Story by whole foods pioneer Marc Gallus:
Many families are familiar with the situation: the daughter or son leaves the house and the grain mill they grew up with goes with them. That’s how it was for me, and after a period of “being on my own” I realized that baking without a grain mill is no fun.
So, after more than 30 years, I got in touch with the Salzburg mill builders and told you about my life and experiences with the MT 18 mill.
At your request to publish this story, I am now happy to tell anyone interested how I became a gourmet wholefood cook and baker with a passion and how my life began with the grain mill MT 18.
Yes, it’s been a long time and because of our conversation I dug out a yellowed folder in which there must be around 100 articles about me, as a pioneer of the wholefood movement in the Swiss gastronomy scene.
It was an unplanned trip into the pastand many feelings accompanied the memories. It was an exciting time back then, a real awakening, a new awareness of nutrition.
A successful time began for me.
I wasn’t even aware of the huge media coverage I had. I was regularly on the radio to read the women (yes, back then it was mostly women) a recipe for lunch.
You notice, I have suddenly (at your unintended! suggestion) dived into my past and am now trying to return.
Especially since my time at TANTRIS (note – awarded noble restaurant in Munich with Michelin stars), I have adopted a logic in the “refinement” of food. For me that means: every step, every ingredient must serve to improve a product / dish. I have always stayed true to the high culinary school.
Little by little, I made trials with wholefood products, as the few alternative places that offered the appropriate dishes could seldom convince me.
I have set myself the task that I must succeed in combining healthy with pleasure. And it became clear to me that packaged flour is always in contact with oxygen for a long time. I dealt intensively with this topic, and it quickly became clear to me: If you want to process healthy, fresh flour, flour must only come into contact with oxygen as briefly as possible – so the flour must be processed as quickly as possible. And for that you need a GRAIN MILL.
With luck I came across your technically flawless, efficiently working and in addition shapely product: The
Salzburg Grain Mill MT 18
stumbled upon.
This has accompanied me for many years during my professional work. The MT18 was always with me, even when I was invited to 5 * luxury restaurants and hotels as a guest chef to carry out “Culinary Wholefood Weeks“.
The robust mill has never let me down and has always survived the transports very well.
Quite a few of my course participants, organized by the Swiss Cooking Association, then enthusiastically ordered a Salzburg grain mill for their restaurant / hotel kitchen. And I believe many of these mills are still in use today.
Seen in this way, I was the initiator of a movement in Switzerland that had previously been quietly ridiculed by many top chefs.
Only now, looking back, do I understand that I have achieved a lot for this development, not as a strenuous task, no, out of joy and conviction.
The beginning of my cooking career was followed by 16 years in various functions in the kitchen, including as head chef, in recipe development, and 4 years as head of our cooking school. In countless courses for hobby cooks from Switzerland and neighboring countries, organized by “eat and drink” among others, I have passed on the advantages and importance of enjoyable wholefood cuisine.
But not only the housewife next door, no also cooks and well-known chefs found their way to my coveted courses.
The mill MT 18, which stood by my side for all these years (without having had a single short break in the service workshop) as one of my most important kitchen appliances, retired with me, in my private kitchen.
Of course, from this point on it is no longer used as intensively as it was in the professional environment. I loaned it to my daughter a month ago. Since then she has been sending me pictures almost every day of her baked goods, which she makes with the freshly ground grain. She soon got ahead of me with her baking skills and the mill enriched her life – baking became her hobby.
So I gave her the mill from the bottom of my heart and ordered the smaller MT12 mill from you, with which I will soon be grinding my fresh flour for bread and other bakeries.
I am glad that there are idealistic people like the Salzburg mill builders who still manufacture such valuable, “priceless” products today.
What I must add is that the mill has not needed repair service once, during its long service life.
The artificial corundum ceramic grinding stones were already on the market 30 years ago. I deliberately chose granite millstones at the time and have not regretted it to this day. These granite stones are still ground as fine as they were on the first day, without ever being sharpened. And the excellent baking properties of the natural stone ground flour always inspire me.
If that weren’t the case, my path as a wholemeal flour pioneer would have come to an end after a short time – because as I said – it must not only be healthy, it must also taste!
Some pictures from my pioneering days make me think of the pioneering days and the beginning of my friendship with MT 18 from Salzburg with joy, a little nostalgic feelings and a little sadness.
Marc Gallus, Switzerland
