Chef Chakall and his shiny Turban

Chef Chakall

A shiny turban and a good helping of dry humour are his trademarks. His vision is piercing and a tiny bit unhinged. And yet, he captures the imagination of a crowd of about 100 at the Gourmet Gallery in Hall 5.0. The Argentinean Chef Chakall and his able assistant Chef Dario, enchanted their audience by preparing a sublime three course meal (which those present helped prepare).

While he’s creating fresh Tuna fillets, Chakall says that he must have music playing when cooking. “Louder,” he promptly hollers out to the sound technician. A rousing rhythm echoes through the hall and Chakall and Dario do a spontaneous jig. Meanwhile, a fabulous ‘Pear and Polenta’ cake is baking in the oven. The third course is a finely flavoured ‘Sea Bream in Vanilla Curry’.

This is the second time that Chakall has made an appearance in the Gourmet Gallery, and he proves once more that he’s not only a supremely gifted cook but also a talented showman. In between he chats with Anrietta Pogany, whose Eintagsküche sponsored the show-kitchen. “Every cook brings his own knife and his own salt,” Anrietta says. The ingredients for his dishes, however, were bought in Frankfurt. “Chef Wan and Chef Chakall were initially a little worried about whether they would be able to get the ingredients they needed here. But as soon as we entered the Kleinmarkthalle their eyes lit up and they found everything they could possibly need. This came as a big relief to Chef Wan, whose spice bag was lost on the flight to Germany.”

Cooking shows and discussions about nutrition and fine-food drew interested audience all week at the newly introduced Gourmet Gallery. The most popular event was a book release by celebrity chefs Horst Lichter and Sarah Wiener, who drew a crowd of over 200 people. Naturally, Chinese food was a top theme at the Gourmet Gallery, with Author Yu Zhang providing fascinating insights into the South-Chinese kitchen while presenting her book ‘Buddha Sprang over the Wall’.