Jürgen ZIMMERSTÄDT c/o BIGOUDI, born in 1964 in Trier is an established food stylist for commercial and editorial work. His relationship with cooking and indulgence started at a young age and was handed down from his mother’s side of the family from Graz in Styria in beautiful Austria. “As everyone knows, Austrian food is renowned for great classics and famous meat dishes such as Gulasch, Tafelspitz, stuffed breast of veal and of course the legendary
Wiener Schnitzel.”
During his apprenticeship as a chef from 1985-88 in Trier he was trained to perfect a professional approach to meat produce. After that he worked as the Chef Saucier in a famous star restaurant. “I worked with the best products and talented colleagues. Interestingly we did a lot of braising and meat was prepared in full pieces - always with a great amount of sophistication and creativity. It was likewise a pleasure to work very closely with the old kitchen butcher. He taught me all about quality of meat, aging meat, making sausages and innards.”
Jürgen continues: “ To develop my skills further as a chef, I went on a “wander” and started a position as a garde-manger at Europäischen Hof in Baden-Baden. Garde-manger is the name of the cold kitchen section in a large kitchen brigade. My job was to receive the incoming products such as fish, meat and vegetables and to check, store and maintain it in the cold rooms.
We also cut up and portioned the entire fish and meat deliveries. We prepared terrines and pastries and additional starters. After one year I switched to 'Demi-Chefs de Saucier'. In this role I prepared all the meat dishes and created a lot of different fonds and sauces.”
The additional years served to perfect his skills. From 1998-2002 Jürgen worked as a food stylist for editorial teams such as City, Food & Foto, published by Heinrich Bauer Verlag Hamburg. “I embarked on a completely new direction in my career. I started as a food stylist in a Hamburg based publishing house. I was exposed to a totally different approach to food produce. This time recipes were not created on a long-term basis, but to cook recipes for everyday family use, with a certain convenience, simplicity and honesty. At first this was a great challenge for me. But I combined domestic cooking with my own gourmet experiences and widened my horizons”.
In 2002 he opened 4Experiment Gastraum, which he ran in Hamburg until late 2011. Jürgen tells GoSee: “The dream of every chef. Being able to apply all those trained skills and experiences in one’s own restaurant in a creative way. I opened 4Experiment Gastraum with two other chefs on Karolinenstrasse.
It was our philosophy to only work with chefs and to rotate between service and the kitchen. The kitchen was built up on freshness, originality and products. We only sourced our meat from small farms and their own slaughterhouses and hunters in the forest. We only bought entire animals and let them age in a special cold room.
We practised dry aging in his 4Experiment in Hamburg before anyone else was familiar with in it Germany. It was really important to work with the entire animal, primarily because of financial, but also ethical reasons. In addition to this it is a great pleasure for real cooks to create wonderful recipes from the so-called unpopular parts of an animal. It requires great understanding of the animal and absolute precision when it comes to the preparation. The reward is in the great flavour.”
He simultaneously continues to work as a successful freelance food stylist and develops editorials and advertising for photo and film shoots. Here is a quick-fire round with GoSee:
What tool should a food stylist always carry with them?
A sharp knife, high quality brushes and a good idea.
In terms of liquids and beer heads – what are your greatest challenges in food styling?
To always have the right solution up my sleeve at all times.
We heard that an ice shoot is the crowning glory for all food stylists? Is that true and how do you go about it?
I don’t do ice. There are great specialists for it. And that is a good thing …
How do you get those burgers to look so great, when in reality they often don’t end up looking anything near as yummy?
Freshness is the secret.
Care to share any food styling secrets?
No, because then they wouldn’t be tricks anymore.
As a food creator would you reveal some simple tips to our readers for creating their own cooking magic at home?
Buy fresh ingredients and do what you can.
GoSee serves up the latest artwork by Jürgen ZIMMERSTAEDT and you can help yourself to seconds with BIGOUDI.
