Johannes Schadler is an Austrian Chef, living and working in Sydney and once a year he takes a holiday… to cook at the Crocodile Trophy. This man has had training in one of the top restaurants in Austria and he says he enjoys the challenges of cooking in the Outback with a multi-lingual and multi-cultural crew.
We had a chat to him on the eve of Stage 2 in Herberton, just as everything had been washed up and he was enjoying a ‘nice cuppa’ with the crew.
CROC: Johannes, what was on the menu today?
Well, today we cooked chicken (“Hendl” in his Austrian mother tongue) and all up we prepared 30kg chicken meat. We served it with polenta – this was prepared using 4kg corn meal with 40 litres of liquids including milk, vegetable stock… we go through a looot of food each day at the Croc!
CROC: What are the cooking plans for breakfast tomorrow?
We’ll have scrambled eggs – we cook up 180 eggs per day. We’ll prepare a massive amount of toast and bread, muesli and yoghurt, at least two pigs worth of bacon, ham and salami – the lot, so to say.
CROC: Give us some more statistics
Ok, here we go, each day we cook and eat:
- about 15 kg bread
- 180 eggs, as I said
- 20 L of milk
- 30-40 kg of meat like chicken or beef…
- tomorrow we’ll make rissoles with 15 kg of minced meat and we add bread soaked in milk of course and herbs & spices and more eggs
- for our Aussie BBQ Dinner will cook up 300 sausages
- as side dishes we serve rice, polenta and pasta of course – if we cook pasta, we go through at least 20kg of dry pasta each time…
CROC: Tell us about your crew this year.
This year we have helpers from Switzerland, Austria, Thailand, China, Chile…
CROC: Are any communication difficulties?
No, we agreed on English as the main language in the kitchen and we get to chat a lot while preparing the food.
CROC: Thanks, for the great work you do, we really enjoy the food!
Thanks so much, I love hearing that!
Johannes (right) in his element in the Outback. Photo: Regina Stanger
180 eggs are scrambled every day at the Croc. Photo: Igor Schifris
