I heard this on the radio today, and I thought it was an amazing story.

We have a popular TV cook, Alfons Schubeck, in Muenich. He owns several top restaurants in a great location near the Hofbrauhaus.

Anyhow, a while back, he had a group of unusual guests that literally stumbled dirty and sweaty into his fancy dining room every evening, for a week. It was a group of American cyclists, who after cycling around 120 miles, concluded their day in his restaurant to spoil themselves with his mouth watering meals. They were so impressed, that they jokingly invited him to fly over to the States and cook for them.

Half a year went by, and Schubeck got a call and invitation to cook for a week for their yearly bike excursion. They flew him to Aspen Colorado. There he was picked up by helicopter to one of their mountain peaks. He ‘camped’ out alone in a rustic log cabin, with a fireplace big enough to burn an entire tree trunk. Food for his 25 guests was brought in by helicopter including 3 pretty ladies to help him cook. Every evening 25 cyclists pumped their way up the mountain, dined on a 5 course gourmet dinner, and then sped down the mountain pass, in the gleam of their bike lights.

I dined at his restaurant with my friend Karin, when she visited me a couple of months ago. It was good, but not THAAAT good. Chatty, you should probably cook for these guys. And Orchid and Madelane, if this is the life of a cyclist; well then I’m game.

Here’s a link to Schubeck’s website; http://www.schuhbeck.de/

I would love to cook something special for them, sounds like a lot of fun and I am a cyclist too, the founder of Pedal Pushers.

Those cyclists are wealthy elite to fly in the German chef to Colorado!

Edelweiss, my partner looked at the chef's website. He couldn't see where there was a sample restaurant menu to see the type of Germany cuisine he prepared. Is Orlando the name of branch restaurant located in Germany somewhere? If it is, it's like us calling a restaurant here in Vancouver, "Hollywood". LOL.

Who is considered a real innovative German style chef in Germany these days? When my partner visited his cousin's restaurant-inn in the Black Forest region, a few years ago, he actually found the restaurant's cooking good, but not particularily innovative. I believe the restaurant caters to an older, 'spa', primarily German clientele. The prices aren't cheap, even by German standards.

My response to him: If a German chef is trained solely in German cuisine, has not worked outside of Germany and s/he has not grown up with knowledge of preparing other cuisines, then the cuisine has less chance of transcending traditional German cuisine to create something new/innovative yet different exciting in taste.

HIs cousin does not have much fluency in speaking nor reading English, hence would that not already limit his exposure to recipes from other ethnic cuisines? Or do German language cookbooks include alot of other ethnic cuisines?

I agree, a gourmet cook shouldn't limit himself to one type of cooking; Although, there are excellent Chinese and Italian restaurants here too. I wonder what he cooked for those cyclists. They only wanted German cuisine. Hmmm, Orchid, I have no idea why the restaurant is called Orlando.

I once watched a cooking contest on TV. The contestants, ranging from a French chef cook to a sidewalk hotdog vendor, had to each serve a 3 course meal. The judges never met the cooks. Guess who won?

Drum roll, please.

Yup the good old hotdog vendor. lol