Inside the Mind of Elmar Prambs

I’m delighted that we began our Podcasts this year. It’s given our readers a chance to get a more in-depth look at interesting people in the Austin restaurant community. And I’ve learned a lot as well.

Consider this week’s Podcast with Elmar Prambs, the Executive Chef of Trio at the Four Seasons Hotel. With 37 years of experience under his belt, he’s reached the stage where most execs would settle comfortably back and work on menu designs, cookbooks, and PR.

But if you happened to wander into the kitchen at Trio on a busy night, you would find the German-born Prambs at the head of the line, still doing what he loves best: cooking.

Surprising? Perhaps. But not once you get to see the way this guy’s mind works. He is pragmatic enough to understand that above all else, he runs a business. That business benefits when the guy who designed it is visibly active. And so it simply never occurred to the gray-haired chef that there was an option to kick back and savor the fruits of his many years of labor.

He is without pretense, and that’s very refreshing. He not only is open to feedback and criticism, but he goes out of his way to obtain it. He once invited several food writers over to the kitchen and served us new dishes he was thinking about putting on the menu. He really cared about what we thought. So when I suggested a Wasabi cream sauce for a particular dish, he listened, asked me a couple of questions, and then to my wondering eyes, when I next dined there the cream sauce was on his new dish. Think that Tom, Emeril or Mario would go to such lengths to validate an idea? Doubtful.

And that’s what I love about Elmar. Not only is he extremely talented, but he knows enough to know that the ultimate arbiters of his restaurant are the daily patrons, and not local critics or some pompous twit like Gordon Ramsey. His tasting invitation was not to please us, but rather to use us as sounding boards for what the customers might enjoy.

And that’s why we do our Podcasts. Things about about Elmar Prambs you might not have known complete the intriguing profile of a guy who still brings it every night!