How an exchange led to a new business venture
Noah Rechsteiner runs his own pop-up restaurant – at just 19 years old. His exchange to Sylt in 2018 laid the foundation for a remarkable career move.
Noah Rechsteiner began his apprenticeship as a chef in the gourmet restaurant of the Widder Hotel in Zurich. In the third year of his apprenticeship, he applied for a grant from the funding programme of his vocational college: a successful application lets apprentices spend two weeks working at a different company. This opportunity is funded by Movetia and Visite. Having been accepted for the exchange internship, Noah went to Sylt, where he likewise worked in a gourmet restaurant, the «Söl’Ring Hof».
The challenge of an exchange – thrown into adult life
In those two weeks, Noah Rechsteiner found himself taking a great leap forward both socially and professionally. Suddenly he was standing on his own two feet, living alone – it was the first time he had spent two weeks away from home and it taught him to be more independent. Long, intense days in the restaurant challenged him. The cooking was on a whole different level compared with back home. Passionate as he is about his profession, however, he worked hard to master the new cooking methods and picked up many new skills.
As a 17-year-old, you don’t necessarily leave home for that long and get thrown in at the deep end. It really boosted my self-confidence and helped me develop my professional abilities and soft skills enormously.
He returned home with a suitcase full of new ideas. In Switzerland, the company where he is an apprentice has also benefited from his exchange: sharing his experiences in Sylt with the chefs at the Widder Hotel has led to fresh ideas and new culinary compositions.
All fired up by the exchange
The thoroughly positive experience of the exchange to Sylt has lit a fire under Noah. Thanks to his passion for the profession and the self-confidence he gained, he took part in SwissSkills 2018. After completing his apprenticeship, Noah travelled around Asia for four months and picked up a whole lot more impressions and ideas.
The exchange gave an incredible boost to my creativity and travel is an important component for inspiration: you just absorb it all and later transfer it onto the plate.
Inspired by thousands of impressions, at just 19 years of age, he opened a pop-up restaurant in the heart of Zurich in autumn 2019. Vegan and sustainable was the motto of the first test run that went by the name of ANOAH.
The exchange strengthened my belief that travelling is exactly the right thing to do. I had the idea of the pop-up restaurant on my trip, but the exchange positively influenced the decision by boosting my self-confidence and self-reliance.
We are pleased to be able to reveal that after the positive experience with ANOAH, Noah is already planning his next project and that he will be working under the same label in Switzerland this year.
Movetia is delighted to see the important inspiration that resulted from our funding of this exchange. We wish Noah plenty more curiosity, courage and success.
