Essigbrätlein: A German Contribution to the New Naturals?

Nuremberg is widely known for its Christmas market, one of the largest across Germany, for its picturesque city centre, and for Nürnberger Bratwürst’l. These small yummy sausages are quite typical for the Franconians and their love for a rustic and simple fare. But, there is a different restaurant to be discovered, a culinary gem: the Restaurant Essigbrätlein (no link as there is no website;-)). Without its big ancient name tag it would be difficult to find inmidst the historic centre with all its small houses.

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The Frankfurt Files (V): Silk/Micro

Fond of electro, techno and house music? Ever heard of the DJ legend Sven Väth? If yes, the Cocoon Club in Frankfurt should be immediately on your mind. If no, but you are food-interested, or maybe a real foodie, you should definitely add this location due its fabulous restaurants Silk and Micro where Mario Lohninger is both chef de cuisine and host… Restaurants in a club, hmmm…

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Michelin 2010 Germany – Consolidation?

An anniversary year for Michelin in Germany – the 100th edition. So, time for ground-breaking news? What is very apparent from the stats is that Germany has seen a rather promising development since Juliane Caspar had taken over in 2004

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Thomas Bühner – It’s about Time

It was about time to revisit Thomas Bühner’s La Vie in Osnabrück. My last meal there in December last year was on a very high level yet with some weaker moments, especially on the dessert side. But it showed a clear tendency towards higher laurels, namely the third star. In this year Bühner hired Frederik Robert, a new pastry chef, and had Jürgen Dollase present very promising new dishes in a recent issue of Port Culinaire. So, we went…

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Christian Bau – The Gourmet Vision

What is a vision? Apart from its medical meaning it could be a long-term goal (in management – where does my company want to be in 10 years?), an inspirational experience (in spiritual terms) or a hallucination (a vivid conscious perception in the absence of a stimulus).

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Christian Jürgens – Update (July 2009)

“What is a three star experience like?”, some foodie and non-foodie friends use to ask me. What is the difference between a one, a two and a three star restaurant? In Michelin terms the answer is straightforward:

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Joachim Wissler – Up to New Heights?

Vendôme (thanks to Food Snob)

A new menu concept? Interesting.

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Hidden Gems (I): Landgasthof Adler*

£48 for a five course Michelin star menu – Andy Hayler has shown us how this works in last Sunday’s Telegraph issue. But, you have to travel quite a bit back and forth in the UK (637 miles to be precise). Fuel bill added on top this might not be a true bargain…

In the end, this is exactly what I am after when not hunting down stellar culinary treasures – I want good to very good food at a reasonable price, maybe not for every day but for every other. Therefore I start a new category which will include some hidden gems with a very good price-quality relationship and regionally inspired cuisine.

To start with here’s one of my favourite restaurants in Germany: Landgasthof Adler in Rosenberg.

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The Frankfurt Files (IV): Villa Merton

Lunches at fine dining places can be difficult. Well, difficult in the sense that some restaurants serve only business lunches with a limited offering at a very reasonable price. While I appreciate that and am always curious to get a small bite on the cuisine’s menu it has an inevitable danger: given the price tag it is naturally hard to offer the same product quality as in the evening when the same amount of courses cost you about 2-3 times the lunch price. On the one hand I like that because it could lead to serving more regional products off the beaten path. On the other hand I expect execution to be at the same level as in the evening such that any award will still shine through.

Keeping that in mind it is very well possible to draw some conclusions from a 4 course business lunch. So recently I had a lunch meeting at Villa Merton in Frankfurt after Hans Horberth had left (yes, the last stone of the 2008 chef domino in Germany). Young sous chef Matthias Schmidt had taken over mid 2008 and kept the Michelin star but received a one point downgrade in the Gault Millau (now at 15 points). The last visits under Horberth were quite disappointing as the cuisine was soulless food,  like catering food created to be easily assembled in a large lot. So interesting to see how the new chef would do…

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Aqua – Play it Again, Sven!

After all the recent praises you might wonder whether I would ever again report about bad meals (remember King Kamehameha and Can Fabes!). Contrary to professional restaurant testers I can choose the restaurants I visit and most of the time I choose wisely, especially in the last months So don’t be disappointed that another highlight will follow now… (Actually I had two quite dissatisfactory meals whereas I will not report on the first as it is not worth the effort and maybe needs some double-checking on the second).

In the last months a lot of foodies approached me to get insights about how Germany’s new three star chef Sven Elverfeld is doing at Aqua. Although I had been to Wolfsburg in November last year for the International Food & Wine Festival (a very good diner of Passard by the way) I had not eaten the creations of Sven Elverfeld since November 07 when the third star was clearly in sight. Time for an update…

The Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg

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