Barbara doesn’t cook to follow trends. She cooks from memory, experience, and taste.
Born in 1972 in the Lavant Valley in Carinthia as the eldest of four sisters, she was standing at the stove from an early age—first alongside her grandmother, later cooking for her own family. For her, cooking was never an obligation, but an act of care. After completing her secondary education, she left the confines of her hometown and moved to Graz, where she combined her studies with cooking. To this day, her fellow students remember dishes that would now be called “soul food”—back then, they were simply meals that made you feel good.
At the same time, Barbara worked seasonally in luxury hotels on Lake Lucerne, where she learned precision, respect for ingredients, and genuine hospitality. An internship took her to New York—and one chapter of life turned into an entirely new one. Through New York, she and her new love went on to New Orleans, where she immersed herself deeply in Cajun and Southern cuisine. She later lived in the heart of Brooklyn, working in outstanding Italian restaurants, cooking Caribbean-influenced dishes inspired by her neighborhood, as well as Asian cuisine shaped by travels with her husband—from Thailand to Singapore. She also learned Indian cooking from the ground up from her mother-in-law and her husband’s family. The flavors of the Middle East entered her repertoire through close friends—cooked, understood, and fully absorbed.
In the early 2000s, Barbara returned to Austria, made herself at home again, and traveled throughout Europe, gathering techniques, textures, and spice logic along the way. She wove it all into a cuisine that is now truly distinctive: authentic, unpretentious, and uncompromisingly honest. Flavor without theatrics, without fuss.
Since January 2025, Barbara has been the sole owner of the Edelgreisslerei in Vienna’s 4th district, which has existed at this location for over 30 years. Before that, she shaped the establishment for a decade as head chef alongside its founder, Robert Opocensky. Today, she sets the direction—and ensures that people eat here the way they love to eat at home. No matter where that home may be.
Those who eat Barbara’s food almost always say the same thing: “That’s exactly how it should taste.”
Perhaps it’s the result of her global experience. But it is certainly due to the finest organic ingredients—and a chef who cooks with heart, craft, and conviction.
