Armin Mairhofer | Ganischgerhof

“With the right ingredients you can elevate a simple dish to a culinary highlight.”

A gourmet dinner in a cozy atmosphere after a dream day at the hotel? Enjoying the view after skiing, hiking, or mountain biking at a mountain hut, perhaps while recharging with a T-bone steak or apricot dumplings? Guests staying at Ganischgerhof can truly enjoy the Ganis Board Plus. The two idyllic mountain huts, Ganischgeralm and Gardoné, are set amidst the picturesque landscape of the Latemar massif, where hotel guests can indulge in culinary delights at no extra cost.

Chef Youss Bouachir has been passionately dedicating himself to the culinary well-being of his guests at Ganischgerhof for over ten years. Those who know Youss – who was trained by star chefs Herbert Hintner and Chris Oberhammer – know he is always on the lookout for new challenges. For this reason, he is excited to collaborate with Armin Mairhofer, one of South Tyrol’s most renowned chefs, bringing new ideas into his kitchen. “Local products and wild herbs,” is how Mairhofer describes his philosophy, which earned him a Michelin star in 2007.

In an interview with Jens Vögele, Armin Mairhofer told us how, together with Youss, he manages to bring new life to many dishes at Ganischgerhof and what they plan to do together in the future.

You are among the most renowned Chefs in South Tyrol and have started collaborating with the kitchen team at Ganischgerhof. How did this come about?

Many years ago, I decided to step away from restaurant operations since I wanted to focus on other scopes. One of these is consulting with kitchen teams. In a conversation with Ganischgerhof’s owner, Klaus Pichler, it turned out that we wanted to work together to enrich the culinary concept in the Pichler family’s establishments with some new ideas.

What kind of new ideas are you referring to?

For the past 25 years, I have mainly cooked with local products and wild herbs – long before it became trendy as it is today. This is essentially my culinary philosophy, which earned me a Michelin star back then. We have started to transfer this philosophy to the hotel kitchen at Ganischgerhof. Essentially, it’s about simple dishes with the highest quality ingredients from the region.

How did you approach this?

More important than my input is that the kitchen team is also willing to consistently implement new ideas. I have experienced a great willingness to collaborate from Head Chef Youss Bouachir and his team, allowing us to continuously improve together, step by step. It’s not about changing everything in the high-quality, mediterranean-alpine influenced hotel cuisine. Rather, it’s important to me to raise awareness in certain areas.

What exactly does that mean?

I want to show which products are best suited to meet our quality standards. It starts with the purchasing process. The products don’t have to be outrageously expensive – but if I don’t personally select the most beautiful and aromatic tomatoes, I’ll end up with the crate the vegetable dealer wants to get rid of. And for other products that are a bit more difficult to source, I obviously have the right contacts. Take, for example, barberry puree: it is a very refined but relatively unknown product. With it, I can elevate a simple dish to a culinary highlight.

For example?

Risotto is a challenge for any chef because it is always memorable for the guest – either because it was particularly good or because it wasn’t. In Isola della Scala, there is a risotteria that has been around since the 17th century. Its owner, who is running it in the seventh generation, shared his secrets for the perfect risotto preparation with me many years ago. I implemented them with great success because the risottos I prepared left a particularly good impression on my guests. These are exactly the kind of success stories I want to pass on. The principle of preparation is always the same. But whether I refine a risotto with barberry puree – or, for example, with blueberries and a bit of oak moss – is, of course, up to the creativity and individual style of the head chef. I want to provide guidance with dishes that have proven themselves over my years of experience. However, every head chef and every cook must interpret my ideas individually.

Does this also apply to Ganischgeralm and Gardoné, which are supposed to delight guests with the culinary concept of the Ganis Board Plus during the day?

Of course, there are dishes that can be very well prepared on a mountain or alpine hut. The principle is the same: it’s about relatively simple dishes that, with high-quality and regional ingredients, meet the highest quality standards. The art is simply not to overcook a high-quality product. And it’s about ensuring that the things we develop together are also noticed by the guest. That’s why it’s naturally a process — and on the path we have chosen, we hope to take many more steps together. But if the feedback is right and our convincing work resonates with the guest, then it’s a complete success.