At only 31 years old, Stefan Doubek has a career as long as his black beard, which he somehow manages not to scorch in the striking open kitchen of his new restaurant, where he only cooks with a wood-fueled fire. This week that restaurant was awarded with two Michelin stars, signaling a new era for the Viennese gastronomic landscape.
The passion started very early. Stefan remembers himself as a child asking for a toy kitchen. Then that boy went on to become Austria’s youngest Global Master Chef, at just 18, worked in prestigious Vienna-restaurants and made it to sous chef at the two-starred Konstantin Filippou, where he met Nora Pein, his life and restaurant partner. After helping to obtaining the second Michelin star and five Gault Millau toques for Konstantin Filippou, the couple thought it was time to leave and Stefan went abroad to polish his skills in great restaurants: the now three-starred Jordnær in Copenhagen as well as the now defunct Chambre Séparée in Brussels, among others.
Nora Pein, the other half of Doubek, moves with confidence and charm through the dark, warm and minimalist interior of the dining room – recently described by a known global diner as “Darth Vader’s cosy waiting room with Miles Davis playing trumpet in the corner”– anticipating the requests of her guests, being the best possible bridge between the flaming kitchen and the table. She also discovered at a very young age that she enjoyed entertaining guests who came to her family home, and trained in hospitality until she arrived at Konstantin Filipou, where in addition to stars and toques she conquered Stefan’s heart (and vice versa). 
When the covid-19 pandemic shook the world and stopped restaurants, Stefan returned to Austria and embarked on his penultimate project, the successful Umar Fisch Bar at the famous Naschmarkt. There, his name was finally brought back to the Viennese culinary scene, but he aspired to something else and subsequently left in 2022.
At that point the press started calling him to find out what he was up to. Stefan, a man of few words, didn’t know how to deal with the calls, so he simply decided to tell the press that he and Nora were going to open their own restaurant, something the couple had been fantasizing about since they fell in love but had never really put into practice. The next day, Nora and Stefan found their future written in the press and there was no turning back: the spark had ignited.
It’s hard to imagine that when Nora and Stefan first visited the two-story space that is now their restaurant, they found little more than a decrepit room of 300 square meters in the eighth district of Vienna. It’s also hard to imagine what made them decide on it so immediately, to the point of canceling all other prospective visits they had scheduled. Was it that it was located at 13 Kochgasse, the cook’s street? The fact is that about one year later, in late 2023, Stefan lit the first fire, Nora opened the doors and the couple’s dream finally became a reality.
A year after lighting the flame for the first time, things started to explode: first Stefan was listed amongst the top 10 chefs in Austria and Doubek received 17.5 points from Gault Millau, the highest entry of that year in Austria. Shortly after he received accolade from The Best Chef Awards and then… Two Michelin stars. An impressive progression at such a young age, to say the least.
Doubek’s 20-course menu has traces of Nordic, Japanese, French and, of course, Central European cuisine and is based mostly on the best quality fish and seafood. Only one meat dish, duck to be specific, five desserts and the petit fours escape the marine theme.
Stefan Doubek’s cuisine is tasty and complex, with a pristine presentation. On the plate, two or three elements – the main ingredient, the sauce, a discreet garnish – suggest a very elaborate simplicity that is manifested in four master dishes. Stefan insists they are his signature dishes.
For the carabinero with tamari, Stefan uses the whole crustacean. First he seals it over hot coals, then its legs are crisped and mixed with wild rice that has been roasted in salt. Accompanying it is an egg yolk cream, made from yolks cured for 6 months in tamari. The dish is finished with a sauce from the Carabinero heads, which are roasted over the fire and pressed in a duck press in front of the guests to create an intense sauce. The dish is an explosion of umami and iodine, an uppercut from the sea.
For the cod with peas, the fish is cured for an hour in purified seawater, then gently warmed for just a few seconds in fire-surrounded ovens at 400°C and served with a dashi beurre-blanc and peas that have been grilled over the fire. The peas explode in the mouth and the texture of the cod and the beurre blanc sauce create an exquisitely velvety texture.
Among the desserts, not too sweet, which is to be appreciated, the sticky rice balls filled with dark roasted black sesame, cooked in a muscovado sugar broth infused with ginger and lemongrass, transport you to Southeast Asia.
And finally, the choux pastry filled with cardamom mascarpone cream, topped with fresh meringue that has been caramelized over hot coals, with a magical and exotic scent of cardamom and caramelized meringue is pure seduction.
But let’s get back to the open-plan kitchen, where only wood-fires are used for cooking. It has been custom-built by a specialized craftsman, and it covers all the possible needs of the chef and his team. It’s curious that in these technological times, many chefs are looking back to the past, to the origins of cooking and even further back. From the diner’s point of view, live cooking is captivating and results in tasty dishes, but what made Stefan choose this source of cooking?
According to Stefan, he decided to cook exclusively with a wood fire because he loves that it is something ancestral, and at the same time it connects everyone and changes the taste of food for the better. Nora adds that above all, Stefan needs constant challenges to keep him interested and in a state of continuous improvement, and fire has something uncontrollable hat keeps Stefan hooked, to which he absolutely agrees.
So the fire is not really a retro-modern gesture, it’s not about showing off, but instead it’s Stefan challenging himself during each service by putting something controllable, however certainly not entirely predictable in his hands.
This is a bold gamble, a way of going through life that explains a lot. For example, that Stefan and Nora started out an hospitality career without any clear family support, that they took a chance on an abandoned building to set up the business of their lives, that they rowed against the tide in a non-fashionable street outside the centre of Vienna. They chose their own risky way.
Most chefs use fire to cook, but Stefan Doubek lit it to light a culinary path all of his own.
Doubek
Kochgasse 13, 1080 Wien, Austria
https://restaurantdoubek.at/en/
