It's a gloomy December afternoon, gray in gray. I make my way to my appointment in Vienna with somewhat mixed feelings. All these comments are really getting to me. Do the snails really squirt when you bite them?
Andreas Gugumuck is Austria's only full-time snail farmer. He invites me to the second floor of his house to answer a few questions. We chat between empty snail shells and books on cooking with snails.
From IT to the snail
Gugumuck has chosen an unusual career path. After studying business informatics and spending a decade in the IT industry, a simple newspaper article sparked his interest in snails. In 2007, he stumbled across an article on how to prepare the delicacy. He was fascinated by the explanations of award-winning chef Christian Petz. "Through my own research, I found out that Vienna used to be the world's snail capital. Then the French acquired a taste for them and Paris became the new capital of the escargot." There, eating snails is part of everyday life and the little creatures are a permanent fixture on menus.
"Immediately after reading the article, I toyed with the idea of starting a snail farm. I got down to business in 2008 and started with 20,000 mother snails as a sideline." For the basics, he looked to farms in Italy and France. From then on, things went slowly but steadily upwards. The first orders from award-winning chefs came in and the side business then became a full-time job in 2010.
Gugumuck is very ambitious
In 2013, he launched an unusual marketing campaign: he put on a snail festival. However, the event did not take place on his farm. No, he worked together with award-winning chefs. For a week, the vineyard snail was the star of their menus. Gugumuck had grown tired of constantly hearing "Unfortunately, I don't have any guests who order snails", even after they had praised him for the quality and taste of his product. The week-long festival was intended to arouse the guests' curiosity and lower their inhibitions.
The entrepreneur pursued the same goal at events such as the Genussfestival. "We wrapped the snails in bacon and grilled them. In the end, we could have wrapped them in dates, but it wouldn't have mattered," he smiles. So even somewhat prejudiced guests tried snails for the first time. It reminds me a little of a dog being given a tablet in a piece of meatloaf. But the strategy was successful.
Things were looking up - slowly
Interest in the snails increased after all the advertising. The animals imported from France were nurtured, cared for and slaughtered (yes, even snails are called that), in short: business flourished. The idea of offering a multi-course snail menu also contributed to this. "Back then it was five courses. I remember being a bit skeptical: Who on earth eats five courses of snails?" A lot of people, as it turned out. Gugumuck was always fully booked.
Then came Covid. The breeder rattled through all the government funding pots and lost one customer after another. But instead of sinking into despair, he rolled up his sleeves and opened his own establishment. His own garden bar was a huge success. By 2020, it was one of the best farm-to-table restaurants in Vienna. In addition to snails, the restaurant also served home-grown organic vegetables. With 3,000 square meters of cultivation area, you can do a lot. After guests had dishes such as snails and chips on their plates, they had the opportunity to purchase a "vegetable bag". This way, they could take the "harvest of the week" home with them - guaranteed snail-free. Fresh and sustainable.
Harvest time
His vineyard snails are fed only the best organic food. Swiss chard, rapeseed, mustard, clover and even carrots and other seasonal vegetables are on the menu. Happy snails all round - until the harvest season. "We have a summer harvest that starts in July and the second stage begins in October/November." The animals that are already sexually mature are collected. "You can tell by the developed edge and their house then becomes hard. While they are still growing, the snail shell is soft as butter." The teenage animals spend the winter in the cellar and then come out again the following year in April.
After collection, they are "vented" for a week. During this time, they excrete everything "that doesn't pay rent" and then fall into a deep sleep. They are then placed in boiling water and die painlessly within seconds. After further processing, they end up on the plate as "snails au gratin with a Parmesan and rosemary butter", for example. Gugumuck's favorite recipe.
The man, who only ate Escargot for the first time when he was thirty, also has desserts on the menu. Fancy Malakoff ice cream with snails or a delicious Kaiserschmarrn? Completely without raisins, but with the little molluscs instead. "There's hardly a food that can be prepared in more ways than snails," he says with a certain pride in his voice.
Addendum:
By the way, after the interview I actually tried the vineyard snails. I can reassure everyone: They don't splatter at all! The taste and consistency are a little reminiscent of sautéed mushrooms.
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Sources:
Interview with Andreas Gugumuck
Copyright for photos: Ingrid Müller
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