Austrian chef defies injury with floating kitchen chair

SALZBURG, Austria (Reuters) – An Austrian chef who suffered a serious injury and has been disabled ever since has made a remarkable comeback in the kitchen with the help of a device that lets him “float” at his workstation.

Peter Lammer thought his career was over when, despite several surgeries and six years of physical therapy to recover from a motorcycle accident, he still couldn't stand.

Then his friend Bernhard Tichy, a carpenter and mountaineer who runs a zipline adventure center nearby, came to his aid. He brought a hanging kitchen seat to help relieve the pressure on his injured leg.

“All the experts said I would never be able to do a standing job again,” Lammer told Reuters from the kitchen of his Salzburg restaurant Johanneskeller.

Now Lammer prepares meals, including fresh fish from nearby Königssee, while sitting on a bicycle saddle attached to a C-shaped metal bracket dangling from the ceiling.

The seat allows Lammer to pivot on rails on the ceiling and glide along the kitchen aisle.

“It gives people with limited leg strength hope again,” said Tichy.

(Reporting by Ayhan Uyanik and Anja Guder; Text by Emma Farge; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)