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(17 Jun 2016) LEAD IN: A former ski-team masseur has created what's thought to be Austria's first and only pigeon farm. The cooing hatchery now supplies pigeon meat to some of the small, mountainous country's top restaurants. STORY-LINE: An unobservant passer-by might mistake this old building for a simple run-down farmhouse, but if one gets closer, the cooing sound of hundreds of pigeons can be heard. Here in the small village of Deutsch-Tschantschendorf in Austria's southern Burgenland-province lies what's thought to be Austria's first and only pigeon-farm. Four years ago, Gerhard Methlagl, a former masseur for Austria's national ski-team, made his dream come true by re-purposing an old residential home. This living room now serves as a hatchery. "I started breeding for beauty," he recalls. "What wasn't beautiful enough, well that ended up in the frying pan. That why I also got to know the pigeon from the culinary side." "How did I arrive at this? Well, quite simply. I just called the Taubenkobel (restaurant), the Steirer Eck (restaurant) and so on. "I asked if there was a demand for pigeons and I was told; "Gladly - we have pigeons from France, there are no Austrian pigeons." "So I started trying to raise pigeons and for the past four years I've been supplying quite a few restaurants." Now he supplies some of Austria's top restaurants with pigeon. Compared to nearby French competition, his farm is tiny. Whereas in France farms with over 400,000 pigeons are not uncommon, Methlagl doesn't have more than 500 breeding pairs. But that seems to be what chefs are looking for. Some even come by and help Methlagl with farm work. "The essential thing is that it has to be comprehensible," says Methlagl. "It even goes as far as cooks coming here to see for themselves how the animals are being kept, what they're being fed. "So they can make up their own mind what kind of product they're working with. "Some cooks even come here and help me with the work in order to get to know the product they're going to use in the kitchen. "I think this is also the essential part - to know what kind of quality I am dealing with. Nobody is interested in visiting a factory farming facility." Methlagl says pigeons are horrible nest-builders. The old building gives the birds something they can't find in some bigger facilities - lots of sunshine and fresh air. That way he can abstain from feeding the birds antibiotics and other drugs. One chef who values locally-bred pigeons is Juergen Csencsits. In the village of Harming, the former executive chef of Taubenkobel - which many critics consider to be Austria's best restaurant - has opened his own place. It didn't take long for the Gault Millau restaurant guide to award him two toques - an achievement some chefs covet for a lifetime. Csencsits calls the pigeon a "noble product" which can be utilised in its entirety - from nose to tail, so to speak. "For me the proximity to the product is great. You can use the whole animal - from A to Z," he says. "You can do that with other animals as well. But it's a very noble product. Now and again, it fell a bit into oblivion." He fries the breast in a pan, but the legs get slow-cooked for several hours in a pot with herbs before they end up on a plate. "This gluttony thing is somehow over now. The big gluttony is over," says Csencsits. "People want to know what they're eating. They don't want the calories but the lightness. It has become quite trendy within the last two years. It's also a really great product." In the meantime, Methlagl is trying to keep up with demand. Not only chefs, but also private hobby cooks have started lining up to buy his pigeons. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/682337f1008aaa54f4a84f7d3d4c0946 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork