HN readers tend to have lots of disposable income. They also tend to fall for hobbies with lots of room for discussion, debate, and nuance.

Gourmet cuisine fits very nicely between the two :)

This article is full of interesting things. This one made me think about traditional small businesses management:

The old authoritarian model won’t work anymore,” Lumpp, who is 49, explained, when I asked him about his kitchen management style.

maybe coz of this:

>> In his last State of the Union address, President Obama said America should emulate Germany’s knack for producing skilled workers — “high-school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges.” He was referring specifically to fields like engineering and computer science, but he could just as easily have been talking about high-end cooking

Computer Science and Engineering are not the sort of technical degrees one gets from a community college. Certainly not out of high school either.

Its called "Fachinformatiker". Its basically a lower tiered version of the University CS degree. Its what is felt to be needed to be taken serious as an "IT-Person" in Germany. That said nobody ever asked me for that Piece of paper let after 15 years and 4 companys :P

there are 2 main tracks - one is hardware oriented the other more software oriented. In practice that means slightly more electronics or programming classes.

The stuff taught is certainly more practical than the stuff you learn at university but its geared toward 16 years olds. None in my class was that age. It was very surreal being treated as a kid again. And the mandatory ethics and German courses (as well as Sports class) were are real pita.

After years of being successfully self employed in IT, I do my Fachinformatiker-Exam this year for the fun of doing it AND to have the right papers to be part of the gang. In the rare occadions I got asked what I had done before, people looked a bit weired when I told them I was a car salesman a decade ago.

Quite informative, thank you. Can you explain the ethics issue? Or do you simply mean you or forced to take ethics courses?

IIRC they could mean two possible classes by using the term "Ethics":

* "Ethik-/Philosophieunterricht": basically you learn philosophy, ie. critical thinking, approaching problems/issues from different points of view, or

* "Ethikunterricht" as in learning ethical behaviour in the context of the profession you're striving to be in, which is most likely common sense crap that HAS to be taught so even "the last idiot" gets it or is at least on the record as having been taught this stuff so the school is not "liable" for potential ethics issues caused by the student.

I could very much be wrong about the latter point as I am enrolled in a similar, but more specialized "learning track" at a German "Fachhochschule" and not in a vocational school.

> Computer Science and Engineering are not the sort of technical degrees one gets from a community college.

You can absolutely get an associates degree in CS from many community colleges, and that can be enough to get an entry-level position at many companies; doubly so if in conjunction with a body of established Open Source work. You'd certainly start at a more junior status, but you could progress upwards from there via work experience and accomplishment.

That would hold even more true for a more focused trade-school-style program.

HN isn't just for tech. From the guidelines:

Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Someone submitted the link and others upvoted it.

I'm going to the area in a few months. Do you know if you have to book months in advance to eat in one of these places? Do you have a place to recommend?

In addition to what other people have mentioned, there is an interesting section half way into the article regarding the history that lead to this high density of quality in a comparatively small town. Apparently the owners of two competing hotels, over the course of generations, tried to outdo each other. So this plays nicely into some of the HN interest in competition as a positive, motivating factor in success. ;)

Because it's interesting, both technically and politically?