Summer School 2025 "Food Science and Culinary Arts - from Field to Meal"
July 6th- July18th 2025 at TU Graz, Austria
This year’s Summer School took place from July 6–18, 2025, hosted by TU Graz and organized by Erich Leitner. Three students from Graz (Lara Skef, Elise Hecht, Christina Mühlthaler) and seven international participants joined a diverse and exciting program across Vienna, Styria, and Lower Austria.
On the first day, the participants met in Vienna and spent their first evening together in a cozy pub, getting to know each other.
The following day began with a guided city tour that highlighted Vienna’s culinary traditions past and present. The tour ended with a lovely lunch at Labstelle.
Day three started with a visit to the dairy company NÖM in Baden, where we learned about the company and toured the production facilities. Afterwards, we continued to winery Stadlmann in Traiskirchen. There, we received a detailed introduction to Austria’s wine-growing regions and grape varieties, followed by a tasting of different Stadlmann wines.
The next morning began at the TU Graz Welcome Center and continued with a themed city tour of Graz called “Wine and Crime.” Our guide shared fascinating stories about real crimes from the city’s past, and the tour concluded with sandwiches and wine.
On the fifth day, the group visited the Silberberg School for Fruit and Wine Growing. We produced raspberry juice, distilled gin, and also tasted different wines. After an excellent lunch, we headed to the Hartlieb Oil Mill for a tour and tasting of pumpkin seed oil. The day ended with food and drinks at winery Wutte.
The sixth day took us to the Zotter chocolate factory, where founder Johann Zotter guided us through the production process and explained the company’s “bean-to-bar” philosophy. In the afternoon, we visited the organic flower farm Vom Hügel, explored the flower fields, and joined chef Hans Reisinger for a hands-on cooking session with regional dishes.
Saturday was spent at the farmers market in Graz. We stopped at butchery Rinner to taste regional meat products and at the “Kasalm,” where we tasted a variety of cheeses.
On day eight, we visited the Butchery Mosshammer. There we observed how a pig is processed into different cuts of meat, watched the production of Leberkäse, and even made our own sausages, which we later grilled. The barbecue also featured burgers, steaks, and even Kaiserschmarrn.
On the ninth day, the group visited Anton Paar, where we were introduced to the art of beer brewing and tasted the company’s own beers. After lunch at the Sudhaus, we enjoyed a detailed tour through various departments and learned about Anton Paar’s wide range of analytical measuring instruments.
The following day was dedicated to lab work at TU Graz. Students analyzed the volatile aroma compounds of raspberry juices, examined the fatty acid composition of pumpkin seed oil, and tested chocolate samples for heavy metals.
On day eleven, food trend expert Hanni Rützler joined us to talk about current and future trends. Afterwards, the students purchased a selection of plant-based products at the supermarket, which we then prepared and tasted together.
