Bötschi asks TV chef Studi: "Unfortunately, you often see this in Swiss restaurants"
TV chef Andreas C. Studer, alias Studi, has moved to London. In this interview, he reveals why he can hardly be seen on TV anymore, which food is simply perfect and what his mother's rösti is all about.
In the early 2000s, he was the most famous chef in Switzerland without owning his own restaurant. Andreas C. Studer, known as Studi for short, had a lot going on in his life at the time.
His career began in 1997 in the "Kochduell" program on the German TV channel Vox. That was also the first time Studi worked at the stove with a red cap, which he wore upside down on his head. The cap has been his trademark ever since.
German TV viewers quickly took "Studi, the Swiss" to their hearts because he was never at a loss for a refreshing quip.
At some point, cooking fans in this country also realized that a Swiss man liked to flirt with the camera in the neighbouring country to the north. And so it came as it had to: from 2001 to 2011, Studi was the protagonist of the SRF cooking program "Al dente".
As a TV chef on many channels, he rushed from appointment to appointment - from Berlin to Zurich, from Zurich to Cologne and back again. Until one day Studi had had enough and gave up his television career.
Because the 55-year-old has been living in London for some time, this interview was conducted by telephone. Which is no problem, as the chef and the journalist have known each other personally for some time. The two met for the first time in Berlin in 2008, when Studi was still working on "Kochduell".
Andreas C. Studer, we're playing a question and answer game today: I'll ask you as many questions as possible over the next half hour - and you answer as quickly and spontaneously as possible. If you don't like a question, just say 'go on'.
Okay, so for the next 30 minutes I'll just keep saying 'go on' (laughs).
Salt or pepper?
Preferably fleur de sel.
Pasta or rice?
I love risotto.
Raspberries or strawberries?
This morning I ate strawberry porridge for breakfast. Now you know this preference of mine too.
Is there such a thing as the perfect food for you?
Nothing works for me without Gruyère. Cheese means home. It has often helped me with homesickness.
Here are a few phenomena that are described in specialist journals as the big culinary trends - I'll ask you to give your spontaneous comment: street food.
I eat street food at least two or three times a week. Not far from my apartment in London is the wonderful Spitalfields market. Yesterday I ate wonderful Taiwanese dumplings there.
Food pairing.
A cool thing. I've already tried it myself and served salty cranberry butter with Emmental cheese. Wonderful!
Hybrid food.
About the author: Bruno Bötschi
"blue News" editor Bruno Bötschi regularly talks to well-known personalities for the question-and-answer game "Bötschi fragt" . Bötschi has a lot of experience with interviews. For years, he was in charge of the "Dreamcatcher" series for the magazine "Schweizer Familie". He asked over 200 personalities the question: "As a child, you have lots of dreams - do you remember? The book for the "Dreamcatcher" series has been published by Applaus Verlag, Zurich. It is available in bookshops.
Can also be exciting. But what I don't like is when it's exaggerated. For example, when tofu is renamed vegan ghackets.
Cooking for yourself.
I still love cooking for life. It's just nicer when I'm invited to a private meal at home by friends. I think an invitation like that is one of the greatest compliments you can pay a trained chef. Unfortunately, many people are afraid to do so because they're afraid I'll criticize them. But I never do.
Does the way to a man's heart is through his stomach?
Most of the time - but there are more and more people who suffer from allergies. Unfortunately, so do I.
What upsets your stomach?
Pepperoni.
Have you ever shed a tear because you enjoyed a meal so much?
Unfortunately, my mother died a few years ago. When I spread the last of her homemade apricot jam on a piece of bread a few months later, I had watery eyes.
Can a good meal give you an orgasm?
Oh God, no... to be honest, I find that hard to imagine.
Three years ago you answered the same question in 'Blick': 'Absolutely!
But now you've got me. They say that if you put certain foods like chili or vanilla in your food, it would stimulate your libido.
Have you ever tried it?
Oh, that's a typical Bötschi question (laughs). I could answer 'go on', but I'm not doing you that favor.
But what?
To be honest, I've never deliberately tried to do that.
If you believe New York chef Anthony Bourdain, who died in 2018, then cooking is 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll'.
Looking back on my own career, this motto is certainly true. Over the last 30 years, I've had the privilege of experiencing an incredible number of great rock'n'roll moments. At the same time, I also know that the everyday life of a chef working in a normal restaurant is often anything but glamorous. But it is precisely these people and their work that we must respect in particular. That's why it was always clear to me: no matter how successful I am as a TV chef, humility and gratitude are the most important character traits.
When you think back, what was the taste of your childhood?
I will probably never forget the wonderful buttery taste of my mother's Sunday braided bread for the rest of my life.
Is it true that people in your home region, the Bernese Oberland, still tell the love story of your parents today?
That would be quite possible.
How does the story go again?
Without my mother's rösti, I probably wouldn't exist. She worked as a cook in the canteen at Interlaken military airfield. One day, a young technician wanted to know who the lady in the kitchen was who prepared such delicious rösti. The rest was self-evident. And between you and me: maybe it was my mother's wonderful blue eyes that my father fell in love with back then.
What was it like when you were in the kitchen for the first time?
I wasn't allowed to cook then, just watch my mother. Once we almost burnt down the kitchen because the extractor filter caught fire. That was a really bad experience.
What was the first thing you cooked?
After I discovered a stall at the fair where they made caramel tents, I couldn't get it out of my head. I wondered how sugar could become caramel. When I tried it myself at home, it happened as it should: the sugar burnt and the Teflon pan was ruined.
Even later, things sometimes went wrong when you were at the stove.
But you did your research well.
Even your apprenticeship diploma is said to have been on a knife-edge. True or not?
During the practical part of the exam, I had to serve the six test guests an artichoke salad. The problem was that I saw artichokes for the first time in my life that day. No joke! As a result, I forgot to remove the hay from under the leaves. 'Inedible', was the verdict of the expert who tasted the salad before it was to be served to the guests. Apparently, however, the rest of my menu was so good that I still passed the test with flying colors.
What typical Swiss inferiority complex gets on your nerves?
That we are only a small country and often have the feeling that we don't really belong anywhere. But is that even an inferiority complex?
You lived in Zurich for a long time, then in Berlin for almost 22 years and now in London for three years. Was the German capital too boring for you or why did you move to the British metropolis?
I had an apartment in Berlin and Zurich for a long time, so I commuted back and forth. Until one day I said to myself: Andy, come on, now you're setting up something new again, looking for a new challenge. I've always loved discovering the world.
Your ultimate restaurant tip for Zurich?
I like the Korean restaurant Mi Mi Sa in Zurich-Seebach. It only has 15 seats, so I probably shouldn't have revealed this insider tip now, because they'll be full all the time.
For Berlin?
I don't like restaurants that say you absolutely have to go there. That's why I've never been to Borchardt in Berlin. My favorite was a small sushi restaurant, but unfortunately it didn't survive the coronavirus lockdown. Apart from that, I'd rather not name a restaurant in Berlin, otherwise everyone will run to it and it will soon no longer be an insider tip.
For London?
When I was 28, I spent some time cooking at the Sheraton Hotel in Cancún. That's where I got to know and appreciate Mexican cuisine. In London, there's a restaurant chain called Wahaca that specializes in Mexican cuisine. I think they have six or seven establishments. I'm often a guest there.
How did you become a TV chef?
I had just returned from Mexico and then flew to Berlin for a weekend. I was totally fascinated by the city in upheaval just shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Two months later, I was back in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's landmark. Without a job in my luggage, but with a room in a shared flat in Berlin and some savings. And also with the knowledge that I had talent. Shortly afterwards, I stumbled across an advertisement in a gastronomy newspaper: 'TV chef wanted'. 'That's it', I thought. The German TV channel Vox was looking for ten chefs for the program 'Kochduell'.
Is it really true that you started out in Berlin living in a shared flat with five men and a baby?
That is true. I applied for the apartment and initially thought the men were all gay. But that wasn't the case.
They were?
Only the man who moved out was gay (laughs).
The TV viewers can't smell or taste anything. As a TV chef, you have to keep shouting: 'Ohh, so good! Absurd, isn't it?
As a TV chef, I have to be able to describe very precisely what I am smelling or tasting. But food is something very aesthetic, so it was easy for me from the start.
Do TV chefs have to be able to cook at all?
Yes, I think that should be a basic requirement. As a TV chef, you also have to be able to conjure up a culinary delicacy from just a few ingredients in no time at all that is also visually appealing - much more so than in a restaurant.
Basically, how has TV cooking changed our food culture?
I think some foods have only gained a certain level of popularity through television. In the mid-1990s, I once appeared on a cooking show in East Germany and used balsamic vinegar. When I let the viewers taste it, almost all of them asked what exactly it was. They didn't know balsamic vinegar. As a TV chef, I sometimes felt like a teacher.
Is cooking a hard-working or talented profession?
Diligence alone is not enough, certainly not for those chefs who want to reach for the stars or points.
Does it sometimes hurt to be so incredibly creative?
On the contrary.
What do you dislike about cooking?
I don't like it when someone cooks the same repertoire all the time and doesn't want to be creative at all. Unfortunately, you often see this in Swiss restaurants: schnitzel, Geschnetzeltes, Pastetli and so on.
In which discipline in the kitchen are you the worst?
I like to leave the baking to the others.
What things do you pay particular attention to when you go out to eat in a restaurant?
Cleanliness is the be-all and end-all.
Your brief comment on the 'Guide Michelin' restaurant guide?
A cool thing, at least for those people who can afford to eat out so expensively on a regular basis. But I'm not one of those people.
Your brief comment on the 'Gault Millau' restaurant guide?
See above.
Have you never had a guilty conscience?
Why should I have one?
You were one of the most famous chefs in Switzerland at the beginning of the noughties - yet you didn't even have your own restaurant.
That's why I never had a guilty conscience (laughs).
The 'Gault Millau' restaurant guide awards a maximum of 20 points. How many would you manage?
I would say 15 points. I could test myself once incognito.
Why would you rather be a TV chef than a star chef?
I'd rather be a celebrity chef (laughs). I admit that being a TV chef feels good because you make viewers happy, even if only for a short time. It also gives you good food for thought for cooking yourself.
After almost 20 years and over 2,500 cooking shows in Germany and Switzerland, you hung up your apron as a TV chef in 2018. Why did you do that?
I somehow had the feeling that the market was saturated. And there were no TV formats that appealed to me. But I wouldn't want to miss my time as a TV chef under any circumstances. It was an incredible time during which I got to know so many great people.
Do you like watching Steffen Henssler when he cooks on TV?
No. Which probably has something to do with the fact that we've never been on the same stage. I don't particularly like his style.
What do you think of Tim Mälzer's cooking?
His show 'Kitchen Impossible' is okay, but I'm not a fan of faecal language at all. I can cook without having to constantly throw out swear words. Maybe it's because I was lucky enough to have a good childhood and therefore never swore on TV - not even when I cut my finger with a knife during a live show.
When was the last time you cut your finger in the kitchen?
That was so long ago that I can't remember.
Have you ever seriously injured yourself in the kitchen?
Fortunately not, but recently I hit my finger with a hammer when I was putting up a shelf in the kitchen. I can still remember one of our teachers at trade school saying to our class on the first day: 'Don't get too angry, but you'll be cutting your fingers every now and then over the next few years. And you'll also drop things on the floor more often.
Did his prophecy come true?
Yes, it has.
What do you think of Sarah Wiener?
I think Sarah is cool. I like her a lot and I also think it's great that she's been a member of the European Parliament for the Austrian Greens since 2019. Unfortunately, she had to declare bankruptcy for her two Berlin restaurants and catering business a few months ago - due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, her other companies are not affected by the insolvency.
What do you think of Meta Hiltebrand?
A very cool woman. Meta is always straightforward and totally direct. I really appreciate that. And Meta is a wonderful ambassador for Swiss cuisine - especially abroad.
What do you think of René Schudel's television cooking ?
I like his cooking shows, not least because they are short and quick formats. But you know what, we both grew up in the Bernese Oberland but have never met in person.
Switzerland has three famous TV chefs: Meta Hiltebrand, Renè Schudel and you. Wouldn't it finally be time for Swiss television SRF to realize a big cooking duel with the three of you?
That's a good idea. I'd be there in a heartbeat.
What's your favorite thing to cook when you're at home?
I'm not a typical cook. In other words, I don't plan ahead.
Instead?
I always go shopping without a shopping list, instead letting myself be guided by my mood or tempted by the current offers.
Apart from the Gruyère cheese I mentioned earlier, what other foods do you always have in the fridge at home?
Milk, cured ham and salami. I also always have olives and crackers in stock.
How is your private life working out in London?
I'm doing well and I'm single at the moment, if that's what you want to know.
What's the nicest thing you can say to a chef?
Praise is always a great thing. I recently watched the ESC final with some friends. Before the broadcast started, I served a lemongrass risotto with prawns, chili and coriander. It went down extremely well.
What was there to drink?
The ESC final on the BBC has been commented on by comedian and TV presenter Graham Norton for years. It's great fun every time. So we drank 'Graham Norton's Own Sauvignon Blanc' to match .
You recently posted a picture of a colored house wall on your Instagram account and wrote: 'The Sky's the Limit.
I like the saying, but I prefer the following phrase from the American presenter Casey Kasem, who died in 2014: ' Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars'. Yes, I am convinced that those who are grateful live healthier lives. At the same time, I think it's important to believe in yourself and be open to other people's ideas from time to time.
When was the last time you were enthusiastic about someone else's idea?
In the UK, a lot of people volunteer in their spare time. I myself recently volunteered three times at a coronavirus vaccination center. That was good.
And finally, there's the self-rating test: you rate your talent between ten points, super talent, and zero points, no talent: Underwear model.
I would currently give myself six points in this category.
Does that mean you're on the verge of a six-pack?
Let's put it this way: I'm in pretty good shape right now and yes, the six-pack is not far off, that is, if I continue to train as diligently as I have in recent weeks and months.
Gardener?
Eight points. Although I have to admit that I used to have absolutely no green fingers. But as my passion for this hobby grew, so did my success rate.
Lover?
Three points (laughs).
You're that bad in bed?
Okay, I'll say seven points, otherwise there will be some strange rumors after this interview is published.
Singer?
Two points. I can't sing at all. I wouldn't even dare take the microphone in a karaoke bar.
Photographer?
Seven points. I'm an ambitious autodidact with room for improvement.
You've already published a photo book.
That's right. I published a book about Swiss cows in 2012. And perhaps a next photo project will come about soon.
Would you like to reveal more about it?
We humans are often on the road in pairs. I photograph couples that I meet spontaneously on the road. They can be lovers, best friends, but also father and son. They are always very exciting encounters. I want it to be a book of love.
Do you feel guilty if you don't finish your plate?
No, not at all. But I know that many Swiss people find it difficult. You can have your food wrapped up and reheat it at home when you get hungry again. And I also know from my own experience that there is a pig trough in every restaurant. So no food is thrown away.
You can find even more "Bötschi asks" conversations under this link.