ECKART 2019 goes to Vienna with new format

Munich. The BMW Group and star chef Eckart Witzigmann
are expanding their joint commitment to culinary arts, conscious
enjoyment and social responsibility: In the eighth year of
cooperation, in addition to awarding the renowned international Eckart
Witzigmann Prize, the ECKART foodlab will take place for the first
time. “The product is the star” – this is the motto of the one-day
event, which will take place on 20 May 2019 at the Schönbrunn Orangery
and will provide information about the many aspects of good food.
Market stalls with selected products from all over Austria and the
international Alpine region will tempt visitors to put new knowledge
into practice.

 

“Our partnership with the Eckart Academy is based on the common goal
of promoting healthy nutrition, sustainable cuisine and the
responsible use of resources,” says Dr. Nicolas Peter, member of the
Board of Management of BMW AG, Finance, and patron of ECKART. “With
the ECKART foodlab, we are creating a modern format, with which we
want to address a broader audience.”

 

Eckart Witzigmann explains the idea behind the foodlab:
“Sustainability, quality and responsibility in nutrition have always
been important to me. But what does that mean in concrete terms for
everyone? With the foodlab, we want to establish a platform and gain
more attention and broad impact. Our goal is to help good,
responsibly-prepared food achieve a breakthrough. Together with the
BMW Group, we are developing and promoting ideas to ensure that
something really changes.”

 

Under the title “The product is the star – grounding the
avant-garde”, the ECKART foodlab #1 is dedicated to the questions:
What is good food? Is there good food without a guilty conscience? Do
labels such as organic, seasonal or regional help consumers? “It is
more important to cook for yourself than to just eat well from time to
time,” says Eckart Witzigmann. The first ECKART foodlab evaluates
answers in theory and practice, in small workshops or discussion
rounds with exciting personalities from the gastronomy scene. The
orientation of this exploration is Witzigmann’s oft-quoted and rarely
implemented credo: “The product is the star.” “Viennese Cuisine” and
the “Culinary Heritage of the Alps” with a producers’ market provide
illustrative material for the first answers. Eckart Witzigmann adds:
“The greatest thing for a gastronome has always been to know his
producers. To be able to tell them what was good and what wasn’t so
good and which products you would like to have.”

 

Additional information and tickets for the event can be found at https://eckart-foodlab.com.

 

On the eve of the ECKART foodlab #1, prizes will be awarded in the
categories “Great Cooking Art” and “Life Culture”, which will continue
to be endowed by the BMW Group with €50,000 each. These funds are used
to finance social or sustainable projects on behalf of the prize
winners. The ECKART jury explains the change in categories and format
as follows: “The one-day foodlab #1 event will feature around 100
stakeholders and up to 300 participants. This expansion of ECKART 2019
will bring a new social and communicative platform to the previous
format, which has already been successful for 15 years. Above all,
young talent from the gastronomy and grocery trades will be placed in
a creative dialogue.”

 

Please contact us if you have any questions:

 

BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs

 

Daria Nikitina, Corporate Communications

Telephone: +49 89 382-60340, Fax: +49 89 382-24418

Email: Daria.Nikitina@bmw.de

 

Mathias Schmidt, Head of Corporate and Cultural Communications

Telephone: +49 89 382-24544, Fax: +49 89 382-24418

Email: Mathias.M.Schmidt@bmw.de

 

Internet: www.press.bmwgroup.com

Email: presse@bmwgroup.com

 

 

ECKART Academy, Management

represented by: Otto Geisel
Tel.: +49 (0)89 139
260 26
, Mobile: +49 (0)151 65533070

Email: office@ottogeisel.de

 

 

The BMW Group

 

With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW
Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and
motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services.
The BMW Group production network comprises 30 production and assembly
facilities in 14 countries; the company has a global sales network in
more than 140 countries.

In 2018, the BMW Group sold over 2,490,000 passenger vehicles and
more than 165,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the
financial year 2018 was € 9.815 billion on revenues amounting to
€ 97.480 billion. As of 31 December 2018, the BMW Group had a
workforce of 134,682 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term
thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established
ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain,
comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to
conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.

 

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