star in November 2006 for his culinary peak performance at the Silk Bed Restaurant.

In January 2007 the great honour of composing three menus as a guest chef in the unique restaurant Ikarus in Hangar-7 at Salzburgʼs airport was bestowed upon the freshly star awarded chef. Every month a different international chef determines the menu in this innovative gourmet restaurant, which is under the auspices of century chef Eckart Witzigmann.