ADLER Magazine 2017

Backstage
at the hotel
In a behind-the-scenes portrait, employees
at the ADLER Mountain Lodge
capture their day-to-day work and the
breathtaking place that surrounds them:
the Alpe di Siusi.
2013. Laion, at the entrance to Val
Gardena. Hannes Pignater and Arik
Oberrauch are sitting together, toasting
the end of the day with a beer. Pignater is
a chef. Oberrauch learned to be a florist,
but was forced to give up his career
owing to a pollen allergy. Now he is a
lorry driver, does odd jobs as a painter,
whatever comes up. The two are leafing
through ‘A Work in Progress’ by René
Redzepi, one of the most famous chefs in
the world who presides over the stove at
‘Noma’ in Copenhagen.
Redzepi’s book is elaborately made. Perfectly
staged and illuminated, every dish
captured from above. ‘There are a few
rules in food photography that always
work’, says Pignater, ‘but after a while
they become a bit monotonous’. What
the two of them preferred by far was the
small book accompanying it, featuring
snapshots taken on smartphones by
kitchen staff between steaming pots and
sizzling frying pans. ‘The quality of the
photos was nothing special’, explains
Pignater, ‘but the expression was much
stronger. You saw passionate people who
were also able to laugh when things went
wrong’.
Pignater and Oberrauch met through
photography. Pignater, who became
junior world food champion at the age of
25 and went on to win a silver medal at
the Culinary Olympics a year later, was
suffering from burnout. Something that
often helps in this scenario is a hobby. So
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