Category: Europe
Can Roca – Less Magical
”There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across [...]
Read moreChristian Scharrer: (German) Rusticality Refined
Travemünde has more to offer than the fabulous two star La Belle Epoque where chef Kevin Fehling is at the forefront of a new generation of young German to be aware of. Literally across the street, the A-Rosa Grand SPA Resort and its gourmet restaurant Buddenbrooks offer a quite different take on fine dining, yet [...]
Read moreBistronomics in Germany: Weinsinn (Frankfurt)
Bistronomics, those nice little bistro-style outlets where high-end cuisine is served is not a totally new phenomenon – in 2008 when in Barcelona I had a couple of splendid meals at places like Gresca and Embat. Around the same time, in France new culinary hotspots emerged, yet with a distinct edge against any dogmatism so [...]
Read moreYoung German Chefs (II): Steffen Mezger
Since September 2009 Munich has a new culinary hotspot: Innegrit Volkhardt, owner of the prestigious Hotel Bayerischer Hof immensely invested in the redesign of the former Garden restaurant and established a new Fine Dining restaurant called Atelier” and appointed Steffen Mezger, previously the chef the cuisine at the Garden restaurant, to lead both restaurants. Very [...]
Read moreYoung German Chefs (I): Kevin Fehling
What’s the next generation of German chefs doing? To be sure, the development on the top, in the three star segment, has been breath-taking in the last couple of years – chefs like Juan Amador, Christian Bau, Thomas Bühner, Klaus Erfort, Nils Henkel and Joachim Wissler have improved significantly and developed very distinctive own handwritings, [...]
Read moreHof van Cleve 2010
In culinary terms, speaking of Flanders clearly means much more than just the Belgium region. In the former County of Flanders that encompasses parts of present-day France, Belgium and the Netherlands many interesting “modern” restaurants have mushroomed over the last couple of years that resulted in the formation of the Flemish Primitives named after Northern [...]
Read moreOud Sluis 2010
In August 2009 after a splendid diner at Oud Sluis I asked Sergio Herman what he still strives to achieve after being awarded three stars (since 2005) and 19.5 points in the Gault Millau. He paused and stated that first of all he wants to give the best every day (and for his highly artificial [...]
Read moreLa Vie – Thomas Bühner
Being obsessed with high-end food, being a food blogger, sometimes makes life difficult. What happens if you are on your way to Osnabrück and after some 90 minutes you realize that you have left your whole camera equipment at home? Driving back and get it is not an option due to time-restaints (arriving at 22.00 [...]
Read moreMargaux – Green Avantgarde
This is not one of these usual reviews about one specific menu in a restaurant – it’s praise for someone whose cooking emotionally moves me every time I dine there. Someone who lets me participate in a revelatory and contemplative dining experience… Someone who demonstrates that we leverage only a small percentage of the full [...]
Read moreAmador – The Next Step
Clearly, Juan Amador is one of the best German chefs of the third generation and maybe the one whose cuisine has been most frequently misinterpreted and even misunderstood. Quite often, he was labeled as a „molecular“ chef. Some spoke of gimmickry or even a Kindergarden menu dramaturgy thanks to his opening and closing tapas comprising [...]
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