We are Christian and Christina, a pastry chef and a multipotentialite, sounds cheesy and is cheesy. But no need to worry, we promise this wonˋt be a couples travel blog with romantic pictures of holding hands and watching the sunset. Definitely, there would be nothing bad about that, but we are in search of sweet joy in a different way. Within the upcoming months we will travel the world, find the best desserts and share the taste and stories with you, besides everything else we would like to get off our chests.
We want to taste the world!
WHO ARE WE?
Christian is a „Kärtner Bua“, which is Austrian German for a man who comes from Corinthia, who grew up on the countryside of Austria and always enjoyed baking with his grandma Erika. Christina is a so–called woman from the city and grew up in Vienna. She always had a weakness for sweets.
We first met on a train platform in Switzerland on our way to a new job, not knowing we would be working for the same company. It was not love at first sight but probably at first bite when Christina had a taste of Christian‘s pralines…not as dirty as you might think.
THE YOUNG PASTRY CHEF
Christian´s professional career started when he was ten years old, home alone, craving for chocolate and nothing there to satisfy his hunger. His parents were just next door at their neighbours. But instead of waiting for his mother to come back home and bake the family´s traditional chocolate cake, he decided to solve the problem by himself. He took the book of traditional recipes out of the shelf, scanned the pages for the most attractive cake and started to prepare his very first chocolate cake. What follows is a long list of career milestones with only one goal: to become the best pastry chef in the world.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Christian began his culinary journey as a chef and pastry chef in a wellness region of Austria. During his education he participated in numerous cooking competitions and was awarded three gold and three silver medals.
After his apprenticeship Christian continued his career as a pastry chef at the 5* Resort the Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Pearl in Doha, famous for its internationally celebrated Café Murano, one of the best pastry shops in the Middle East.
Back in Europe, with only 23 years old, Christian became one of the youngest executive pastry chefs in a 5* hotel in the German speaking market. Most recently Christian could prove his skills and passion at the 3 Michelin star restaurant Überfahrt by Christian Jürgens.
THIS SOUNDS GREAT, BUT HOW DOES ONE BECOME THE BEST PASTRY CHEF IN THE WORLD?
Indeed, working in one of the best hotels and restaurants of the world was perfect to fine tune his skills, build a network and experience the challenging life as a chef. But Christian believes that to become the best worldwide, he has to experience the real taste of the world.
AND CHRISTINA?
She got the brains and he got the skills. This is how the idea about THE SWEET BUCKET LIST came up. They would travel together around the world in search for the culinary delights which each region has to offer and then write about their experience of taste, culture and landscape of the country.
So here we are, Christian and Christina, on our adventure: from crispy caramelised crickets to Pavlova – we are not afraid of challenging our taste buds and share our experience with you on THE SWEET BUCKET LIST.