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Visiting Austrian chef guides Elgin Community College culinary arts students

Posted March 23, 2017 1:00 am

Austrian chef Wolfgang Ruzicka gets a hand from Elgin Community College culinary arts student Helga Horist while preparing dough for an apple strudel during a demonstration Thursday of dishes similar to what students will prepare later that evening at the Spartan Terrace Restaurant on campus. Ruzicka is a special guest of ECC's Visiting Chef Dinner Series. Horist is from McHenry and will graduate in May. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com

Austrian Chef Wolfgang Ruzicka shared his culinary expertise with Elgin Community College students Thursday as a guest speaker for the college's Visiting Chef Dinner Series.

Ruzicka demonstrated a variety of dishes that students in ECC's Culinary Arts and Hospitality Program would prepare for a dinner Thursday evening in the Spartan Terrace Restaurant on the college's Elgin campus. Thursday's menu was to include a strudel of salmon and spinach with field greens and traditional pumpkin seed oil vinaigrette for an appetizer, followed by a tomato-cream soup with bruschetta. The entree is braised beef with burgunder sauce and celery root puree. Blueberry strudel with lemon cream was to be served for dessert.

At 22, Ruzicka became one of the youngest chefs in Austria to receive an award from Gault Millau, an influential French restaurant guide.

He started as an apprentice in the famous Grand Hotel Panhans in Semmering, Austria, and completed his education for health kitchen and nutrition. He has been an instructor in the Tourism School of Semmering since 2005 and is author of "Das Semmering-Kochbuch" ("The Semmering Cookbook").

Austrian chef Wolfgang Ruzicka talks with students Thursday at the Spartan Terrace Restaurant at Elgin Community College. Ruzicka headlines ECC's Visiting Chef Dinner Series. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com

Visiting Austrian chef Wolfgang Ruzicka demonstrates how to prepare an apple strudel to Elgin Community College culinary arts students Thursday. The students were to prepare a blueberry strudel Thursday night for diners at the Spartan Terrace Restaurant. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com

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