A gloomy December afternoon—everything is gray on gray. With somewhat mixed feelings, I set off for my appointment in Vienna. All those comments are really starting to get to me. Do snails really squirt when you bite into them?
Andreas Gugumuck is Austria's only full-time snail farmer. He invites me up to the first floor of his house to answer a few questions for me. We chat amid empty vineyard snail shells and cookbooks 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 upon an article about how to prepare this delicacy. The insights shared by Michelin-starred chef Christian Petz fascinated him. “Through my own research, I discovered 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 escargot.” There, eating snails is an everyday occurrence, and these little creatures are a staple on restaurant menus.
“Right after reading the article, I started thinking about starting a snail farm. I took the plunge in 2008 and began as a side business with 20,000 breeding snails.” To learn the basics, he looked to farms in Italy and France for guidance. From there , things moved slowly but steadily upward. The first orders from Michelin-starred chefs started coming in, and in 2010, the side business became his full-time occupation.
Gugumuck is very ambitious
In 2013, he launched an unusual marketing campaign: he organized a snail festival. However, the event didn’t take place on his farm. No, he collaborated with Michelin-starred chefs for it. For one week, the vineyard snail was the star on their menus. Gugumuck had grown tired of constantly hearing, “I’m afraid none of my guests order snails”—especially after they had first praised him for the quality and taste of his product. The week-long festival was intended to pique guests’ curiosity and lower their inhibitions.
The entrepreneur pursued the same goal at events such as the Food Festival. “We wrapped the snails in bacon and grilled them. In the end, we could just as easily have wrapped dates—it wouldn’t have made any difference,” he says with a smile. That’s how even some initially skeptical guests tried snails for the first time. It reminds me a little of slipping a pill into a dog’s food by hiding it in a piece of Leberkäse. But the strategy worked.
Things were looking up—slowly
Interest in snails surged after all those advertising campaigns. The snails, imported from France, were nurtured, cared for, and slaughtered (yes, that’s the term even for snails). In short: business was booming. The idea of offering a multi-course snail menu also contributed to this. “Back then, it was a five-course meal. 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 farmer scoured every government-provided funding program, losing one customer after another. But instead of sinking into despair, he rolled up his sleeves and opened his own establishment. His garden bar was a huge hit. In 2020, the restaurant was one of the best farm-to-table restaurants in Vienna. In addition to snails, he also used organic vegetables he grew himself. With 3,000 square meters of farmland, there’s plenty you can do. After guests had enjoyed dishes like “Snails & Chips,” they had the opportunity to purchase a“vegetable bag.”That way, they could take home the “harvest of the week”—guaranteed snail-free. Fresh and sustainable.
Harvest Season
His vineyard snails are fed only the best organic food. Swiss chard, rapeseed, mustard, clover—even carrots and other seasonal vegetables—are on the menu. All-around happy snails—until harvest season. “We have a summer harvest that starts in July, and the second phase begins in October or November.” Only the snails that have already reached sexual maturity are collected. “You can tell by the developed rim, and their shells then become hard. While they’re still growing, the snail shells are as soft as butter.” The teenage snails spend the winter in the basement and come back out the following April.
After being collected, they are “air-dried” for a week. During this time, they expel everything “that doesn’t pay rent” and then fall into a deep sleep. While in this state of desiccation, they are placed in boiling water and die painlessly within seconds. After further processing, they end up on the plate as, for example, “Snails au Gratin with Parmesan-Rosemary Butter.” Gugumuck’s favorite recipe.
The man, who didn’t try escargot for the first time until he was thirty, also has desserts on the menu. Fancy some Malakoff ice cream with snails or a delicious Kaiserschmarrn? Completely raisin-free, but with these little mollusks instead. “There’s hardly any food that can be prepared in more varied ways than the snail,” 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 squirt at all! The taste and texture are somewhat reminiscent of sautéed mushrooms.
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Sources:
A Conversation with Andreas Gugumuck
Photo copyright: Ingrid Müller
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