Roland Trettl

The chef of Ikarus, in Hangar-7 at Austria's Salzburg Airport, knows how to juggle cuisines.

Ikarus serves the cuisine of a different guest chef each month. How difficult is it to get each one right? 'It's getting easier because the techniques are becoming more similar. We've done maybe 1,500 dishes in eight years, with chefs from everywhere - China, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, France, South America. But you have to be really organised. Each guest chef comes to Ikarus for two or three days at the start of the month and, by the time they leave, we have to be doing the food the way they want it. They can't stay for the entire month because they're so busy. We book the chefs far in advance - the programme for 2012 will be announced in November. I travel every month - about five to six months before the chef [is scheduled to come to Ikarus], I visit them for four to six days. I'm here in Hong Kong to see Alvin Leung [of Bo Innovation], who will be at Ikarus in September. I ate 16 dishes yesterday and I'll taste more tonight. While I'm here we'll fix the September menu, I'll go into the kitchen to see [how the dishes are made], I'll take pictures, write down recipes then I'll go back and teach my staff. In September, when Alvin comes, my team will already know what to do. He'll finalise the dishes while he's there, but the bases are done.'

How do you choose the guest chefs? 'I take the best chefs from all over. We've been open for eight years and in that time, you build up a huge network. I've had 90 chefs in that time, so the network is growing. I'll be talking with one chef and they'll mention another chef I should check out.'

Have there been any disasters? 'Until recently, nothing happened [to prevent a chef from coming]. But this year, Santi Santamaria [of the Michelin three-star Can Fabes in Spain] died in Singapore. I was lucky because I had invited Santi and his [business] partner, chef Xavier Pellicer. So now just Xavier is coming and we'll do an event with Santi's dishes.'

Is it ever difficult to get the ingredients a guest chef needs? 'It's impossible to get Japanese beef in Europe - it's forbidden. I don't know the reason - it's political, I think. But I know what can be imported into Austria and what can't, so if a chef wants to use Kobe beef, I tell him either to use beef from Australia or to make a dish using another meat. A chef from Peru wanted to cook guinea pig, but in Europe they are children's pets. I like [to eat] guinea pig, but I told him to keep it in Peru.'

What do you think of molecular cuisine? 'It's done - too many chefs are doing it. For me, molecular is good if the taste is good - like Alvin's [spherical] xiao long bao. It tastes like xiao long bao, even if it doesn't look like it. But the problem is some chefs don't know the basics, the roots. If you know the basics of cooking, you can do other things. But it's completely wrong if you start with molecular and yet you don't know how to braise a beef shoulder.'