Werner Matt & Vienna Hilton

Werner Matt was raised in Kematen, Tyrol, Austria.  His cousin, who worked as a chef on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, would send him postcards from around the world, and young Matt was fascinated by that life, and you would get paid for it as well!  So he started to serve his apprenticeship at Seefeld’s Tiroler Weinstuben.  During that time, he collected leaflets of luxury hotels in Switzerland that were gastronomic showpieces and when the time was right, he sent his application to 30 of them.  He received a reply from the Grand Hotel Vereina at Klosters, where he had his first job as a young cook in 1962.  He then moved on from the German part of Switzerland to the French part and then to the Italian part of that country, with the better the hotel, the lower was his salary. After Switzerland, he apprenticed at La Caravelle in Evian Le Bain in France to learn fish and the French language.

After military service in 1968, Great Chef Karl Hormann from his home town, asked him to work for him at the Istanbul Hilton.  Thus his relationship with the Hilton Hotels began, from there to London, Montreal, Munich and ultimately Vienna in 1975.  In 1979, Chef Matt, along with Great Chefs Rudi Kellner & Heinz Reitbauer, introduced the “Neue Wiener Kuche” at the Vienna Hilton.

In 1986 he turned over the wooden spoon as executive chef to Eduard Mitsche and eventually Kurt Gutenbrunner, while Chef Werner Mattt went on to become Director of Gastronomy, overseeing the Imperial Hotel, Europa in Innsbruck, the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg, and the Bristol in Vienna.  After those properties were sold, he returned to the Hilton Family to open the new Vienna Plaza.

In 1998, the Great Chefs television team caught up with Chef Werner Matt to tape him at the Vienna Hilton for their ORF series, Great Chefs of Austria.