It all began with a humble cake:
The world’s most famous cake, the Original Sacher-Torte, is the consequence of several lucky twists of fate. The first was in 1832, when the Austrian State Chancellor, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, tasked his kitchen staff with concocting an extraordinary dessert to impress his special guests. As fortune had it, the pastry chef had fallen ill that evening, leaving the apprentice chef, the then-16-year-old Franz Sacher, to perform this culinary magic trick. Metternich’s parting words to the talented teenager: “I hope you won’t disgrace me tonight.”
Franz Sacher seized the moment and conjured up the confection of a lifetime, the chocolate cake that would go down in history as the ‘ne plus ultra’ of desserts: The Original Sacher-Torte.
The sweet and sumptuous masterpiece was to be made with chocolate, apricot jam, and whipped cream, which became the tasty triad comprising the basis of the recipe for success that would become the Original Sacher-Cake (in German: “Torte”).
The cake soon gained a cult following, and was deemed “presentable at court”. From then on, it was a favorite at the imperial court and soon went on to win the hearts (and palates) of the world.
Today, the Original Sacher-Torte stands out as one of Vienna’s cultural and culinary crowning symbols. Indeed. That very recipe remains the foundation for every Original Sacher-Torte baked by hand to this very day. The Original Sacher-Torte has long been an export success. Approximately 360,000 hand-made cakes are shipped to all corners of the globe each year.
The hotel, which the son of the pioneering Patissier opened years later, now similarly stands out as one of the most renowned hotels in the world!
This is the facade of the hotel back around 1880, at Philharmoniker Street, so named the street, and Sacher Hotel is situated right opposite the Vienna State Opera, the home turf of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
