"I know what can happen"

Created: 06/20/2022, 02:00 p.m

By: Charlotte Borst

Professional in his field: Andreas Geitl is known for his Bavarian dishes, here he cooks a Sunday roast for his wife and guests at home.

© Archive: Oliver Bodmer

The final exams for trainees in Bavaria are currently underway.

For years, Andreas Geitl has stood by his gun when master chefs take their exams.

He is one of around 1000 examiners at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK).

District -

The testing activity is a voluntary position.

Most examiners are trainers themselves and are real experts on the subject of training.

Andreas Geitl is a chef, master chef, author of five cookery books and TV chef from Oberhaching.

He has been examining master chefs for over 30 years. 

Why have you been available as a volunteer examiner for so long?

Well, it's really an honour.

After all, not everyone is allowed to check.

I was still very young when I was asked and started at the age of 30, and many a candidate was older than me.

I've always been a passionate instructor.

We cooked at a really good level in the Forsthaus Wörnbrunn and on the Nockherberg and were able to convey a lot.

And auditors should be those who have a lot of professional experience and are also willing to make their expertise available, in the interest of the industry.

What is the first thing you notice when you see a candidate in front of you?

How someone picks up the knife, places the cutting board and touches food.

I can see from that alone whether he has mastered his craft.

But as an examiner, you shouldn't make hasty judgments either.

Of course, we examiners know what role nervousness plays in such a situation, after all we were in the same situation.

In any case, I won't forget my exam.

What is a no-go in the exam?

grubbyness.

If someone doesn't come along clean and tidy and works sloppy and if their workplace looks like .... under the sofa, then it's going to be difficult for them.

What has changed for Küchenmeister over the years?

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Around 30 years ago, people believed that vegan was something for extraterrestrials.

And vegetarian was something for green fodder lovers.

Much more demands are placed on a master chef these days.

In the past, the focus was mainly on good cooking.

When I was learning, the focus was much more on the food itself.

And if a dollop of butter was stirred into the sauce, that was ok, which would rob nutritionists of their sleep today.

Today the master chefs are not only masters at preparing food, they are entrepreneurs, business economists, marketing specialists, nutritional physiologists, they have to be salespeople, emergency doctors, and one also requires pronounced psychological knowledge, which is also necessary.

Does the cooking profession have enough offspring?

No!

Unfortunately not.

I can really recommend the training.

We just can't get rid of this old, encrusted image.

And unfortunately we have underground marketing.

Anyone who doesn't know the industry at all, and most of them are, still believes that cooks earn badly, still work 14 hours, drink at least three pints of beer and go to sleep in the locker after they put out the campfire on which they used to cook with their heavy pots during the day.

The fact is, cooks really earn according to their performance, some perhaps better than one or the other senior physician, whose working hours could also be discussed.

Do you love your job?

Oh yeah!

Seriously, the advantages of being a chef are far too little known to me.

As a chef, the world is your oyster.

You can get a job anywhere.

Technology has also arrived in the kitchen.

There are no longer heavy pots, but tilting devices.

Rosters can be viewed well in advance, and who can make people as happy as a chef.

And another thing.

Cooking is the only profession in the world in which you can really, really, work with all the senses that God has given you.

Is there anything nicer!

Do you actually like to eat out yourself?

Of course, in all couches!

And really from Dönermann to Witzigmann.

I really like to eat anything.

But I especially like fish.

And the fish loves sweets.... Especially after fish I also like a dessert.

Are you a critical guest?

Not at all.

I'm not the type to complain, the water is too light or the beer is too dark or something... I know what can happen!

At the Oktoberfest and in the TV studio

Even as a little boy, he was fascinated by his grandmother's pot roasts.

Back then, Andreas Geitl had to help out in his parents' business in Hallertau.

Then he decided to become a chef himself and completed his apprenticeship in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the Partenkirchner Hof.

"An extremely tough but excellent lesson," he says.

In the Forsthaus Wörnbrunn in Grünwald he took up his first position as head chef with Richard Süssmeier.

"Those were wonderful years and a great start to my professional career," he enthuses about this fulfilling time.

When he moved to Nockherberg as kitchen director in 2002, almost his entire kitchen brigade followed him.

"My boys and girls came with me, there were 19." At the same time, he mastered 14 Oktoberfests in the Paulaner Festzelt, the Winzerer Fähndl, one of the largest beer tents at the Oktoberfest.