Nic was born in Vienna Austria in 1969 as the son of Helmut and Stephanie Waldert.
He discovered in an early age the love for and cooking by watching his mom bake in anticipation of some leftover dough that needed to be “cleaned” of the bowl by preferably using his tongue making it undesirable for younger brother Tobias to have some of it. Since it was never enough sweet goodness he asked his mother what was in the batter mix trying to memorize the ingredients hoping to replicate the recipe. The plan was to skip baking and go straight to licking the bowl.
One night he got up way before sunrise, while everybody slept and started in the kitchen gathering necessary utensils and ingredients, apparently silent enough not to awaken any one, and started excitedly mixing the batter. A few minutes later mission seemed to be accomplished when Nic came to realize there is much more involved in cooking than simply adding several ingredients together because he had just discovered scaling was equally important because the amount of salt he added to the “should be sweet” batter made it unpalatable. Embarrassed of his performance he kept the dough hidden in his room, later to be found by his mother almost unrecognizable.
He still believes to this day he cleaned everything up and left no evidence behind ……..
Years of experimenting followed supported by the fact that both parents worked. This way he could feed his brother Tobias himself during the week when schooldays ended earlier and nobody was home. Conveniently Tobias volunteered not only as play partner but also as guinea pig.
After attending Rudolf Steiner/ Waldorf School for ten years he decided to choose a career path pursuing his love for cooking.
Nic Started Culinary school -apprentice ship with the age of 17 at a renown Hotel in the center of Vienna located on the beautiful Ringstrasse right next to Vienna City Park called Hotel am Parkring with the Restaurant and kitchen on 11th floor overlooking the city. The apprenticeship entitled hands on training 4-5 days a week while attending Culinary school for the rest of the week, from which he graduated with honors.
A few month after graduating he had to complete 8 month of military service in an air defense division. After 2 month basic military training Nic ended up cooking and serving at commissioned officers mess, which suited him much better than specialized military training.
Nic could finally join the workforce now that training was completed, put his skills to the test and gather much needed experience.
Nic started his first real job in 1990 at “Restaurant im Ferstel” nestled in one of many historical Vienna palaces, serving business people and tourists alike. Mostly classical Austrian food was on the menu changing on a daily base produced out of a tiny kitchen with just enough room for the head chef, a dishwasher and himself.
In 1993 Nic started looking for a restaurant allowing him to work day shift and get some weekends off which he found at the “International Fashion center Vienna”. After only one year at the restaurant the head chef quit and Nic was promoted to run the kitchen offering restaurant seating for approximately 50 customers with an A La Carte menu. “That gave me an early chance to show my capabilities” Nic says.
His next stop was the famous “Restaurant Motto” in Vienna, a very busy Restaurant, a melting pot for people of all walks of life including the occasional celebrity sighting and hungry Politian coming to dine. Menu offerings were always on the pulse of time offering items like sushi, organic food only available at specialty restaurants at the time and new ways of presentation. The Restaurant expanded beyond its walls catering several events and running seasonal “pop up” establishments. He really enjoyed working in this environment because of the expanding business, every day challenges and evolving menu.
In 1999 he was hired as head chef for the opening of “Guess Club/Restaurant” with a very promising concept, unfortunately after only 6 months worth of work Nic had to move on to new Challenges after realizing management was steering the concept towards fast casual dining despite of original plans joining the Olympus of upscale Restaurants.
There was time in between permanent jobs when he felt “burned out” that he filled with jobs like waiting tables at a Winery in the hills just outside Vienna’s city limits, working night shifts at the national post office replacing permanent staff on vacation, and freelancing organizing functions here and there and helping out at hotels and at friends places.
Nic soon became restless in Vienna so he contacted a chef he had worked with asking for a position at one of the prestigious leading Hotels of the world ”Thurnhers Alpenhof” in Lech am Arlberg, a famous ski resort in the province of Vorarlberg. He joined for a very busy winter season with lots of snow. It was a refreshing, great, exciting learning experience elevating his expertise to a new level.
For the following Summer season Nic came back to his home town Vienna to work at the reward winning Restaurant “Martinelli”, an upscale Italian eatery serving everything home including home made pasta.
Nic’s desire to travel became ever stronger. One of his fellow chefs had told him stories about the Caribbean Island Grand Cayman where a native to Austria operated a successful fine dining Restaurant called “The Wharf “. Nic saw an opportunity to work his first international job because most kitchen staff was Austrian, or at least German speaking. This would help tremendously to improve his knowledge of the English language while not being completely uprooted. Nic worked his way up to sous chef and later on to Head chef for 3 month just before leaving the island after 3 ½ years.
After soaking up the rays on the beaches of Cayman and watching many yachts sail by Nic decided that this was a job worth looking into so he relocated himself to Fort Lauderdale, Florida a major hub in the yachting industry.
Nic recalls the difficulties of getting his foot into the door landing a job on a Yacht because he didn’t have previous experience on boats besides pleasure crafting and 13 years in restaurants didn’t seem to be enough. By stepping back and taking a humble, will work for experience approach taking on day jobs scrubbing, washing, fixing and some cooking. It paid off he had finally offered his first job on a 94ft Lazarra as chef cooking for a large French/Spanish in the Bahamas.
Now over after 10 years in the industry as private chef working on some of the nicest yachts sailing the seven seas, Nic started developing a business idea of his he hopes to bring to life within the next 2 years, while still entertaining his high end clientele.