A Slice of History: Dieter Sacher’s Path from Vienna’s Iconic Hotel to Australian Shores

I met Dieter & Christa some time ago when they were living in a retirement village; I had understood them to be of Dutch descent. One day, Christa told me that Dieter had always been interested in my cooking skills because he once was Chef de Partie when they lived in Vienna. I later discovered that both were born in Vienna and that Dieter once worked in the famous Hotel Sacher. 

The story unfolds on Dieter’s eighth birthday; his parents had organised a trip to the hotel Sacher for afternoon tea, which involved a large slice of the magical Sacher Torte chocolate cake. Dieter was mesmerised by the opulent decor and ambience of the hotel, so much so that it had imprinted on his brain, and from that moment on, his quest was to one day work in the hotel. When Dieter saw the sumptuous chocolate cake before him, he knew he would one day bake a cake just as good.

At sixteen, he obtained an apprenticeship to become a chef de partie in the Hotel Sacher, Vienna. His heart was pounding with excitement and appreciation as he worked hard, listening and learning the skills from older chiefs. Within two years he had become a fully-fledged Chef de Partie in his own right.

The story behind the Hotel Sacher started in 1832 when sixteen-year-old apprentice Eduard Sacher created a chocolate cake for Prince Metternich. This sachertorte and its closely guarded secret recipe has become the signature cake of the Hotel Sacher, capturing a worldwide reputation.

Dieter spent seven happy years working in the kitchen of the Hotel Sacher with the greatest of pride before meeting Christa, falling madly in love and moving to Amsterdam to be near Christa’s sister and to start a new life together. Vienna and the Hotel Sacher were always in his heart, knowing that it was the place that had inspired him to become one of Europe’s most successful chefs of the time.

Eventually, as the couple aged and Dieter retired from his lifetime work as the master chef at the Grand Hotel in Amsterdam, they felt they needed support, so they decided to move to Australia to be closer to their eldest daughter, Anya, who lived in Kiama, New South Wales.

When talking to Dieter about chocolate cake, he tells me there is only one distinctive cake, the Sachertorte, with its delicious dark chocolate and apricot filling, not forgetting to be served with whipped cream. Dieter’s eyes glowed, and his smile beamed across his face when reminiscing about his life in Vienna. He reminded me of the benefits of dark chocolate, which is good for you, informing me that it releases dopamine in the brain and gives you a feel-good factor, chuckling to himself and saying only in moderation. 

As for the secret recipe, Dieter whispers to me that he knows what it is, although he would never reveal the secret, not even to Christa.

Describing the distinctive flavour, texture and appearance of the Sachertorte could never be replicated and shall remain one of life’s mysteries. The precise measuring of the ingredients, the oven temperature, and the consistency of the chocolate are all essential factors that contribute to achieving the perfect end product. 

Dieter had been diagnosed with a form of dementia earlier in the year; Christa knows he has always been passionate about the past and their life in Vienna and his beloved role of chef de partie at the Hotel Sacher, happiest when he is talking about how it all came about.

Keeping his nostalgic memories of Vienna alive helps her to maintain Dieter’s daily well-being and is her coping mechanism.

I told them I would create a version of Sachertorte and bring it to them the next time I visited, knowing full well that the original recipe could never be the same as the original recipe. But then again, as Oscar Wild once said, “Imitation is known to be the sincerest form of flattery”! They both laughed, and I promised to return.