Chef Heinz Beck – The Award-winning Chef

Do you like this post?

Chef Heinz Beck has been the head chef of his restaurant, La Pergola, for more than a decade and a half already, and he has earned numerous awards for his culinary skill. Under his leadership and management, La Pergola has also received prestigious awards from some of the most illustrious and esteemed award-giving bodies in the culinary world. Right now, this Italian restaurant located in the heart of Italy is considered as the 97th best restaurant of the world, by the San Pellegrino Guide.

Chef Beck has a twin brother, Hermann, and they born on the 2nd of March 1963 in Germany. The brothers have always been fascinated by the culinary world, and when they were 17 years old, Chef Beck decided to enroll in Passau’s Professional School, and he had his first apprenticeship in Bad Fuessing at the Hotel Holzapfel after he received his qualifications in the year 1983.

In 1985, he went to work at one of famous catering companies in the country, the Feinkost Kaefer, and a year after that, he found work in Freiburg, in the kitchens of the one-Michelin star Colombi Hotel where he worked as a chef de partie. He stayed at this restaurant until 1989, after which, he then left the restaurant to work in Tantris, a restaurant that boasts of three Michelin stars. He stayed with Tantis until 1991.

Feeling the need to add foreign influence to his culinary skill, he then traveled to Spain in 1991 where he found work as a sous chef in the kitchens of two-Michelin star Tristan. However, he did not stay long in Spain because, on that same year, he went back to Germany and enriched his culinary skill in the kitchens of Chef Heinz Winkler in Aschau. It was, in fact, the great Chef Winkler who greatly influenced his culinary career. In 1992, he finally received his Kitchen Master certificate, and by the next year, he became the head chef at the presidential headquarters in Berlin.

The turning point in his culinary career though came when he went to Rome and became the head chef of Hotel Cavalieri’s La Pergola. Armed with a culinary skill honed by experience and a very impressive resume, he created a very remarkable gastronomic experience in La Pergola that, barely two years after he first came to Rome, people were already saying that his restaurant was among the best restaurants of the country.

Together with such praises, the awards and prizes also came pouring in. In 2000, he was awarded by the Roman University “La Sapienza” the Golden Medal of the Artists Foyer. It was the first time in three decades that this very illustrious international award was given to a chef.

Two years later he published a book that not only has been well received by the public but has also won numerous awards from The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. His book was named not only as the best book but also the best chef book as well as the best design by the association. Under his leadership, La Pergola garnered three Michelin stars, been named as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world, and considered as the best restaurant in Rome.

Chef Heinz Beck’s Fagottelli “La Pergola”

Ingredients:

Fresh egg pasta:

350g Fresh Egg Pasta
30g Pecorino Cheese, grated
A dash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt, to taste

Filling:

5 egg yolks
30 g Pecorino Cheese
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
90 g whipped cream

Sauce:

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
35g Guanciale, julienned
100g Zucchini, diced
25ml Dry White Wine
50ml Veal Stock

Directions:

For the filling: Beat the egg yolks in a double-boiler over simmering water, add in the pecorino cheese a little at a time and whisk until smooth. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Remove double-boiler from the heat and set aside the mixture to cool. Once cooled, add in the whipped cream and transfer the mixture to a pastry piping bag with a nozzle attached.

For the fresh egg pasta: Roll out the pasta on a lightly floured surface to a thin sheet and then cut into rectangular pieces (6-cm wide). Pipe a strip of filling 1-cm from the edge of the pasta. Fold the pasta over the filling to form a long cylindrical shape; then give it an additional half turn. Press the edges carefully to seal the pasta, press on the filling at 1-cm intervals to form a shallow pocket. (These indentations will collect the sauce, thus improving the flavour of the finished dish.) Divide the pasta bundles and trim the edges with a fluted pastry wheel.

For the sauce: Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a sauté pan. Add in the julienned guanciale and toss briefly. Add in the diced zucchini and toss for a few minutes and then deglaze with the dry white wine until alcohol has evaporated. Add in the veal stock and simmer until sauce has reduced and coats the back of a spoon.

Cook the pasta bundles in a pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and transfer to the sauté pan with the zucchini. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and the grated pecorino and toss just enough to coat the pasta.

To serve: Ladle the cooked pasta bundles with the sauce onto each serving plate. Just before serving, crush the tellicherry pepper in a mortar and then sprinkle over the pasta.

Servings: Serves 4.

Image Credit: heinzbeck.com

gourmetabudhabi.ae

Popularity: 1% [?]

Currently 0 comment - But what do you think?