If Gregory Magnusson is any indicator, you don’t need to travel to Germany—or even drink—to work at a German restaurant. The head chef for Tyrolean Inn in Ben Lomond grew up in San Francisco and has worked at the Tyrolean since 1987.
How many times have you been to Germany?
Myself? Never. Probably because I’ve been working.
What’s your favorite dish?
Oh lordy, it’s hard to say. Our signature piece is the schweinshaxe. That’s a crispy pork shank. It takes about six, seven hours to cook, but it’s basically tender, fall-off-the-bone with the crispy shell of the skin on the outside. The sauerbraten is an excellent dish. Of course, all the schnitzel. We make the Bavarian-style jaeger schnitzel with a creamy mushroom sauce, where you have the combination of mushroom and pork.
How do you make the schweinshaxe?
We season it with some caraway, a little pepper, a dash of garlic, paprika with some stock, onions celery and carrots. And we turn up the heat and put it in the oven covered for about six hours. Around the fourth hour we uncover it, so it cooks off to a nice crisp shell, almost like a crackling skin. And the meat is tender enough you could almost eat it with a spoon. Very flavorful. We had a vegetarian working here, and she tried it just to see what it was like. We got her back on meat!
What are some tips for learning to cook German food?
The German and East Europeans like their vinegars—there’s a lot of sweet and sour like the red cabbage, the sauerkraut, sauerbraten. That’s beef that has vinegar and a little bit of sugar in it. The most important thing in any style of cooking is don’t overcook. If you want a simple basic dish, you just get your plain breadcrumbs, a little flour, egg a nice hot grill and you can get yourself a nice schnitzel. A little lemon with it goes good.
What’s your favorite meat?
Pfeffersteak, coated with fresh peppercorns. Sautee up some onions, throw some bacon, a little red wine, a little demi-glace in there, and put that over the top.
