Rudolf waiter

Rudolf Kellner (born September 23, 1938 in Vienna ; † April 5, 2005 in Vienna) was an Austrian cook and hotelier .

Live and act

Kellner was the first son of the landlords Rudolf Kellner senior. and Justine Kellner, née Karall, was born on Herklotzgasse in the 15th district of Vienna Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus . His father had bought the Eck-Gasthaus in Herklotzgasse in 1929 with money that he had saved while working as a waiter at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. His mother Justine started working as a cook in October 1936 and married Rudolf Kellner senior in August 1937. Kellner's brother Manfred was born in 1943. In the autumn of the same year he was drafted into military service for the transport of ammunition to Bulgaria and Greece .

In 1952 Rudolf Kellner jun. with the cooking school under the leadership of Karl Duch . In the following year he found an apprenticeship at the Hotel Straubinger in Bad Gastein and was permanently employed after two months of probation. Between 1955 and 1965 Kellner gained international experience a. a. in Geneva , Zurich , St. Moritz , Stockholm , on the Rotterdam cruise ship , in Paris , London and Montevideo . His work at the London Hotel Savoy from March 1962 to October 1964, where he learned the grande cuisine based on Auguste Escoffier , was decisive for his further life . According to his own statement, this became his guiding star and he later dedicated his own Escoffier menu to it, which enjoyed a legendary reputation in Vienna.

After his return to his parents' inn, Kellner married Ursula, whom he had met during their au pair stay in London. In the meantime the family had bought the house in which the business was located and in 1968 it was handed over to Rudolf Kellner jun. instead of. He began with the adaptation of some apartments for a hotel and redesigned the inn into a restaurant with home-style Viennese cuisine .

During his travels with a culinary focus to France , he got to know the nouvelle cuisine that was emerging there. This is how his conception of adapting the principles of seasonal fresh ingredients, regional ingredients and well-structured simplicity to Austrian cuisine was born . Together with his friend and regular guest Jörg Mauthe, he pushed this idea as New Austrian Cuisine . He created an international gourmet restaurant in his Hotel-Restaurant Altwienerhof and has had three toques in the Gault-Millau restaurant guide since 1992 . His wine cellar was awarded a 'Grand Award' by Wine Spectator magazine as one of the best-stocked wine cellars in the world and contained around 23,000 bottles, including rare auction wines such as a Romanée-Conti 1928 or a Château Latour 1870.

In his restaurant in the Altwienerhof, u. a. the cooks Christoph Wagner and Gerhard Fuchs . Kellner died in Vienna in 2005 after a long illness and was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery . He had sold his Hotel-Restaurant Altwienerhof two years earlier.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kurier newspaper, March 28, 1998
2. ^ Restaurant brochure Altwienerhof, 1992
3. ^ Obituary in the AHGZ of April 9, 2005, accessed on April 6, 2012