Gert Rausch of Gert Cooks! – Granada, Nicaragua

Gert Rausch was born in Stuttgart, Germany and was taught the classic traditional cooking techniques of the region.  He then went on to apprentice, and work his way up the food chain to executive chef.  Chef Rausch worked in institutions like Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Münich; Hotel George V in Paris; Gstaad Palace in Gstaad, Switzerland; Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montréal, and finally ending up at the Lake Way Resort Inn in Austin, Texas in 1973.

Chef Gert Rausch is what is known as a chef / entrepreneur / mentor.  He opened his restaurant, Austin’s Courtyard, in 1979.  When Great Chefs first contacted Chef Gert, we also wanted to tape Chef Horst Pfeiffer, his sous chef, but by the time we got there, Horst had returned to Germany and Bernd Voll took his place.  We did tape Chef Pfeiffer later in New Orleans.

In the mid 1980’s Chef Gert and his sous chef, Jeff Blank, opened the Wineskin Restaurant in Colorado. Five years later they closed it and decided to open Hudson’s on the Bend in Austin, on Lake Travis, with Chef Blank as the executive chef.  Great Chefs finally got to Austin and taped Chef Gert Rausch at the Courtyard for their Great Chefs of the West series in 1986. In the mid 2000’s he moved back east and opened the Aqua Grille in Provincetown, MA, and now concentrates his time teaching cooking classes and running his website.