Chef’s secret recipes or closely-guarded ingredients is usually a bunch of baloney. It’s either a marketing scheme to get people excited about a chef’s products (cook books, spice mixes, etc.), or it is simply a trick to create artificial value for the stuff of some wannabe celebrity cook.

No Secret Recipes at the Bavarian Bistro. Nope. Au contraire!

Chef Keem (that’s me) will share everything he knows about cooking good food, down to the last detail. If you are interested. And if we are not too busy for chatting at the Bistro, because of a long line of hungry schnitzel fans…

Here’s how I look at it:

  • Everything I know about cooking has been given to me by generous teachers and friends
  • My ability to add a twist to an existing recipe and thus make it my own is a direct result of my training (received from generous teachers)
  • Why the hell would I take these gifts and call them a secret? Well, I wouldn’t.

Over the next few weeks you will find secret recipes and cooking tips revealed – here at our Bavarian Bistro blog. By that I mean all the little tricks from my experience on how to make ordinary dishes taste better. Let me assure you right away – it is not all about ingredients, technique and recipes. There is something else…

What is the Most Secret Recipe Ingredient of Any Chef?

One word: LOVE

More words: attitude, thoughts, intentions, conscience, focus.

How often have we read or heard this statement: “I’ve followed the recipe exactly…yet, it tasted much better when Chef so-and-so/Mom/Uncle Billy/Granny Emily cooked it. What did I do wrong?”

Love is energy. Positive thoughts are energy. Pride in my work, conscious focus on quality, undivided attention to the task at hand…all these cause a flow of creative energy that needs to go somewhere close-by…the food.

When two cooks prepare the exact same recipe with the exact same degree of skills, their dishes will still have a difference in taste!

It is mysterious, baffling, and possibly confusing.
But it’s true. I’ve seen it happen, over and over.

I’m looking forward to prove these principles to you.

I love to cook. And my intention is to cook with as much love as I can muster, at the Bavarian Bistro. For you.

P.S.: The Bavarian Bistro, serving authentic German food to-go, is scheduled to open around May 15, at a downtown Austin, TX location. More details soon!

P.P.S.: Austin is beautiful, don’t you agree? I took this shot at the Barton Creek Green Belt…

Beautiful Austin, home of the Bavarian Bistro!