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Award-Winning Austrian Chef Serves Up a Taste of Home

By Andrea Swalec | November 28, 2012 12:11pm

WEST VILLAGE — Jet-setters fresh from trips to the Tyrol and New Yorkers looking for a taste of Europe can warm up with traditional Austrian cookies and hot, spiced wine in the West Village and on the Upper East Side. 

The West 11th Street Austrian restaurant Wallsé and two other spots owned by Michelin-starred chef Kurt Gutenbrunner have begun serving hot, spiced Glühwein and Austrian cookies for the holidays.  

Gutenbrunner — who shared his Glühwein recipe with DNAinfo.com New York — said Monday he hopes his "classic"  cookies like Linzer tortes with raspberry jam, vanilla kipferl almond crescents and multicolored florentines with chocolate and almonds will taste like they've come straight from his home country.

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Dana Camisa

"A lot of people are familiar with these treats already," he said.

"They go skiing in Austria and are looking forward to having [Glühwein and Austrian cookies] here, too," said the Financial District resident who moved to the United States in 1988.

The Glühwein, made with the Austrian red wine zweigelt, port, oranges, black pepper and juniper berries, is being served for $8 a mug at Wallsé, at 344 W. 11th St. It can also be found at Gutenbrunner's 713 Washington St. wine bar The Upholstery Store, and at Cafe Sabarsky, which is located inside the Neue Galerie at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. 

The cookies are being served for no charge with meals and can be specially ordered from Wallsé, with prices upon request. 

Gutenbrunner, who also owns Cafe Kristall in SoHo and Blaue Gans in TriBeCa, is still working on holiday lunch and dinner menus for his restaurants, which will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas. So far, goose, duck, venison and foie gras are in the running. 

"This is always a nice time of the year," he said sitting across from the huge Julian Schnabel portrait of him that hangs in Wallsé. "The house smells like cookies and sugar and honey."