Munich — If you want to sell, you have to be creative. Why would a customer choose hay milk from the supermarket shelf? Or do you skip the Italian olive oil and try the Spanish one? To achieve exactly that, the European Union has financially supported the Olive Oil from Spain initiative.
Part of the campaign includes press and influencer appointments with olive oil tastings and show cooking. In Munich, the initiative won chef Dominik Käppeler (showroom, one Michelin star) to complete its three-year global advertising tour. He came up with many ideas on this subject. And he openly admits: “I had little knowledge of olive oil before. In my kitchen it was always the supporting role, never the main character.”
But he took up the challenge and actually managed to prepare a three-course menu, with one type of olive oil accompanying each course. The spicy, hot Cornicabra oil underlines a yellowtail mackerel (hamachi) or, for dessert, the tomato picual oil underlines almonds, kumquats and sage.
Olive can do that: smells like tomato or unripe banana
How different the individual oils taste was demonstrated to the invited press representatives through an extensive olive oil tasting. It is interesting to discover olive oil with your nose and palate. This way you experience with all your senses that olive oil can actually smell and taste like a tomato or an unripe banana.
Which makes Dominik Käppeler’s implementation in his perfectly seasoned dishes all the more impressive. And even drinks can be refined with olive oil. The bartender Susan Ann MacKenzie from Munich was hired especially for this purpose. For example, she purified gin with olive oil and turned it into a yuzu cocktail. The AZ especially enjoyed the non-alcoholic cocktail with fermented strawberries and rhubarb. Thanks to the olive oil, it didn’t taste watery or too sour, but full and round. There are brochures and pamphlets. But no copywriter can create such an experience. This requires creative people and not flowery words.
Feeding hay milk is an agricultural world heritage site
ARGE Heumilch also sees much room for improvement in terms of the awareness of its products. Feeding dairy cows with hay year-round was recently officially declared an agricultural world cultural heritage. Also supported by the EU, the cross-border association is now on a promotional tour. The reason is clear to director Christiane Mösl: “Feeding cows with hay is species-specific and close to nature. Yet only three percent of all milk in Europe comes from pure hay feeding.”
Star chef Sigi Schelling (Werneckhof, one Michelin star) grew up on a hay milk farm that her family still runs. The subject is also close to her heart. That is why she was happy with ARGE Heumilch’s request to support her in her mission. She says: “I only cook with high-quality ingredients. That’s why I really enjoyed using the hay-milk cheese specialties in this menu, which reflect the high quality.” The chef even agreed that farmer Karl Neuhofer brought a complete haystack to the press event and piled it in the middle of her noble Werneckhof.
Farmer Karl Neuhofer: “For a while we thought we had missed progress”
But Neuhofer is a passionate farmer and wants to make his mission tangible for all the senses. His family has always stuck to hay milk. “Cows are real gourmets. Feeding hay used to be the most normal thing in the world. For a while we thought we had missed progress,” says Neuhofer. It turned out that hay milk is particularly suitable for cheese production compared to milk from silo feed.
© ARGE Heumilch/ Volker Debus
by ARGE Heumilch/Volker Debus
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And because people are also gourmets just like cows, Sigi Schelling did everything she could to cook a six-course meal for her guests. The special thing: a special hay milk cheese or a hay milk product was used in each of the fine courses. For example, the langoustine with green asparagus was underlined with camembert cream and the lamb saddle was served with a crispy cheese bagel. It sounds simple, but in both cases it is a taste highlight that lasts long and is actually inspiring.
The dessert with hay milk products from Sigi Schelling alone will make you happy
Schelling served a fine dumpling with spinach and rock salt cheese in an ox essence. And the group of select connoisseurs, and especially the AZ, will remember their cream cheese bags with Langenegger village cheese and sage nut butter for a long time.
© ARGE Heumilch/ Volker Debus
by ARGE Heumilch/Volker Debus
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The dessert alone of strawberries, haymilk yoghurt ice cream with lightly gelled elderflower soup and buttermilk and a cottage cheese soufflé would have made many people happy. With the smell of hay in your nose it was a wonderful hay milking experience.
When it comes to taste, nothing beats honest, regional products.