After over forty years of a successful career in the Hospitality Industry in various management positions of the operational, administrative and development side of the industry in Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States, I caught up with now-retired Hans Turnovszky for lunch at a picturesque and traditional family-operated hotel and restaurant at the outskirts of the City of Salzburg where he enjoyed his retirement with wife Silke.
Meeting him for the first time, we had a very pleasant and relaxed conversation while enjoying the regional food specialties. Well, he has seen it all and met so many Royalties, Presidents, Actors, Singers, and other VIP’s that he hardly remembers them all. However, those who stood out and made an impact among others were the past US Presidents Jerry Ford and Ronald Reagan, the Sultan of Brunei, the Aga Khan, Dalai Lama, Harrison Ford and the famous US interviewer Larry King to name a few.
Usually, CV’s start with the last position held, however, let me start from his starting point as apprentice chef at the famous Hotel Sacher in Vienna, Austria where the world famous Sacher Cake was first concocted. By the way, German language is spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the latter even has four lingual parts (Italian, French and Rhaeto-Romanic) in addition. Their local jargon is very difficult to understand even for any German speaker.
BI: “I remember my peers at the time of my own cooking apprenticeship years who told me that the kitchen ovens at that time were still coal-fired. Is that true?” Hans nodded. “I can’t really imagine having a sort of locomotive oven inside a hygienic kitchen!” (Of course, kitchens were not as hygienic then.)
When I was born in 1952, Hans was already attending his apprenticeship which was followed by High School and Technical Colleges, and his first Hotel Management School in Germany. Then came the famous Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Subsequently, he became a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA). Looking back, he narrated:
HT: “These were not easy years, working split shifts from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. six days per week was quite exhausting, especially in this old hot kitchen. Overtime was never discussed. The “Sacher” being located just opposite the Vienna State Opera where many performances ended at around 10:00 p.m., so of course, if there came a rush of late diners, we could not just go home on time! But we learned discipline, to cope with stress, to work focused and concentrated and learned multi-tasking, and also endurance. All of these attributes would come in handy later on in my career, but at that time I did not see it yet. In retrospect, no, it was not easy but unavoidable to succeed later on in my career. There are no short-cuts to success.”
BI: “I remember one TV series on German TV, where the presenter reported in each episode about another rich and famous family enterprise, such as fashion houses like Gucci, Yves St. Laurent, Ferragamo, watch-, perfume- shoe- chocolate makers and others that made it really very successful through many generations. However, at the end of the series the presenter said: “Yes, they are all rich and famous and enjoy their wealth and status in life, however, what they all have in common is, THEY ALL WORK VERY. VERY HARD AND LONG HOURS!”
HT: “Agree, we have a German proverb ‘Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre’, which means in essence ‘apprenticeship years are hardship years’.“
What followed in Hans’ case after the apprenticeship and education years, we call in German the ‘Wanderjahre’ or the ‘Years of Wandering’ where we usually widen our skills, learn languages, explore new countries, do frequent job changing or just go with the flow, as the saying is today.
What in later career is frowned upon, frequent job changes were in the early career days very necessary to enhance one’s experience. Many European young professionals decided to work seasonal jobs, changing from a summer season near a lake between May and end of September, to a winter season at one of the skiing resorts between December and April and doing so for a few years. Although quite taxing and hard work, one learns a lot from different employers and types of hotels and restaurants and at the same time, earns quite a bit of money because these jobs were well paid… and on top, free meals and housing were provided as additional incentives!
