What makes a grand cuisine? What are the necessary elements – culture, diversity, wealth and therefore leisure, adventurous spirit, tolerance, favorable weather (for availability of ingredients) and, most of all, correct and due appreciation of good food? Culinary talent is an art that must be nurtured and developed by patrons – think the electrifying environment of the Renaissance and the pasta and gelato. However, even when a country has all the elements, a great tradition of food does not necessarily follow: e.g. London, New York and Vienna. This is, of course, a generalization of vast proportions, and there are always exceptions; however, exceptions are not the norm. What is the probability of you walking on the streets of New York and hit a decent restaurant? Incalculably low. Nevertheless, despite the adversities, there are still a few things that lesser cuisines excel – even the Austrian. Despite the glamour of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the intellectual crucible of the late Nineteenth Century – I wonder what Freud would have said about the development of food in his native land – which had built the grand palaces and grew Art Nouveau, the food scene seemed to have stagnated and stopped in cafés. Since my intended trip to Vienna was turned into a trip to the South America, I headed over to Café Sabarsky to lose myself in the bygone era of the Austro-Hungarian tradition.
