High-End Food

Michelin 2010 Germany – Consolidation?

IFS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:49:50 +0000

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 – including the loss of the third for Winkler and Bourgueil, the promotion of Wissler (2005), Bau (2006), Amador, Erfort, Lumpp (2008) and finally Elverfeld in 2009. Moreover, a couple of young and unconventional restaurants received the second star (alone five new ones in 2008). Now, Mrs Caspar heads the Guide Rouge in France (scandale!) and her deputy Flinkenflügel has taken over.

Michelin Stars in Germany

Time for consolidation this year. At least on a first glance – only one new two star chef, Martin Herrmann of Le Pavillon at the Dollenberg in Bad Griesbach (clearly a surprise, rather classic and conservative), one demotion (Dieter Kaufmann of the Traube in Grevenbroich) which seems overdue as Kaufmann was certainly an important chef in Germany but some years ago. No new three star promotion, only a new espoir, namely Thomas Bühner of La Vie where I ate a fantastic meal at three star level recently. If he continues in this form no doubt he will get it next year.

Two new espoirs for two stars: Keven Fehling of Belle Epoque in Travemünde, a young, modern and inspiring chef who certainly has the potential for two stars. I will definitely go and report. Second, there is Tim Raue of Ma in Berlin, one of the most controversial chefs in Germany whose cuisine is radical in abolishing with the French tradition altogether. Inspired by Chinese and Asian products, flavours and techniques he has a unique style which polarizes quite a bit. For me, the cuisine didn’t have much appeal and my evening was a bit clouded by some technical and product ‘difficulties’. But I respect his approach and will return for a second time…

Raue's 'Devil' (pig chin with young fennel, peach jus, chinese salami and sauce Rockefeller)

Most disappointing and totally incomprehensible, Michael Hoffmann of Margaux in Berlin didn’t get the second star. As I reported and experienced again two weeks ago his cuisine is cutting edge, creative and delicate working with the best products and a unique philosophy of elevating herbs and vegetables. A true three star show. Somehow I have the feeling that he is an immensely gifted pupil whose teachers are not able to ’see’ his talent. Nevertheless, this will not stop me from raving about his cuisine and hope that he finally gets the recognition he deserves. A new report will be up soon.

Hoffmann's Autumn Vegetables

23 new one star restaurants. Two observations: Amadorization – a couple of young chefs who were trained by Juan Amador received their first laurels. Caroline Baum of Amesa (Amador’s second post in Germany) worked for five years as sous chef in Langen and reinterprets classic dishes in modern but not ‘molecular’ way. Definitely worth a visit. Then, Daniel Achilles of reinstoff in Berlin who together with his business partners won a business plan competition and has at least one eye for local/regional products. Marc Rennhack reinvigorated the olivo in Stuttgart und Mathias Apelt brought a fresh and modern breeze to Villa Mittermeier in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (yes, it’s true – next time you visit this picturesque town go and eat there – it’s really interesting). For the later three some emancipation could be warranted but it’s a good sign that young aspiring chefs spread new and unconventional approaches to cooking across Germany.

Apelt's Mackerel with Avocado, Passion Fruit and Chanterelles

Second observation: some of the new stars have been awarded to recently opened restaurants like reinstoff, Amesa, La Terrasse in Bremen or niXe in Rügen. It’s very good that despite the ongoing financial crisis entrepreneurs (like Achilles and his companions or Amador himself) or hotels (like the Parkhotel in Bremen, in Rügen or at the Ritter in Durbach where I once had my first fine dining experience as a child) are brave enough to take on the risk. Bravo! And, despite somehow breaking with its usages, Michelin is recognising the quality only a couple of months after the respective opening.

So, this year’s Michelin leaves me with mixed feelings – on the one hand it only re-confirms the high-level of German fine dining overall (and there are prospective promotions in the next years, e.g. Jürgens (for three), Kellermann (for two)) and on the other it could pave the way for young talents. Maybe this could encourage more young chefs to finally cut the ties with their masters and realise their own and concept. Maybe also a differentiating concept…

The complete list of starred restaurants 2010 is here: Michelin Stars 2010. Enjoy!

Thomas Bühner – It’s about Time

IFS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:31:42 +0000

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…

Thomas Bühner

Bühner proposed an enlarged degustation menu of which we selected the following courses:

Our Menu

It started with excellent nibbles: Gin Fizz, peas & broad beans and potato & sardine. Delicate and intense with a nice built-in dramaturgy from salty to herbal to crunchy & smoky. Excellent. The coco milk skin was rich but a bit sticky.

The amuse (only one for good’s sake): carpaccio of smoked melon with Parmesan and wild herbs. Wait, melon? It rather looks like tuna or beef carpaccio… The melon is vacuumed and steamed in a convectomate for a couple of hours to dehydrate the melon and intensify the flavour. Smokiness is then added just before serving with a cloche and a smoking pipe. Clearly a technical masterpiece. However, Thomas Keller has a similar recipe in his sous-vide book and Antoni Aduriz serves a related version with Idiazabal cheese and vegetable splinters.

Bühner’s version was amazing – in essence the taste was a bit like a deconstructed tomato/mozzarella dish. Perfectly balanced in texture and flavour. Especially the pine nuts made this dish special as the nuttiness played tag with the slight smokiness. A perfect amuse.

Carpaccio of Melon

To kick-off the menu small bites were served before the actual courses. Last time I found the small bites not really convincing in conjunction with the courses and the time distance between them too long. Clearly different this time. Each pre-course set the stage for the dish in a unique way.

In particular for the first course: as an opener Bühner served a foie gras crème with tamarind coating and grapefruit. A clever miniature – each element had an equivalent in the actual dish: a lighter foie gras crème (rather a mousse), coke jelly and lemon granitée served with rucola. Somehow it reminded me of Jürgens’ Cu-Bar dish and, more closely, of Dacosta’s signiture dish.

Bühner’s version was excellent to outstanding. Like a small piece of music there was a crescendo: first, the coke jelly created a sensational effect when ‘kissing’ the roof of the mouth, then with its richness the crème followed thereafter, the lemon granitée added a fresh and colder descant whereas the rucola provided the finale of the range of flavours with its herbal and slightly bitter notes. The foie gras ice cream was a bit disturbing as it didn’t add much and was a bit repetitive as another cold element. Maybe a foie gras crumble bringing in another textural dimension would make this divine.

A new take on a wine pairing with foie gras: the Madeira worked surprisingly well, especially the older liquor notes nicely complemented the dish. Chapeau!

Sercial 10 years Henriques & Henriques / Madeira

Then a lobster croustillant with lemon jelly (a nice continuation) followed by tomato salad with edible crab and marinated pineapple. Another visually stunning dish, modern, light and really compelling, in particular the pairing of tomato and pineapple. However, the key element of the dish was texture. As this was a rather new dish I think Bühner needs to work on the dimensioning of the red tomato powder because it was a bit too spicy, too much and dominant. The crab was superb but couldn’t really stand the intense tomato salad. But nevertheless an excellent dish.

2008 Sauvignon Blanc, Bassermann-Jordan / Pfalz

After a superb stockfish puree in a bread mantle Bühner served a salmon trout confit in vanilla oil with beet root and nasturium. Very subtle with a nice interplay of beet root, vanilla (still very present exactly in the right dosage) and the slightly bitter and herbal cress. Excellent.

My next dish was my favourite dish of the night: bar de ligne with saffron eel, radish and lemon. Two absolutely outstanding products eel and bar de ligne in best harmony with the radish as a sweet/sour element connecting them. I particularly liked the soy jelly on top of the bar which added depth, some slighty spiciness and mouthfeel. Another surprising element were the algae baked in tomato tempura. Outstanding.

Bar de Ligne

The smokiness of the baked trout caviar was logically continued with langoustines with cauliflower, algae puree and smoke. What a langoustine – perfectly tender, transparent inside with an intense aroma and nice mouthfeel. Cauliflower was provided in different textures and worked very well with the algae purée. In this dish it shows that modern elements like the smoking and releasing it at the table when opening the cloche is an important feature of the dish: it perfumes the dish in a subtle but not too strong way and adds another dimension to the sensual experience. Excellent to outstanding.

2006 Verdelho, Gentle annie / Central Victoria

Main courses were kick-off with a refreshing Kir Royal with apple air (worked like a sorbet as a nice palate cleanser yet with already more intense blackberry flavours). Then, for my companion: bison with parsley and lemon. Perfectly tender bison – one roasted and one braised piece. Almost simple and puristic, this dish once more showed the mastery of Bühner – impeccably prepared bison, a nice balance of parsley and lemon. A very natural dish as if it all ingredients just belong together in this way. Excellent to outstanding.

Bison

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Crianza, Josep Foraster / Catalunia

For me: lamb from head to tail with miso crème. A new dish encompassing the whole spectrum of lamb – sweetbread, shoulder (two pieces), saddle and tail. Everything except the saddle (with Bühner’s signiture, a garlic – coriander coating) was cooked sous-vide and yields surprisingly different results in texture. Wine drinkers would say that the ‘terroir’ showed – the very nature of each piece of lamb became very apparent which resulted in a declination of hearty and meaty flavours from the soft and slighty ’sweet’ sweetbread to the rustic tail. Moreover, a lamb tea is served which has a similar effect as Bau’s langoustine tea in perfuming the mouth and intensifying the lamb taste without being overly ‘lamb-ish’.

The lamb was served with a couple of predominantly textural elements like the ‘truffle’ of corn and chicken skin (slightly crunchy and intense), lamb tapioka balls (a bit more crunch and intensity) and crispy lamb broth (the ultimate crunch). To balance the lamb’s heartiness the sweet potato and carrots were very well. As a binding element Bühner used a nice miso crème on the basis of chicken broth. Unique and outstanding.

Lamb from Head to Tail

A second main was served after a fantastic potato espuma with curry/pumpkin ice cream. For my companion: pigeon breast with foie gras, young artichokes and ceps’ earth. Served like stew in a dense way, this was quite heavy (especially the cornetto with pigeon offals) and really yummy. But, in effect, less surprising and thought-provoking than the other courses so far, more on the level we had experienced in December last year.

Pigeon

For me: roebuck poached in exotic spices with braised vegetables and coco. The roebuck was only seasoned by the spices in the poaching broth, not other seasoning has been used. In this way, Bühner could emphasize the outstanding quality of the product. Here, the main ingredient was the star and the vegetables were rather garnish. However, the combination of coco and the exotic spices (with coriander and garlic) resulted in a new flavour experience. Excellent!

Roebuck

Desserts – what a quantum leap from December. Four small pre-desserts, one better than the other: an avocado crème brûlèe with Nutella ice cream (nice one with the famous hazelnut spread!), speltgras soup with avocado and peas (healthy, herbal, refreshing, light), a warm chocolate praliné with mango and dill (rich, but not heavy) and a poached egg of coco and orange. Simply fantastic!

2001 Saarsteiner Rielsing Auslese, Schloss Saarstein / Saar

A worthy finale: peach ‘Melba’ à la façon la vie. Simply stunning – no molding involved, by the way. A peach frozen peach mousse coated by a raspberry jelly – intense, fresh and more concentrated than the original fruits. Outstanding!

Peach 'Melba'

Overall

It seems to me that Thomas Bühner has changed up: his dishes speak a clearer language, they are more accentuated and spot-on. In the end, the overall meal was lighter, more playful and surprising than before. Especially the bar de ligne touched me in a way that I can still ‘recall’ the dish in my taste memory. Brilliant.

Service was warm and receptive, relaxed and formal where needed – just right to made us enjoy this very evening. A big thank you to Mrs Kanagaratnam and the whole team!

Bühner’s cuisine successfully combines modernity on the one hand (without over-stretching it and being too intellectual) as well as excellent compository and technical skills on the other. In this very sense he belongs to the group of young German chefs (along with Amador, Bau, Elverfeld, Erfort and Wissler) who have successfully emancipated themselves from the French tradition, but everyone in his quite distinct way. The second German Küchenwunder has just begun – it’s definitely worth to be explored!

An outstanding experience – ready for higher laurels. Now. Maybe this week when Michelin publishes the new Guide Rouge for Germany.

Three Lights in Osnabrück

Christian Bau – The Gourmet Vision

IFS — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:59:56 +0000

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).

Now, infamous German food critique Jürgen Dollase collaborates with important German chefs to elaborate seminal menus which should open up a new world for all senses: the Gourmet Vision series to appear in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in loose sequence. In describing its objective Dollase points out that “besides technical mastery it is the magnetism of a new idea, of the unknown, the very touch of discovery and novelty which transfers us into a state of pure ‘degustation’ ” (some kind of culinary frenzy, I suppose;-)). So, it is likely that he refers to a rather spiritual experience. I will come back to that.

The new Gourmet Vision has a well-known protagonist: Christian Bau. Dollase approached him to work on a “Japanese” menu as a natural continuation and culmination of Bau’s already taken path (already obvious in the last 18+ months or so).

Where is the Vision?

So, I went to Schloss Berg immediately. To see what new dishes Bau had produced. To see how far Bau can go without giving up his so carefully developed style. To see whether it has sustainable elements which might be able to show us a glimpse of future cooking.

I ate the following 9 course menu:

The Gourmet Vision

It’s always good to start an evening with some good friends. But the Hering spoons made them really appear in new light: as a first parade of amuse bouches Bau served pork belly glazed with Hoi Sin, langoustine tartar and caviar (amazingly tender, juicy pork paired with an incredible langoustine), a soy marsh mellow with a Japanese fish roll (fresh notes coupled with an excellent mouthfeel) and foie gras with green tea, pepper and mango. Above you have home-made kroepoek with oyster and green apple. It seemed that my old friends liked the Hering very much as they were perfect as never before, each a balanced precise handcrafted masterpiece. And tasty;-)

Parade of Amuse (I)

As a second amuse: blue lobster / quinoa / green apple / madras curry. On the first glance this seems rather classic but a closer look is warranted: needless to say that the lobster is just perfect, cooked for some minutes and then finished under the salamander – transparent, tender, yet not chewy. The dish has two kicks: the puffy pealed quinoa which adds a constant wheaty crunch and the fried chicken skin which complements the textural spectrum with a savoury one-off crunch. Most importantly, the chicken flavours the whole mouth which makes the dish unique. Paired with the soft passepierre and sesam aioli, the fresh green apple and the dense madras curry jus it was just outstanding. As the flavouring with the chicken skin is so important maybe more and smaller pieces of it would achieve an even greater effect…

Amuse II

2008 Grauburgunder** Trocken, Alexander Laible, Baden

The actual menu kicked off with another good friend: crab with melon and dashi jelly. Again very compelling I must admit. For me the interplay of the warm (baked in kataifi) and the cold marinated crab is the key point of the dish. Wonderfully balanced in textures, flavours and temperatures.

Crab

2007 Sauvignon Blanc Cuvée Nicolas, Brander Winery, California

Then a new dish: sea food & hamachi. Sounds boring but isn’t. This is the direction of the next step in Bau’s development towards an avantgarde and total emancipation from the French classic as it breaks with traditional French dish composition altogether. What’s happening on the plate? Raw marinated sepia, sea cucumber poached in oil (served warm), crispy cucumber stripes, sashimi of hamachi on top of small sepia cubes, marinated seaweed and sesame aioli seamlessly bound together by a marinade of lemon, sake and rice vinegar. Wait, there is also an oyster underneath the sepia which is the core of the dish…

What to say? A world-class dish with subtle iodic and citric flavours – outstanding products combined in a unique way. Texture is key here as there is an almost gradient declination of different mouthfeels. Maybe the least Japanese dish from the perspective of a European but the most authentic from the perspective of a Japanese. Bravo!

Seafood & Hamachi

2008 Lorcher Burgweg Riesling Kabinett Trocken, Weingut Bachmann-Greulich, Rheingau

Langoustine sushi was next. A raw and holed langoustine was filled with traditional sushi rice accompanied by trout caviar, salicorn purée, sauté and beignet as well as corail créme, Ponzu air and a tea of langoustine. What’s most important in sushi? The quality of the ingredients – and here, they simply shined – not more, not less. For me, the tea was mouth-watering – it just filled the mouth with every sip and provided the basis for the succeeding bites. Excellent to outstanding!

Langoustine Sushi

2008 Pouilly-Fumé, Jonathan Pabiot, Loire

The blue fin tuna is maybe the most advanced dish of the menu as it offers nearly endless combinations of the different elements each being surprising and thought-provoking. But in the end, it just has to be that way – no element is dispensable, a dish in equilibrium.

On the centre plate you have tuna prepared as Tataki (slightly grilled, marinated with soy, caramellized with a bunsen burner), small cucumber cubes marinated in rice vinegar, Tosazu jelly (mirin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, dashi, sake), roasted rock chives and small ginger stripes. All elements are a kind of make-up to the tuna – applied in the exactly right dimensioning there is nothing to be added. Fresh cucumber as a fundament, deep and intense jelly as the finish – the acidic, fresh, slightly sweet notes form a wonderful accord.

The salad of Japanese pickles with Abalone (in thin stripes and in bigger pieces marinated and cooked sous-vide for 12-14 hours) is a masterpiece in proportions and adds crunch, herbal and acidic flavours. In-midst of the Japanese essence with Ginger Ale you find a tuna tartar with radish, tuna roll and caviar. This very essence is a real killer, simply breathtaking in intensity without dominating the other elements – the use of Ginger Ale is ingenious yet somehow simple. This carries the dish into culinary heights never experienced before. DIVINE!

Never heard of a Luxembourg wine? Well, neither have I. But this one was quite compelling, not stand-alone but in combination with the essence it was really excellent!

2007 Pinot Blanc Fossiles, Château Pauqué, Luxembourg

Uff, after these highlights I needed a break but it just continued: ris de veau with yam (purée, baked and marinated), veal glace, miso crème and crumble of black garlic. As I am very fond of ris de veau this was one of my little darlings as it was much simpler in composition and degustation. Bau sears the rare ris de veau and ‘marries’ it with the hearty yam – such a natural combination as if this would you been served for ages. The two purées complimented each other like Ying and Yang with the yam one being more traditional (reminds of a slighty sweet and acidic carrot) and the miso adding a complimentary Japanese touch. Texture from the marinated yam and the crumble… In the end, it was just yummy, something to eat & enjoy and relax a bit after the complex tuna. Well-thought-out menu order, Mr Bau!

Ris de Veau

2008 Fass 11, Schonfels Riesling, Peter Lauer, Saar

It continued with another winner: Bar de Ligne – skin-roasted with smoked eel marinated in home-made (!) Terriyaki sauce and char-grilled, crème of eggplant with miso, cucumber rings with shiso pesto, baked ladyfingers and Ponzu vinaigrette. Somehow in each dish Bau manages to surprise and wow the diner. Of course, this dish is elaborate to the utmost detail with many ohs and ahs but the real kick is provided by the small cucumber rings which add an unexpected freshness and let the dish appear quite light. Surprise…

Bar de Ligne

2007 Chardonnay Santa Ynez Valley, Zaca Mesa Winery, California

As a main Bau offered Mieral pigeon. Why not Wagyu you might ask? Bau served Wagyu for quite some time – so an opportunity for a new challenge. Pigeon three ways – the breast was cooked sous-vide and char-grilled, the legs served as a confit wrapped in spring roll dough and the livers presented as a flan with foie. On top of the flan you find a broccoli couscous (fresh and herbal notes) and crispy pigeon skin seasoned with spicy honey and different sorts of pepper. Exactly these skin pieces were the little extra as they provided depth, spiciness, slight sweetness (nice pairing with the carrot-ginger purèe) and texture. The sweet-spicy duality continued in the pigeon jus with Hojicha (smoked) tea, cardamon and coriander. Simply one of the best mains I have ever eaten. Complex, something to explore and discover, superb products and an immensely clever variation around one product.

Mieral Pigeon

2000 Les Lézardes, Domaine René Rostaing, Rhône

With reference to the Japanese cantaloupe the pré-dessert was a combination of soy milk and melon – as ice cream, cannelloni filled with melon espuma and small jelly cubes. In fact a new way of looking at the traditional sorbet to re-fresh the diner (but served after the main). Here the small coriander baisers were the surprising herbal element.

The Sonnenuhr of Dr. Loosen was truly memorable – still young, vivid with acidity and a crisp sweetness. Melon and lemon – thank you!

Melon

1979 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese, Weingut Dr. Loosen, Mosel

The finale: chocolate, ginger & Nashi pear. Visually very Bau (remember the Schwarzwälder or other chocolate dessert with canache). This time the canache was flavoured with ginger and served with a ginger créme topped with poached Nashi pear accompanied with ginger liquor drops and a mind-blowing ice cream of Pan Dan leaves. For this very ice cream I would travel any distance! Excellent pairing with the Tokaj!!

Chocolate, Ginger & Nashi Pear

2001 Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos, Tokaj Classic, Hungary

Overall

Looking back on Bau’s development in the last 18-20 months it is clear that he first mastered the classic French cuisine on a level seldom experienced even in France being more consistent and serious (as my friend Julot would term it). After accomplishing that there was a gradual emancipation from the French tradition and the search for a unique style. “I do what I feel” – deeply inspired by the Japanese cuisine he started to integrate Asian elements step-by-step, had a Japanese chef in his kitchen for more than one year and learned to understand the Japanese approach to cooking…

Now, as I already indicated on my last report, Bau’s marriage of West and East is seamless: rooted in the French tradition he more and more abides with French dish composition, especially apparent in the seafood & hamachi dish. In this sense his style is far from riding on any Asian fusion trend – it’s unique – Bau cooks Bau. No heavy jus or sauces, a balance of flavours and textures and, most importantly, a surprising element which make the very dish special. The dining experience itself becomes explorative and dependent on the diner’s way of discovering each dish. One can just indulge or analytically analyse each accord and flavour to the utmost detail. The good message is: it is always a pleasure.

In this special menu the Japanese flavours were at the forefront but the handwriting hasn’t changed only the ink and the paper. This vision was no hallocination. It was just spectacular – both an inspirational experience and a glimpse of a potential future element of cooking: dishes can be experienced both in a non-intellectual and intellectual way. So, it’s the diner who ultimately decides on his very dining experience.

Having eaten in some of Europe’s finest restaurants this Summer I must simply state that Bau is simply his own benchmark.

Time to Relax?

Post Scriptum

In the meantime I had another meal at Schloss Berg with some new dishes (and my new camera;-) )… For those of you who want to go soon and be surprised – stop here. For all others: enjoy!

Note that all dishes depicted are part of a Voyage Culinaire and I show only the new ones;-)

An outstanding amuse of Eismeer trout with veal’s head, beet root and horseradish:

Trout, Beet Root & Horseradish

Another amuse of a langoustine maki with a flan of foie gras and Yuzu. I still can’t believe how the maki and the intense flan came along together. They did, very much so…

Chestnut & Alba truffles – a bow to the current truffles seasons with the chestnut in different textures, sot-l’y-laisse and a bio onsen egg. Intelligent & yummy, a nice interpretation of a classic theme

Chestnut & Alba Truffles

St. Jacques paired with foie gras, Périgord truffles and Jerusalem artichoke:

St. Jacques

Chianina beef, char-grilles, braised shoulder with soy, pak choi and onions:

Chianina Beef

A new interpretation of Lievre à la royale – divine.

Lievre à la Royale

Yogurt & Olives

Banana Split 2009

Another splendid meal, more classic but still very Bau.

Christian Jürgens – Update (July 2009)

IFS — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:51:34 +0000

“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:

The Stars (äh, Macarons)

In essence the Michelin ratings pave the way of planning trips. Sitting in the very restaurant, however, is a different matter – how to really say a meal or dining experience would be worth three stars? First, let me stress this is a very personal matter – I am not a professional tester (good for me as I can choose rather freely what to eat) but I think I have eaten enough to be able to tell the differences… Second, I have personal likes and dislikes but in any review I try to point out where this might ve relevant. So, it shouldn’t affect the statement made and I prefer to give solid reasoning when praise or criticism is appropriate.

Personally, without going into much detail and without elaborating on a sophisticated 100/100 scale (which I do not use anyway) the overall satisfaction is a function of the product quality, cooking precision, composition of dishes (pairing of flavours, sensible use of textures, dimensioning), creativity (unique/novel pairing of flavours, new techniques, unique handwriting), menu composition, consistent quality, service, ambiance. What I ‘borrow’ is the grading system (very good – one star, excellent – two stars, outstanding/exceptional – three stars).

At a three star restaurant I just take product quality and cooking precision for granted – there is no excuse for faults here. If one just takes the best products available, cooks them impeccably and composes dishes in a stringent way, that can be very well three stars as numerous examples (like L’Ambrosie, Ducasse, Auberge de L’Ill or Thieltges here in Germany) show. Some might find this boring but it is just an immense pleasure to eat something which cannot be made better. Kind of risky because this approach dramatically fails if there are only minor deficiencies. Readers of my blog might have noticed that I prefer a cuisine that surprises my in a distinct way and shows some uniqueness, be it a unique style in pairing flavours (like Amador or Bau) or a unique approach to cooking (like Redzepi or Achatz).

Christian Jürgens

Where was I? Why am I telling you this an intro to another visit of Christian Jürgens at the Überfahrt? Because, in Germany, the highest laurels seem to be in sight for him and Thomas Bühner. (Personally I would like to count in Michael Hoffmann of Margaux but he needs to get the second star first…) Maybe these thoughts can help in evaluating my recent experiences and make it transparent why I think there could be a promotion or not…

After my last visit at the Überfahrt about a year had passed – it was Jürgens’ first year at the Überfahrt and his early steps at his new domain were rather impressive. So, time for a short update – before the new guides come out…

Menu

We decided to let Jürgens cook for us and he proposed a menu of his current highlights:

Our Menu

As it is apparent from the menu there are some classic dishes in a modern robe (Forelle “Müllerin” and part of the beef main – Fillet “Rossini”) – interesting…

It started with a twinkling eye as the first nibbles were pebbles (Kieselsteine) from the Tegernsee. Served in a small bowl with real stones the three eatable ones were made of creamy potato mousse (surprising if you bite in the first time because you don’t expect that softness) coated with a mix of squid ink, truffles and potato. An interesting and nice start but no culinary revelation.

Kieselsteine

The second amuse was a visual stunner: tomato served with a green gazpacho and olives. It looks like a tomato but it’s not a real one – another nice example that molding can create new ways of experiencing a known element. Inside the ‘tomato’ there is a tomato mouse which is filled into a tomato mold (don’t forget to cover the mold with kitchen film first) and then put into the freezer. To apply the outer tomato jelly, the mousse is released from the mold, then bathed in liquid nitrogen to enable the coating with the tomato jelly.

How do I know all this? Well, I didn’t talk to Jürgens about it – I found if here. More importantly, the tomato has been used in another dish by Dani Garcia since 2007. Yes, it was another dish, but the main effect of Jürgen’s dish is the tomato. The overall taste is good and the flavours work fine but the technique did not enhance the taste as in Amador’s virtual asparagus or the spaghetti of green beans in Wissler’s red mullet with bouillabaisse purée.

So, I have mixed feelings here – do I expect “no copying” in a two or three star restaurant? Where is the borderline? I leave it to you, dear reader…

Tomato

One word about the bread – frequent readers of this blog will have noticed that I am not writing pages on bread and butter. But, this time the potato focaccia served and the multi-grain bread were just divine. Fresh, served hot, tender and juicy.

Bread

Then the menu started with Cu-Bar which consisted of a foie gras mousse with cuba libre jelly and a “cigar” served a part. Inside the caramelized cigar there was a foie gras terrine accompanied by ashes made of dried celery and green apple. An excellent dish with the foie being of superb quality, the jelly enhancing the sweetness by adding bitter notes of the rum and coke and acidity from the lime juice. The cigar was a bit too sticky and sugary for my taste but complemented the textural spectrum. Moreover, the foie inside could not really stand the caramel outside. If Jürgens would add a temperature element and get the cigar balanced out this could be really outstanding.

Another slight problem here as Dacosta serves a similar foie mousse, coke/rum jelly combination for some years now? Not that relevant as the cigar element made it kind of unique (well, the Roca brothers have a Cuban ‘cigar’ in one of their desserts, also with ashes, but with a totally different taste)…

Wonderful pairing with the Kabinett from Schloß Lieser which had exactly the right sweetness and acidity to be a perfect companion!

2007 Riesling Kabinett, Schloß Lieser, Mosel

Next was Forelle “Müllerin”, a trout from the Tegernsee with lettuce and parsley. Another stunning dish in presentation – I almost had the feeling of an encounter with some strange insect… Traditionally the Forelle “Müllerin” (à la meunière) is covered with flour and then baked (to achieve the Maillard reaction), typically served with potatoes and lettuce salad. Jürgens’ interpretation was quite different – he filled the trout with a cream of horseradish, potato (I guess) and parsley, put it on a roasted onion (to emulate the Maillard I guess as I couldn’t figure any flour around the trout) and topped it with some lettuce and trout caviar. Last but not least, a small stripe of parsley jus …

For me, this was the weakest dish of the lunch. Not that it was not good, but the horseradish filling dominated too much and the cream in combination with the tender but not too juicy trout was rather dry. Somehow I was longing for some moisture which the tiny parsley jus could not add. Additional parsley would add this moisture and build up a nice herbal counterpoint.

Forelle "Müllerin"

2008 Weißer Burgunder Muschelkalk S, Dr. Wehrheim, Pfalz

A rather classic dish: “Fluß und Weide” – crayfish on veal head with peas puree and chanterelles. This was just yummy with the crayfish (I assume local Bavarian ones) being really excellent, veal head providing depth and intensity and the puree some nice creaminess. But the real king of this dish was the crustacean jus (à la bouillabaisse) which was intense, dense and build a nice fundament on which all the other ingredients could dance. Excellent to outstanding. Simple, but impressive.

The Gemischter Satz is an old specialty from Vienna: on the Nußberg there are more than 25 years old vines comprising Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris which are harvested and pressed together. The result is a wine of exotic flavours with clear Burgundy notes, slight minerality and enough fruit to mirror the sweetness of the peas and the crayfish. Wonderful.

"Fluß und Weide"

2007 Nußberg Gemischter Satz Alte Reben, Wieninger, Wien

“Meer und Garten” – Brittany plaice on citrus risotto with Bouchot mussels and basil. Mixed feelings here – on the one hand the risotto was masterly prepared – creamy, still al dente with the lemon flavours spot-on without being too acidic. On the other hand, the plaice was almost a bit too thick and a bit dry and would have needed some more seasoning (a touch of salt maybe?). Still, when I think of this I have the feeling that the elements did not really bond – it felt like eating three dishes. Moreover, the basil could have been more present.

You know what? I love Planeta’s Chardonnay – it’s rich, succulent, intense and yet so different to Chablis/Burgundy or the oaky New World Chardonnays. Excellent choice with the lemon risotto with enough power to stand both the intense mussels and the risotto.

Meer und Acker

2007 Chardonnay, Planeta, Silzilien

“See und Acker” was a masterpiece of balance: such an equilibrium of sweetness (beetroot), acidity (radish and cucumber) and spiciness (horseradish jus) is rare. Needless to say that the local zander from the Tegernsee was impeccably cooked and nicely enriched with some salmon larding. For the first time, texture was becoming important – both the radishes and the beetroot cannelloni added different levels of firmness and slight crunchiness. Excellent to outstanding.

See und Acker

2008 Grauburgunder, Dönnhoff, Nahe

A gift from the chef was the highlight of this lunch: Joselito, ceps and peach. Simple, puristic, divine! Served warm the Joselito was just melting (there is no oil on the plate) paired with ceps of outstanding quality whereas the peach made this extraordinary. This is exactly the purist Jürgens as it already showed in the Froschkönig or the Kartoffelkiste on my last visit. Bravo!

A Gift

The main “Des Bauern Stolz” (the farmer’s pride) comprised two plates: first, a beef fillet poached in red wine accompanied by bone marrow, spinach à la “Bordelaise” and red wine jus. For me, the bone marrow espuma was a bit too strong, too dense and dominating and the beef was missing some texture (a bit too soft overall). Excellent+.

Des Bauern Stolz (I)

Second came a braised steak a la “Rossini” with foie gras, summer truffles and a stuffed onion (can’t remember the filling, uh). Rossini was not only an ingenious composer but also one of the first foodies The braised beef was amazingly tender, almost subtle in taste (not as overly strong as Argentinian beef) – a real winner! The whole dish was generous – maybe a little bit too much as I found the foie slightly overpowering and too cold such that the temperature contrast was almost unpleasant. However, flavours were strong and precise, the pairing with the onion was nice as the sweetness of the foie was taken up again. Overall, an excellent to outstanding course.

Des Bauern Stolz (II)

2004 Lis Neris, Lis Neris, Friaul

Desserts: a new interpretation of Sacher “Edition 2009″. Jürgens preserved the traditional taste of a Sacher Torte (chocolate, jam and rum) and converted it in a modern pastry masterpiece with liquid chocolate inside flavoured with the key Sacher ingredients. A part I got an iced Melange (kind of Vienna coffee) which provided a nice temperature contrast and was outstanding.

A true finale: Zitrone “Edition 2008″. At first it seems like a second molding experiment but the exterior of the ‘lemon’ is truly candied peel from an Amalfi lemon (Jürgens boils the peel in sugared water a couple of times over a few days) filled with lemon mousse and ice cream. The lemon rests in a Champaign infusion flavoured with a lemon broth and gets texture from a lemon sable with crusted zests on top.

A lot of lemon, you might think. Right, but the dish was playing with the variants – soft sweet mousse with almost no acidity, textural interesting peel with intense lemon flavours without overdoing it and the crunchy sablè which I found truly wonderful. The zests were the only element were less would have been more – maybe I would have inserted less of them in the sablè. Fresh, intense, light – an outstanding dish.

Lemon

A meal at the Überfahrt cannot end with the outstanding board (well, two tables) of maybe the best cakes you can get in a high-end restaurant….

Service was fantastic and Sonja Schollenberger presented a more than fitting wine pairing – thanks!

Overall

Since my last meal, progress was most visible in the dessert section which was truly unique with utmost technical precision and a twinkling eye. Clearly warrants three stars.

The savory courses had some real heights the Joselito/ceps/peach dish followed by the crayfish and the zander. And the Cu-bar… No a single dish was bad, the overall quality was more consistent with less ups and downs as last time. Forget the slight borrowing in the beginning, this was an overall excellent meal with some upside potential.

In essence, Jürgens’ style is modern without the widespread avantgarde techniques and elements, his cooking clearly rests in the French tradition but abides with traditional flavour combination. He deserves praise for his intelligent use of local products and the re-interpretation of classic dishes. And, his cooking shows a certain humor which is not obvious on the forefront but rather hidden and visible at a second glance. Interestingly, there is not complex textural interplay on every plate (as many of the modern chefs use it) – sometimes a bit more could be beneficial.

Now, as I am writing this report it seems that for me Jürgens is best when he really simplifies his cooking by concentrating on a few flavour combinations like shown with the Joselito (or the Frog King and the Kartoffelkiste last time). Where it gets too complex I had the feeling that the dishes were not (yet) spot-on with a clear message, especially when reflecting on the trout and the plaice.

Having this in mind (and my intro about the star system), from my perspective the highest laurels are in sight but not yet there. Compared to my last visit, however, they are closer. A unique handwriting is discernible but needs some polishing… I expect that Jürgens will be ever more motivated when the new kitchen and restaurant will be ready in December. Put him on the watch list. At least I will.

Identity Crisis? – Not in Flanders!

IFS — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:16:15 +0000

Crisis – what crisis? Sure, there still is something like a financial crisis which hit also the fine dining world quite significantly…

But an identity crisis? Hmm.

The so-called ‘new naturals’ have left their own footprint by continuing the tradition of Michel Bras and Marc Veyrat to fully embrace the regional produce and its distinct character. Important protagonists are Antonio Aduriz (Mugaritz), David Kinch (Manresa), and, most importantly, Rene Redzepi of noma. Basically, he managed to put Scandinavia on every foodie’s map. It represents a re-focus on regional products (here Scandinavian) in a modern and authentic way. Having dined at noma, MR and Geranium I must say that this a quite distinct and unique approach to the fine dining experience as it clearly abandons with the usual suspects of luxury ingredients which I find more and more boring.

The interesting question for me is: can the Scandinavian new naturals model be transferred to other regions?

After the dinner ‘Service a 6 mains‘ at In de Wulf the answer is undoubtedly yes. There is no identity crisis, at least not for Kobe Desramaults (In de Wulf, 1*), Filip Claeys (De Jonkman, 1*) and Alexandre Gauthier (La Grenouillère, 1*) who joined forces to present a cuisine rooted in Flanders focusing on their regional products.

Filip Claeys, Alexandre Gauthier and Kobe Desramaults (left to right)

But not only the approach to cooking was novel but also the way of bringing their message across. To disseminate their agenda they invited bloggers from all over the world (Trine, Laurent, Bruno, FoodSnob, Bernhard, and Stephen Harris (the owner/chef at The Sportsman, representing Steve P from Opinionated About)) along with traditional food journalists. Not to forget the one and only Piet de Kersgieter who took those brilliant photos (however, most of the photos on this post are mine unless indicated).

And here it links up to the financial crisis – both a clear differentiating profile and new ways of ‘marketing’ are good answers…

A special evening in Flanders

To cut a long story short, the dishes, the presentation, the vibrant atmosphere of this very special evening were unique and very much authentic. It lived and breathed the spirit behind the concept and dishes as well as the pride for their local produce. A pride, I have to admit, I had only seen at noma before… And, most importantly, the dishes of the three different chefs integrated seamlessly in one menu even though each has his own handwriting…

The Three Protagonists (with Kobe in action)

Menu "Identity Crisis"!?

Kobe kicked off with an IdW classic, his whelks served as finger food together with their mayonnaise. Very programmatic as the Northern common whelk, Buccinum unatum, is a very specific local product – one even says that the name whelk originates from this regions. A bit chewy at first, the mayo softens the mouthfeel and creates a nice flavour interplay with the truly fresh and iodine whelk. A feeling like a fresh catch immediately comes up. Excellent.

Whelks

Kobe’s second amuse, pork, is another IdW classic, a pork soufflé seasoned with a local honey vinegar. Very good, crispy pork taste in every bite with a nice sweet-sour undertone.

Pork

Alexandre then served seawater which is a very modest description of the dish but captures the essence. Seabass is marinated with olive oil, oyster and seaweed and then infused with a jus of oyster, seaweed, basil. This created a truly unique feeling – I had almost the impression of standing at the sea and having the catch of the day just rare from the ship. Authentic, excellent.

Seawater

The last amuse (guess who’s prepared it..) was cheek of ray accompanied with a true hazelnut, a hazelnut and a herbs (cinnamon, cardamom, fennel among others) mayonnaise. Somehow, hazelnut is en vogue these days (in this area at least) as I had an outstanding eel with hazelnut at De Jonkman and a langoustine dish at Oud Sluis recently. Here, even though the dish was rather small it could cope with a whole hazelnut – the combination with the deep and nutty mayo on the one hand and the herbal and slightly spicy worked amazingly well. And, the ray could really leave his footprint – a local catch, needless to say… Bravo, Filip!

Cheek of Ray

A nice Cremant D’Alsace from Marcel Deiss accompanied all amuse. It doesn’t need to be champagne to get the diner in the right mood…

The real menu then started with seabass, wild herbs, pickled vegetables. On our table, I had some conversation with Trine and Foodsnob about this dish. At first, it appeared to us that something would be missing, a more rustic or spicy element. But, then after some discussion we agreed that it just has to be that way – a fresh, herbal and slightly sour intro to the menu. Otherwise it would have been too dense for a menu starter. Clever dramaturgy, I must say…

The surprising and elevating element was the accord with the local Westouter wine which not only supported the dish but strengthened the acidity and fruit of the dish. As Laurent stated: original – nothing to add.

Seabass, Wild Herbs, Pickled Vegetables

Entre Deux Monts Westouter, Chardonnay-Pinot Gris 2008

Next up was weever, fennel, chard, red orach. Wow, this was one of the clear highlights of the night. Filip came to each table elaborating about this very dish. Very emotionally he told us that his father who was a local fisher used to catch weever but it was not frequently used because there are better sea products. How wrong.

Filip plating the Weever (thanks to Laurent)

Filip takes the weever, marinades it in fennel oil, cooks it at low temperature sous-vide for 24 hours and then fries it shortly in the pan. And that really pays off as otherwise the fish will dry out soon. Here, the fish was incredible juicy and very delicate – served with fennel purée, a jus of pork broth, fennel, vinegar and white wine, local red orach (like spinach on the bottom and a leaf on top) and wonderful sweet-sour chard which tasted a bit like a herbal rhubarb. Outstanding accord of flavours and textures, a very stringent and immensely clever and unique composition. Everyone at our table agreed that we would not complain if this would be served at a 3* restaurant. Chapeau!

Weever

Movia, Rebula, Slovénie 2006

‘Simple’ dishes can be just simple or radical – although I have never at La Grenouilliere I had a lengthy chat with Laurent about Alexandre’s cuisine. He clearly pushes the borders and evokes strong feelings with his dishes. Same here at pickles, tarama: the char-grilled cucumber is accompanied with a tarragon cream (a little less would have been better), cod eggs, a thin slices of bacon, that’s it. However, the spectrum of flavours turned out to be less than simple – rustic, herbal, fishy, smoky and a whole array of textures as well. Admittedly, a dish for the more advanced eater;-) Excellent!

Pickles, Tarama

Savennières, Clos de Coulaine, Claude Papin, 2007

Another radical and stunning dish: lobster, juniper. A piece of impeccably prepared lobster hidden in a bush of juniper berries which had been burned using a Bunsen burner. With the smell of freshly burned greens the outstanding lobster had to be found and then eaten with our hands. It created an almost magical moment – a delicacy for all senses. The only compromise was that the lobster was Canadian as an Oosterschelde lobster would have been much too expensive for this… Perfect match with the Pouilly!

Lobster, Juniper

Brett Brothers, Pouillly-Vinzelles « Les Quarts » 2003

Mains began with Kobe’s pigeon from “Steenvorde” cooked in hay, vegetables “Zwartemoelen”, jus of hay.

Pigeon Cooked in Hay

After this nice presentation the plated version did not bad either A perfect (!) pigeon, tender, juicy, slightly perfumed with hay and very near the benchmark blue pigeon I had at Arzak… The whole plate was in pure equilibrium with the tiny sand of burnt onion providing the very special kick of a sweet, sour and rustic seasoning. Excellent!

Pigeon

Moric, Blaufrankisch, Autriche, 2007

Kobe Explaining the Pigeon Dish

Then, the second highlight of the evening, for me at least (and some others at my table): wild duck “Damme”, girolles, spring onions, elderberry jus. A clear step-up in intensity, the wild duck was amazingly tender, the combination with the chanterelles and the sweet al dente spring onion worked very well. But, the key element was the mousse of wild duck confit which elevated the dish into new heights. On the one hand the creaminess softened the quite rustic character of the duck and made it more agreeable. On the other hand the reduced and intense taste of the confit quasi prolonged the gamey flavour and strengthened it. Simply outstanding!

A wine from Morocco? Well, the winemaker is French but he tries to cultivate Syrah in Northern Africa. A wine which has to be opened in the afternoon a couple of hours before drinking this Syrah had enough strength and spiciness to accompany this wonderful dish.

Wild Duck

Tandem, Alain Graillot, Morocco, Syrah 2007

Somewhere in between the menu they proudly carried a nice piece of beef into the dining room…

Bœuf de Flandres Occidentale

… and Kobe elaborated that it stems from the local race of Bœuf de Flandres Occidentale. A local biodynamic farmer has preserved it and is thinking to start breeding this rare species again. Today, only around 50 specimen do exist…

Getting ready... (thanks to Laurent)

The beef was shortly roasted and then simply served on one plate on the middle of the table. Eaten with the hands as a short intermezzo (not appearing on the menu) this was very delicate, tender, beefy, pure and very much capturing the spirit of the Flanders night. My advice to the producer would be to start the upbringing yesterday…

Plated

Desserts… Well, Belgium and especially the region around IdW is famous for its beer. Characteristic of the area it focuses not on the blonde traditional beer but rather the stark darker beers with lots of intensity. So, why not use that in a dessert? Kobe presented bacon “kaantjes” with “Pannepot” beer. Kaantjes results from baking bacon until only the crisp bacon without fat remains. As far as I recall this was used as textural crispy sand underneath the Pannepot beer ice cream. Intense and a very clever transition from the savor courses towards the sweeter desserts… Excellent – what a nice match with the beer…

Bacon "kaantjes" with "Pannepot" beer

Bière Struise Brouwers, Pannepot

Very elaborate, Filip continued with white chocolate, raspberry, mint “Chartreuse”. At my recent diner at De Jonkman I had a similar dish with respect to its construction but very different in ‘content’. Here, a white chocolate ball is presented and one pours mint tea seasoned with Chartreuse over it. Doing so the hidden elements of raspberries, yoghurt infused with mint, caramel of white Szechuan pepper, sablé of vanilla papa cru and ice cream of raspberries and red basil. Wow! Haute couture at the table – only the picture(s) of Piet can really capture this masterpiece! Outstanding!

White Chocolate

Maculan, Dindarello, Italie 2006

Another provocative dish by Alexandre: handful of sand. Banana sand and a crème of parsley, that’s it. But the result on one’s mouth is quite compelling – there is a difference in textures, there is a harmony in flavours and the much hated banana (for me, that is) turns out to be delicious. Maybe because the creaminess has changed sides as the parsley is creamy and the banana more on the sandy side. Amazing.

Handful of Sand

Champagne Gobillard & Fils, Blanc de blanc

After such a meal (14 courses up to now) it makes much sense to end with a light plate: sorrel, lemon mint prepared by Kobe. A fresh, intense and herbal final which nicely bracketed the menu from the seabass dish onwards. Excellent.

Sorrel, Lemon Mint

Overall

This was a very compelling showcase of what regional cuisine could achieve without ‘luxury’ ingredients. The whole menu had an all-encompassing idea which was interpreted with different handwritings – the naturalness of Kobe, the elaborateness of Filip and the radicalism and Rock’ n Roll of Alexandre. All together a seemless string of pearls which made this evening very special.

Not to be repetitive but the most striking aspect was the authenticity of the whole experience, the pride which the chefs showed when explaining their dishes and the resulting vibrant atmosphere. As if the noma spirit had been transported to Flanders.

If that’s possible in Flanders why not elsewhere? The good thing is that every interpretation of the new naturals theme will unique because each region is unique. I wish we could find a German version soon… Could be a sound differentiation in the crisis and beyond…

Joachim Wissler – Up to New Heights?

IFS — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:11:17 +0000

Vendôme (thanks to Food Snob)

A new menu concept? Interesting. Exactly when I dined at Aqua I received a mail about a new menu concept at Vendôme – 8 courses (plus desserts) at €150, 12 courses (plus desserts) at €190, and finally 16 courses (+ 8 desserts) in the grand “explorative voyage” at €245 – full stop.

Well beyond the price point of any other German three star restaurant (Amador is second with €209 for his 20+ course menu including micro menu and dessert tapas). In the midst of a quite substantial crisis which has hit the high-end gastronomy worldwide. Brave?

On the other hand, the old menu consisted of 7 courses together with some amuse, pre-dessert and petit four priced at €185. So, more value for money in the end?

Or does it only mean that all “extras” ar listed including amuse etc.?

Besides the numbers, what’s the philosophy behind? Surely, this can’t be about simply serving more courses. When introducing the menu concept on the website Joachim Wissler talks about “development” and that his menu is more than just serving small successive courses combing nature’s best products. He stresses that “the “how” and “what” are the aspects that truly characterize this new step. In it more attention is also placed on some of the treasures of our own neglected cuisine, which is generally referred to as “New German Cuisine”.“

Enough questions, time for answers. Booked a table for four, but unfortunately Steve P and Mrs P could not accompany us. So, only the two of us went end of May.

Our menu:

Our Grand Voyage

Somehow, the layout immediately struck me as something quite familiar having dined at Alinea… And I could not figure out the meaning of the bubbles here, but never mind.

One of the questions got answered immediately: there were nibbles (thank you, Andy Hayler, for this term – I really like it) not listed on the printed menu card.

On the left: smoked cottage cheese with raspberry and basilic – the freshness of the fruit worked amazingly well with the smoky cheese with its distinct mouth feel. Excellent.

On the right: lolly of goat cheese, mackerel on top of a baked polenta and eel with peach – here the eel stood out strongly as again the fruit – smoky combination provided the little extra kick. Excellent again.

The first element of the ‘real’ menu: Knäckebrot / crab / mussels / Frankfurt green sauce. Personally, I would count it rather as an amuse (or nibble). Served a little bit too warm the flavours could not really unfold. This was further exacerbated by the bread being not crisp enough resulting in a un-differentiated flavour profile. Moreover, some acidity would have done well to provide a broader spectrum of flavours.

Knäckebrot

Next up was ‘Blätterwald’ / brittle of vegetables / goose yoghurt dip. Another amuse, for me at least. Visually stunning, this was hard to eat as it turned out to be a bit ’sticky’ especially for my fingers and teeth. Taste-wise, the cauliflower and the celery were clear stand-outs, algae and beetroot were still good. The dip provided a nice richness and so complemented the crispy ‘chips’. Very good.

Blätterwald

For me, the first starter clearly showed the immense talent and perfection of Joachim Wissler: coral / parmesan / foie gras / basil pistou. The coral is made of parmesan topped with tomato salt and parmesan espuma, with a kind of foie gras ‘pudding’ (like an unburned crème brûlée), basil pistou (a pesto without pine nuts), accompanied by some balsamic vinegar and a truffled tapanade. Clearly the texture of the coral made this dish special – crisp at first when bitten and then soft and melting in the mouth. The parmesan was not too dominating and I found the herbal – rich – cheesy combination quite nice. Compared to the foie gras dish at my last visit (the foie gras ice with tuna belly and eucalyptus) this was a significant improvement – a masterpiece in dimensioning and textural interplay.

Coral

Next up was oyster / green apple and sauerkraut / Aquitaine caviar – a dish I have already commented on. But, hey, wait a moment – this time the caviar was completely missing and the apple was not as sparkling fresh as before. Yet, this dish is a benchmark in flavour and texture combinations. Excellent.

Oyster

The following langoustine / grilled sushi / tonic and ginger was fantastic. The langoustine was covered by its corail and laid over a purée of basmati rice. Its clearly pronounced roast flavours formed a wonderful contrast to the slightly bitter, sweet and alcoholic ‘gin tonic’ sugo and the crunchy eatable paper of dashi, shiso and horseradish. A couple of weeks before this had been served with green almonds which were not in season any more. I could imagine this more herbal element could have elevated the dish even higher. Excellent to outstanding.

Langoustine

The warm octopus / sepia / octopus marshmallow was another ‘old friend’ – this time the caramelized peanut jus was even more pronounced and worked particularly well with the octopus, sepia, sliced spring onion and cucumber salad. A part Wissler served a sepia marshmallow topped with sliced cuttlefish, cress and seaweed – primarily a mouthfeel effect which provides a nice contrast to the firmer salad elements. It somehow softens the whole dish. A showcase – simply outstanding.

Then, the star of the night: meadow / of mushrooms / glazed bone marrow. This is an ingenious play of textures with a tartar of mushrooms, mushroom crème and mushroom bread crumble with herbs accompanied with glazed bone marrow. The latter added significant depth to the dish and some meaty element. In spirit this is close to the Spanish avantgarde and its virtual landscapes – one can really imagine walking through a meadow with mushrooms in the morning. Divine.

Meadow of Mushrooms

For me, at this time of the meal it did not seem much different to a normal, yet extended tasting menu as the courses did not very much in size or had a surprising flavour dramaturgy. Hmm…

After these ‘entrees’ a couple of ‘intermediate’ courses followed. First, sweet water / lake trout / horseradish / char caviar. The trout from Bavaria was of outstanding quality, firm, not fatty at all and topped with its fried skin and the char caviar which added both texture and smokiness. The sugo of bay leaf, cucumber and chives made this quite special as the herbal notes literally carried the trout on a sedan and complemented the aroma spectrum with herbal, sour and fresh notes. Ultimately, the spheres of apple and horseradish took up the fruit theme and added some spiciness and, most importantly, a yet different texture and mouthfeel. Excellent to outstanding.

A prime example that ‘regional’ products can indeed play an important role in high-end cuisine. Of course, one needs an outstanding product which is the most difficult part as a perfect turbot is easier to source from the usual suspects. But to find a reliable small producer in Bavaria who can consistently deliver high quality is hard. Here, the German chefs begin to exchange addresses and work together if one has been lucky to find a suitable product.

Sweet Water - Sea Trout

Then, sea water / skate wing / curcuma – coriander sugo / rice gnocchi. Grilled skate wing topped with caramelized peas served with rice gnocchi, apple/celery ‘tartar’ and a wonderful sugo of curcuma and coriander. Admittedly, I like curcuma very much and that made the dish special for me. But, on the other hand, there was rice purée in the langoustine dish and apple turned up in several dishes before. However, I did not have the impression of this dish being repetitive as it showed a distinct range of flavours. Only the skate wing was a tad overdone – an excellent dish overall.

Sea Water - Skate Wing

The next course was the first small bite: spheres of vineyard snails. A clear step-up in intensity which I found a bit distracting when looking at the previous and the next course – I would have served it before the mains. The sphere contained braised snails and snail sugo, accompanied by parsley purée in a morel jus and topped with a vinegar caramel some snail dust. For me, the caramell was a bit too dominating. In itself, the parsley somehow ameliorated the intensity and brought a bit freshness. Serving two spoons per head is not necessary, the idea is apparent after one – the second made me feel somehow full.

Snails

Given the intense flavours of the snails one would not expect tuna / fish & chips / pommes frites nicoise: tuna belly garnished with its bone, topped with capers, tomato powder on the left – black olive and sugar to the left served with french fries in a bowl of a cream of tomato, white beans and vadouvan.

For me, this was a quite controversial dish. I liked the presentation, I love tuna and french fries and I am open to eating with the hands. Even the flavour combination worked well. But, the dish turned out to be too fatty to me, even unpleasant to eat – for me, that is. Some minutes afterward I felt really full and nearly collapsed due to a combination of sensory overkill and the sheer amount of food so far. All those portions had not been amuse size…

Tuna

Given my level of saturation the next dishes were hard to enjoy for me despite them being really good. I fought hard not to end the meal… In the end, it paid off…

The next course was a bit too soft given the intense and broad flavours of the previous dishes: cod – head to tail. My notes read tongue, cheek and the forehead – compared to Food Snob’s version of this, Wissler had included the forehead wrapped around chives which gave a nice fleshy – herbal counterpoint to the slightly sweet pea sauce. In the middle the cheek was served almost rare accompanied by two pieces of grilled tongue – a nice textural contrast. Covered by chives, radish and peas this was an excellent dish but more subtle and less remarkable than the previous fish courses. And, again, I would have served it between the sweet and sea water.

Interestingly, this is a good example that also ‘leftovers’ in the kitchen can make up an excellent dish. So, in this sense, this dish contributed to a more modern all-encompassing take on high-end dining and an abandonment of the terrain of the usual luxury product ingredients.

Cod

After that, a first (pre-)main course was served: Schweinerei zum Essen (hard to translate – a kind of word play – eatable swinishness, maybe). A braised pork tail, crispy resembling the essence of real pork taste, a strong pork jus, pickles of melon, melon salat and algae. Excellent if one likes this strong flavour. And, again, a bit on the fatty side.

Schweinerei

The second main: Juvelin suckling pig / lovage / boudin noir / Ligurian mountain lentils – essentially the same dish as in October last year but with a big chunk of boudin noir (this time called Flönz on the German menu card which is a regional expression for boudin noir in the Cologne area) and some chanterelles, but without the pork chop. In essence, still excellent, but the boudin noir was too much and a bit dominating this time.

As I said on my last report, this is a nice signature dish for Wissler as it both shows the rustic side of his cooking, his love for pig dishes and German products.

Juvelin Suckling Pig

The third main: Sauerbraten / of ox / sandwich of bread baked in a wood-fired oven. Sauerbraten is perhaps one of the most common German dishes: the Rhineland version of it was traditionally prepared using horse meat but today beef is used. The trick is to marinade the beef up to one week in red wine vinegar, red wine, mirepoix and bay leaf among other spices. It is then braised for a couple of hours and has a characteristic sour taste and should be tender enough to melt in your mouth. To be sure, there are also other variants of it…

So, what does Wissler do? He takes ox meat and marinates it traditionally but then cooks it sous-vide such that both the juiciness was preserved and tenderness ensured. In a way, the mouthfeel was similar to a traditional braised Sauerbraten yet it was light-years juicier. Successful modernization. On top, there were caramelized sunflower seeds which added texture but were a bit too overpowering the delicate meat. The Stielmus purèe (a regional vegetable) added herbal and fresh notes. I was not particularly fond of the sandwich of Sauerbraten jelly which again was more on the rich and fatty side. In my view, this nevertheless excellent dish could gain tremendously from some lightness and flavour contrast – maybe some fruity notes?

Sauerbraten

At an earlier point we had already cancelled the cheese course. Then, the dessert ballet started – eight ’small’ dishes arrived quickly, some of them together. Somehow, this was unneccessary and disturbing as the diner at this very point of the grand voyage is at his limit. Thus, the capacity to really appreciate this sheer amount of different, very elaborate and excellent desserts is rather limited. Definitely, less would be more.

Haut kross von der Milch – a mascarpone cream served with crispy milk skin and caramel sirup. Intense, broad flavour, interesting textures. Then rose water sorbet and strawberry coulis – a really refreshing, light and really delicate counterpart after a couple of dishes more on the heavy side.

Another fresh and fruity dessert was next – snowball filled with strawberries, essentially an interplay of yoghurt and intense and fresh strawberries which continued on the side with strawberry salad with hibiscus ice cream. As a last strawberry element we were served goose milk-rice and Gariguette strawberry salad. All in all a very new declination of different strawberry flavours paired with crunchy, airy and soft element. Excellent to outstanding.

The macron of Fourme D’Ambert with raspberry sorbet was the least pleasant part of the whole menu – the strong cheese was overpowering everything and the macron was much too big. Finally we got a ‘Mohr im Hemd‘ – a choco soufflé with egg liquor. Very nice, intense, but a very heavy ending… Some petit fours including the Vendôme Magnum (a favorite ice cream) ended the meal.

We also did some drinking but in order to be able to concentrate on the culinary journey we chose to select a bottle of Christmann Idig, a nice present Riesling from 2004, and half a bottle Marinetti Barolo from 2001. Both were very nice companions during our meal.

Overall

In a meal of 20+ courses one rarely encounters this consistent high-end quality. Every dish was in itself well-thought through, technically masterly prepared and elaborate up to the utmost detail. Flavours were clear, distinct and unique and textures are there to enhance flavours not to be textures for their own sake. Especially the mushroom meadow really did impress me.

Coming back to the numbers from the beginning, €245 is a lot but given the amount and quantity of food it does resemble a good price-quality relationship – especially when compared to the most prestigious French houses. And indeed, the overall experience was much better than recently at Troisgros, Arnsbourg or even Bras (reports coming up)…

The only downside – the menu composition: on the one hand, after the initial fish courses the tuna and the pork turned out too fatty and kind of overdid it for me. With this sheer amount of food the whole tone of the menu needs to be lighter for me. On the other hand, rustic notes like in the pig dishes, the snails and the Sauerbraten are quite programmatic for Wissler. Thus, to bring a 20+ course menu and Wissler’s style together is a task which I found not yet truly accomplished. One possibility could be to go only for the medium version of the voyage or lighten up the overall menu without compromising Wissler’s style…

In this context, let’s come back to the beginning – the new menu concept. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the individual dishes is clearly beyond criticism but the dramaturgy was not that new – compared to what Grant Achatz is doing in breaking up the old menu dramaturgy. As Grant says in his book, with the traditional menu dramaturgy diners tend to get bored and overburdened. Not that I got bored at Vendôme but it clearly brought me to my limit to fully appreciate what I was eating. I would wish that Joachim Wissler will also innovate on his menu composition and maybe change something to make the grand voyage even more enjoyable. And, maybe less or smaller desserts would also benefit the experience.

If Wissler ‘fixes’ that and continues to create dishes at that level, maybe sometimes a little more playful, it will take the next stage. It is surely in sight. But then his New German Cuisine will be world-class, at least for me.

Off to Belgium (again): Service à 6 Mains at In de Wulf

IFS — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:57:07 +0000

Well, Belgium and the Netherlands have emerged to a culinary hotspot not only due to Peter Goossens, Sergio Herman and Jonnie Boer ranking among the best chefs in the world. Interestingly, there are many young, very talented chefs who have developed a modern yet distinct culinary style, especially in the Flanders region. At my recent visit there I had fantastic diners at De Jonkman (Filip Claeys has even more emancipated from Sergio compared to last year) and In de Wulf (Kobe Desramaults has created a very unique interpretation of his region – a kind of continental noma but Flanders-style) among others (reviews to come;-) )

Now, Kobe and Filip have joined forces with Alexandre Gauthier from Le Grenouillère in the French part of former Flanders county to show how “their” regional products can be elevated to the culinary high-end. This approach was already very visible at both De Jonkman and In de Wulf when I ate there. But to go the next step, namely to rely mostly on regional produce, it is necessary to cooperate to have synergies in sourcing and logistics. I recall my conversation with René Redzepi when he told war stories from his initial sourcing endeavors…

Filip Claeys, Alexandre Gauthier and Kobe Desramaults (left to right)

Tonight, a service à 6 mains will take place at In de Wulf to present their approach. So I will be off to In de Wulf again and will report back about the fine details. You can also be there – well, virtually at least: the whole evening is broadcasted live on the net by Cuisiner En Ligne (starting at 4 p.m. CET to present the chefs and their products and then again from 8 p.m. onwards). Watch, enjoy, indulge…

Hidden Gems (I): Landgasthof Adler*

IFS — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:51:12 +0000

£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. Well, whereas many German foodies know this place I guess not that many have been there due to the somehow remote location about 90 minutes from Stuttgart.

The Restaurant

Situated in a former post station* in Rosenberg the Adler was sold to the church in near Ellwangen in 1468 and belongs to the Bauer family since 1858. Josef Bauer took over the Landgasthof in 1972 and renovated the Adler step-by-step now exactly signaling the marriage of traditionalism and modernism.

The Landgasthof

After parking the car (hard to reach with public transportation) next to the Linde tree in front of the house (planted in 1877) one enters a special world as immediately after stepping in one is exposed to a rather modern room in pure white to the left. Then an old stairway reminds you again of the rather old building. One level up bright colours spring to your eye as the hall has been painted mostly in green in combination with blue which is continued in the first dining room (Professor Alfred Lutz’ handwriting, a local designer). Note that there is no tablecloth on the white lacquer tables – I still somehow struggle with that. But in a sense it is pure and straightforward (like the cuisine).

Dining Room

There is a second dining room in pure white with black Bauhaus chairs (with tablecloth) mostly used on busy weekends.

The Menu

To be honest the Landgasthof is actually two restaurants in one as the menu includes both regional specialties (like Schwäbischer Rostbraten, braised roastbeef served with onions, Spätzle and the like) and, yes, gourmet cuisine also with a regional touch in terms of products. For a lunch on a typical Sunday you have local pensioners enjoying their Rostbraten and others indulging in a multi-course menu. This mix together with a special warm-hearty service in a truly unique interior makes the Adler so special. Every bit seems natural – the usual tata of fine dining places is just not present.

Back to our menu: whereas I had the feeling that the surprise menu became repetitive I was eating a la carte on my last meals there. But after some time I asked Mrs Bauer (who heads the service brigade) what the four course menu (€58!) would have in stock for us – I heard about new dishes and we followed her suggestion.

Amuses are always traditional – we once had a curry wurst made of zander served on leek. This time Bauer started with a liver dumpling in intense beef broth – simple, delicious, meaty and just very good. Second, lentils with Wiener and Spätzle (Linsen mit Saitenwürschtle – to be very precise) – maybe the best interpretation of this classic I have had so far. The lentils were a bit al dente, yet creamy and formed nice textural contrast to the Wiener whose casing had exactly the right strength (firm – “knackig” if you want). The Spätzle had some roasted breadcrumbs on top which added depth. Everything homemade, of course, a benchmark dish for this region.

First course: aspic of foie gras with pig’s feet and green asparagus. I am not a big fan of aspic but this one clearly demonstrated that the aspic can be useful indeed. The creamy, slightly sweet and rich foie gras (masterly prepared as a terrine from a very good produce) formed a wonderful accord with the rustic pigs feet. The aspic was there just in the right dimension not to let the pigs feet dominate the foie. This accord was supported by a small slices of bacon wrapped around the aspic and the terrine. On top of that accord the asparagus widened the flavour spectrum by adding herbal and fresh notes. Interestingly, the small salad of beet root leaves had a significant textural effect without which the dish would have been incomplete. Intelligent, yummy and excellent.

Pig and Foie

The second course was clearly the star of the night: tomato – tomato – tomato. When we ordered I was a bit disappointed that Bauer’s vegetable salad (a homage to Bras) was not on the menu any more. Mrs Bauer assured me that I simply had to wait for the tomato. This was simply fantastic and maybe the most intense tomato interpretation I have eaten so far (have only seen Amador’s tomato salad once which he served for some middle east guests…). Poor cod – impeccably prepared, juicy and crispy at the same time – he simply did not receive the attention he would normally deserve. Interestingly, the fish was the neutral element which was needed from time to time to clear your palate while degustating this wonderful dish.

The main plate consisted of red and yellow rather sweet cherry tomatoes, large red and yellow flesh tomatoes and some red vine tomatoes topped with a salad of wild herbs, some pesto and tomato air. A part there was a warm gazpacho-like tomato soup with basil and a white and red tomato mousse. Every element served a distinct purpose of accelerating your palate (the intense, slightly hot soup), slowing it down (the mousse) and demonstrating the full array of tomato aroma on the main plate. Again, the salad provided a bit of crunch. A very clever, refined dish made of the very best tomatoes both from local and Italian producers – outstanding. Even after one week this dish is still on my mind…

Tomato - Tomato - Tomato

Our main course was duck with celery and chantarelle risotto. At first this looks somehow disappointing, especially after the tomato parade. But, the surprising element was the celery – it was cooked al dente and then layered like a mille-feuille and thus preserved its al dente texture paired with depth. Really good and a very intense celery aroma. The duck itself was cooked sous-vide I suppose and then carefully roasted, again the flavour of the product was king. Bauer is famous for his almost liquid truffled potato puree but this risotto came close. Very good to excellent.

Duck

A small pre-dessert: a hot mango pudding – wow, excellent.

Pre-dessert

Dessert: hazelnut soufflé with berries and elderflavour ice cream. Again, it was the flavour intensity of the berries in a bath of campagne and elder which caught my breath – just an excellent dessert.

Dessert

Overall

It’s only 1* cuisine but has been awarded 18 points – and, indeed, I see the overall experience on the upper level of 1*. The products (and their flavours) were astonishingly good, the dishes are clearly composed without any unnecessary elements. The tomato dish – as the earlier vegetable salad dish – evoked emotions and I felt like having never eaten real tomatoes so far. Simply amazing and touching.

So, this is by far the best restaurant in a 90 minutes radius from Stuttgart and worth any trip when in this area. Maybe it is not worth coming to Germany only for this gem, but it makes a good addition when travelling in the south. The whole experience, interior and the informal, family-like service makes this so special.

In a way, when reading the Sportsman reviews of my friends (here, here and here) I have the feeling that the Adler is somehow similar in approach, atmosphere, product-quality, obsession of the chef and surprising combinations… Could be a German Sportsman…

Can’t wait to be back!

__________

* Historically the first taverns (Gasthäuser) were located in post stations where the post horsemen changed horses, could receive a hearty meal (and some drinks) and take shelter at night.

The Frankfurt Files (IV): Villa Merton

IFS — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:31:28 +0000

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…

Villa Merton Exterior

The Restaurant

Villa Merton has always been one of my favorite Frankfurt fine dining venues. Located in the Merton quarter inmdist some embassies and nice representative villas, the building houses a private international business club (Union International Club) with a wonderful terrace and garden and the restaurant Villa Merton operated by Kofler. It is just perfect for a nice dinner outside on the terrace or in the beautiful inner rooms.

The interior is classic with a modern touch, very generous in spacing such that the usual business clientele has enough distance not to be overheard from other tables. I quite like the atmosphere and think of wonderful relaxed diners back when Jens Pietzonka was the maitre (now at Bean & Beluga in Dresden)

The Interior

The Chef

After having worked for Horberth at the Villa in 2004 and 2005 Matthias Schmidt returned in February 2008 as a sous. In the mean time he worked for Johannes King (2* in Sylt) and for the legendary Martin Öxle in Stuttgart (Speisemeisterei, then 2*, retired). He could ‘defend’ the star after he took over as chef de cuisine in Summer 2008.

Uwe Lorenz and Matthias Schmidt

The Lunch

Lunch is available in either three or four courses (priced at 34 and 44 Euros respectively) and served with an amuse. If you want you can be quick but we took our time as it was a wonderful reunion with an old friend and business partner (who is also a big fresser). The amuse was a nice veal preparation with some sour cream and herbs. Good.

Amuse

As a first course Schmidt served a tuna tartar with mango chutney. Hard to recognise the tuna as the colour seems to have darkened dramatically – a premier sign of pre-assembled food which was put in the fridge too long. It somehow reminded my of my last Merton experience under Horberth. Ok, but the dish was also not working from a flavour perspective – the mango was of inferior quality (also served too chilled) and the two elements didn’t connect. Poor.

Tuna Tartare

Second course was a pumpkin soup. Nothing more and nothing less. Unfortunately the flavours were not too apparent and the pumpkin seed oil dominated the rather bland soup completely. Overall still an ok dish but certainly not for a Michelin-starred restaurant. Also not for a business lunch. Definitely not.

Pumpkin Soup

Main course: a beef fillet under some crust of overly dominating breadcrumbs, some cheese and herbs served with potatoes and root vegetables which I cannot remember. Just look at the crust – the picture is taken immediately after serving – another dish which was not prepared fresh just before eating. Again not a premier showcase of an ambitious restaurant. The dish itself was ordinary with the beef being of good quality but it resembled nothing I could not easily cook at home. Just ok.

Main Course

Dessert – chocolate ice cream with a mille-feuille of cafe cream and some indefinable fruit (maybe pear). Here, the execution was lacking precision as the mille-feuille was not crunchy and rather wet. The elements altogether didn’t make any sense. Poor.

Dessert

Overall

First and foremost, this lunch did not provide a good showcase for a restaurant which holds a Michelin star and aims to be one of Frankfurt top places. In this respect I completely disagree with the latest ranking of a local magazine which put Merton on number one before Bittner or Lohninger (a combined Silk/Micro review coming up soon) – and there are light-years in quality, execution and dedication between those places. Dedication, i.e. the willingness to go the ‘extra mile’ for the diner was not visible at all at our lunch. In the end the learning is obvious (at least for, that is): if someone serves such an inferior and mostly poor lunch I am not willing to go back for dinner. Maybe dinner is better – but even with better products and more advanced creations (and higher prices) the team (i.e. execution and attitude) stays the same for dinner and this makes me fly a ‘NO GO’ flag. Interestingly, some foodie friends told me that their dinner experience was not much better… Sad, as the place and setting is truly special and the service is good.

Aqua – Play it Again, Sven!

IFS — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:15:13 +0000

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

The Chef

Sven Elverfeld is maybe the most modest and down-to-earth (in the best sense) three star chef in Germany. Born in Hanau close to Frankfurt he was first trained as a pastry chef / confectioner at the Stadtbäckerei Schadeberg in Bruchköbel (which became an excellent chocolate manufacture with three outlets) but then decided that this was not ‘enough’ and also became a chef – interestingly his second apprenticeship took place at the LSG, the ‘cuisine’ of Lufthansa, so no-one can really claim that these guys cannot cook, at least theoretically that is…

His first commis post was in the Rheingau at Gutsschänke Schloss Johannisberg where Dieter Biesler was chef de cuisine. Biesler is an institution among German chefs having worked as chef de cuisine in the Restaurant Walterspiel (the one Walterspiel I was talking about here). Sadly, he closed his Weinstube Biesler in Hannover end of 2008. For Elverfeld this first post was clearly a stroke of luck as Biesler is re-known for superior craftsmanship in cooking, excellent product know-how and a dedication to perfecting traditional and rustic dishes. So Elverfeld underwent a really solid further development of his cooking skills. Another classic master, Willi Tetz, followed in the legendary Humperdinck in Frankfurt (one of the first fine dining places in town besides the Brückenkeller).

Enlightenment, the interest for Haute Cuisine, for the truly special moments on the plate came at Dieter Müller. Quite a stretch coming from Bielser and Tetz but Elverfeld could build on his superior technical skills. Three years in Lerbach from demi chef to chef de partie were formative and also some kind of burden for his development as it took some years to really emancipate himself from Müller’s style. On his way Elverfeld worked in Kreta, for Katherina Hessler back in Hesse, in Dubai at the Ritz-Carlton before he became chef de cuisine at the Aqua in the Ritz-Carltron Wolfsburg in 2000. First star in 2001, second in 2005 and finally the third in 2009 together with 19 points in the Gault Millau.

Sven Elverfeld

The Restaurant

Designed by Andrée Putman the Aqua is truly modern but time-less in a way – still young and fresh after nine years. Especially at night the mood is quite inspiring when looking at the old lighted VW powerhouse (besides the 40m pool on the small lake they recently build an outside spa).

The Ritz-Carlton & the old Powerhouse

For me, the Aqua interior is very relaxing like a small oasis in the very technical and modern surroundings of the Autostadt, mainly due to its warm colours it is hard not to like it… Interestingly, it seems to me that Elverfeld’s cooking as gradually assimilated to the ambiance;-)

Aqua Interior

The Menu

There are two menus ‘Visionen‘ and ‘Impressionen‘ whereas the names should speak for themselves but in the end I found the dishes from the first not that more visionary than the others, it is merely a function of how long the dishes are on the menu. Visionen encompasses the newer dishes. We left the choice of what to serve to Sven Elverfeld and he surprised us with the following:

Our Menu

The festival kicks off with Knusperillos which are frequently new interpretations of German classics – the caramelized Kalamata olive is certainly not to top in flavour intensity. This is a kick-start to your palate engine – similar as the infamous szechuan button reset of Juan Amador (missing on my last visit there now that I think of it).

On the forefront the confectioner shows – just look how filigree the work is with utmost care to small details: Preßsack red/white (a terrine of pork’s head), a cornet of slightly marinated liverwurst (how yummy) and the Bavarian specialty Obatzda (Camembert mixed with butter and onions seasoned with red bell pepper, caraway and salt – the most important bring-along in a beer garden). By the way, Elverfeld has designed the acrylic tableware himself.

Knusparillos & Olive

The second ‘amuse’ is always soup and spoon degustation. The soups are maybe the very last sign of Dieter Müller as Sven Elverfeld clearly carries on the tradition of very intense and spot-on soups without too much cream, here a a slightly spicy onion soup with sobresada air and creamy field salad soup with potato air. On the spoon Insalata Caprese in textures and crayfish with pataya-mango, vinegar carrots and garden sorrel. A perfect and delicious ouverture!

Soup & Spoon

Oh, by the way the ‘amuse’ are always accompanied by a glas of wine served in the black Riedel glas – whatever you do you cannot even see the colour. Sommelier Jürgen Giesel always tries to wow and surprise the diner. Successfully so this time again, we thought of an rosé but it turned out to be a 2005 Salice Salentino by Giovani- ok, maybe next time…

Wine Surprise in the Black Riedel

First course: gateau of foie gras with raspberries and Tasmanian pepper. Rightfully a dish from the Impressionen menu as I had a former version of it in November 2007 but without the intensive crème brulée, served with raspberry granite and vinegar air. This second element made this dish extraordinary – in itself it was rich and succulent, sweet and acidic, a true masterpiece. Interestingly, back then, when I ate only the gateau there was missing something. Somehow Elverfeld found the missing piece: it brings the necessary depth (yes, yes, I like that) to the interplay of various textures and flavours in the forefront. A truly remarkable further development and already kind of a signature dish… Excellent.

Fantastic pairing with the Muscat from Tschepe as it has just the right amount of sweetness and acidity to stand the sweet-sour interplay of the dish itself.

Foie Gras & Raspberries

2007 Muscat Auslese, Tschepe, Austria

Next up was a new approach towards serving Brittany sardine: marinated sardine with potato-lettuce, tangerine and speck – interesting and new enough to be on the Visionen menu. Looking at the plate you can almost feel the suspense coming up as the combination is more than unusual. Again, you can grasp that Elverfeld had been trained as a confectioner as it shows in the plating.

Elverfeld had served sardine with Abate Fetel (a very special and intense pear variety), eggplant and smoked paprika which worked similarly but this was much richer and more accentuated in flavour. As before the sardine fillets are marinated with fish broth, oil and vinegar and cooked at low temperature (58°) but now served on a compote of sweet potato with tangerine pieces inside, warm potato salad with bacon (speck) espuma on top, lettuce jelly and a almost liquid jelly of tangerine with small pieces of bacon inside. On top of the tangerine jelly there is bacon granite (as on the lettuce jelly) and popcorn of tangerine oil (made by using liquid nitrogen).

The harmony of the various elements was astonishing – you can’t go wrong in combining them, it always creates a wonderful accord. Interestingly, the smokiness of the sardines is repeated and the modified by the speck and the tangerine has exactly the right amount of sweetness to balance the more rustic lettuce and potato salad flavours. The textures are also noteworthy as there is no real crunchy element (like the usual chips of some fried something) but the small bacon pieces are a sufficient bite. Oh, and the combination of tangerine and sardine as well as the contrast in temperatures worked really well – ingenious! A truly outstanding dish!

Although I am not a big fan of Rieslings from Baden (I prefer the ones from Palatinate / Pfalz as there are more fruity) the Stigler had enough minerality, fruitiness and acidity to literally dance with the dish.

The Sardine

2005 Ihringer Winklerberg, Riesling Spätlese F36, Weingut Stigler / Baden

Time for the first departure of our meal as I received the Yellowfin tuna ’sous vide’ with black garlic (Visionen) and my companion got Orkney salmon & kohlrabi with rhubarb sweet-sour (Impressionen).

Never had a tuna cooked sous vide before but the result was really convincing as it kept the moisture without being too rare what you normally get if you slightly roast the tuna on every side. So tender, juicy and delicate the main product really shined and created a nice contrast with the fresh and iodic algae. Japanese black garlic is fashionable these days as I had it in Berlin, Schloss Berg and recently at Amador – Elverfeld’s approach is different though – he serves it as in oil-like consistence and thus the essence of the sweet-sour flavour becomes emphasized. Pak choi (between the algae and black garlic cream) is the green vegetable backbone of this dish. Excellent!

Viognier is always difficult to combine as it turns out to be rich and oily – but the one from Kleinood (nice name!) was not that dominant and really accentuated the sweet and sour flavours of both dishes.

Tuna

2006 Viognier, Kleinood, South Africa

The salmon was incredible – perfectly cooked sous-vide having a benchmark salmon taste, natural fish flavour, meaty, but not fatty or fishy. More on the subtle side this dish was a perfect opener for spring, light and delicate. The rhubarb sweet-sour is a frequently used element of Elverfeld and adds freshness and intensity to the balance the more rustic kohlrabi and salmon. Outstanding!

Salmon

Next up was rouget barbet & veal sweetbread ‘à la Grenobloise’ with parsley, capers & finger limes (Visionen). One of Elverfeld’s key themes is to modernize ‘classic’ dishes (like his cod with mixed pickles or the sole Finkenwerder Art). ‘A la grenobloise’ is a classic french recipe serving fish with brown butter, capers, lemon and parsley – all these elements are also present in this new and immensely lightened version. Eating it creates some kind of deja-vu of fond childhood memories when I ate this in the south of France. And, the trick is that Elverfeld appeals to your imagination in reviving and modifying your precious memories. Hard to describe as it is both known and unknown, security and insecurity on one plate. Both the finger limes (as the lemon element) and the brown bread crumble together with some caramelized scales on top of the rouget made this really special. Excellent to outstanding!

Our next wine is typical for Jürgen Giesel who always searches for unknown and also exotic wines, especially from Greece and Hungary. Assyrtiko is a auchotone grape from the volcanic island of Santorini and has a fresh lemon and mineralic taste. Due to the Barrique oak notes the wines is strong enough to stand the next two courses. Evharis is said to be one the best producers of this wine. Another excellent choice!

Rouget Barbet & Sweetbread

2004 Assyrtiko Barrique, Evharis, Greece

Next for me was warm smoked eel with boskop and parsnip, eel liver ‘Berliner Art’. Another stunner – especially for me as I loved liver in my youth (maybe I am a rare species) served with potato puree, roasted apple slices and onion rings (well, to be honest I left out the apple and onions quite often). Well, it wasn’t eel liver I have to admit but this is once more a playful appeal to vivid memories. You can be sure it takes some eel to yield that large liver, and it is not cheap (truly a luxurious product).The taste is like a very good veal liver but cleaner / purer and not fish-like at all.

The dish as a whole was just delicious even despite the fact that I am not a big fan of eel (remember the famous eel scene in The Blechrommel by Volker Schlöndorf?). Really a complex construction but easy to comprehend and yummy in the end – excellent!

My companion had a wonderful (her comment) skate wing with pine nut vinaigrette, Andalusian Tomato which I didn’t try but I trust her:-)

Skate Wing

The highlight of the meal for me: Garimori pork ‘Secreto’, charcoal-grilled with Andalusian tomato red/green (Impressionen). Garimori is one of the finest producers of Iberian pork and it really is fantastic – real pork taste but not too pronounced, incredibly tender and juicy – wow. Perfectly grilled, the charcoal flavour gently kissed the Secreto and refined it. Together with the different intense tomato preparations, the potato/sour cream combination (hello, my dear fellow steak house visitors ) Elverfeld has created a truly memorable dish!

Garimori Pork 'Secreto'

2005 im one, Amani, South Africa

Instead of a spare plate for my companion – the infamous sorbet… Well, sorbets before the main course are somewhat in discussion recently – but I like them as an refreshing element if they are not too sweet or sour. The Champagne créme sorbet “Grand Vintage 2000″ Moët & Chandon surely qualifies for being on the list of simply delicious and perfectly made sorbets, a nice palate cleanser and still up-to-date.

Champagne Crème Sorbet

Boeuf Stroganow (Visionen) – again a reinterpretation of a classic dish: Elverfeld uses a fillet from Simmental which is more subtle than Argentinian or US beef and much different than my recent Wagyu or Kobe experiences. Its aromatic and fresh taste stems from the herbs on the alp meadows and it is simple delicious.

Funnily, when Christian Bau presented us his fantasy menu his main course was Boeuf Stroganow also with Simmetal beef without knowing that Elverfeld is in fact serving this. Maybe now it becomes clear to me that my confusion at Schloss Berg was merely whether I was sitting in the wrong restaurant

In the reality at Wolfsburg, all traditional Stroganow ingredients (beetroot, cucumber, mushrooms, sour cream) are deconstructed in a structuralistic way to include various textures and forms. It is not only playful but it also works, especially the nice contrast with the frozen and then melting sour cream which adds another dimension to this dish. On the side the Stroganow was accompanied by a nice beef ragout covered with an intense and to-die-for jelly of beef broth and a touch of beetroot – this was again the rich element providing depth and elegance. Outstanding again – my number two dish on this very evening!

Boeuf Stroganow

Young patissiere Nadja Hartl does a brilliant job and seamlessly integrates fantastic desserts onand the same level – somehow a continuance of Elverfeld’s subtle, playful and structuralistic cuisine. The Amedei chocolate ‘Exotic’ was a nice declination of different chocolates in different textures and refreshing exotic fruits like coconut, passion fruit, dragon fruit and a perfect guava sorbet. Excellent.

Amedei Chocolate 'Exotic'

The Raffaello 09 was near perfection – only the raffaello balls filled with almond creme were a bit too large too eat in one bite, but hey I have to find something to criticize;-) The balls rested on a cocos ice cream and an almond financier. All-in-all an excellent interpretation of a ‘German’ candy (in fact without chocolate as the ads say).

Raffaello 09

The sweet finale consisted of several sweet knusperillos and spoons – my absolute favorite was the Frankfurter Kranz in the middle as my Grandma used to make this cake for my birthdays and it was wonderful every time. For me a very special moment. Also remarkable was the olive oil toffee (second to the left) which included encapsulated oil in a small sugar bowl – what love to the detail which pays off as the oil literally burst in your mouth together with a crunch. The last part, Milky Way is another famous candy bar which is advertised like “so light that it even swims in milk”. So here, this is visualised with the candy bar thrones on an milk espuma. A witty and crowning finale!

Overall

No single dish below excellent, some even outstanding – there are not many meals in my life which I recall at that quality, surprising effects and, most importantly, the modification of familiar taste experiences. The latter makes Sven Elverfeld’s cuisine truly special and unique: it augments the dining experience by including your mind, your memories and your imagination. In a way similar to what Grant Achatz does with his appeal to our expectations it really creates a body & soul experience.

Compared to November 2007 Sven Elverfeld has developed quite significantly: his creations being more mature, the overall level of cooking being flawless and, most importantly, the cuisine less characterized by a quest for harmony. Now, there are some more rough edges as the surprising elements are more punctuated like the frozen sour cream and the tiny bacon bites. So in a way it became even more intellectually appealing without overburdening the diner. It’s like being taken by the hand by Sven Elverfeld and being shown his world of cooking. Yes, its is structuralistic but that’s what many others do as well – it’s more his touch for flavours and the playful interpretation of classics what makes it so special.

Service is excellent, warm and receptive, very much too the point and never superimposed but of natural friendliness. Charming mâitre Jimmy Ledemazel makes you feel at home and is a benchmark of a host and mâitre. A big thank you to the whole brigade!

Well, Wolfsburg is not the centre of the world but for any foodie this is a must-go – and you can take stroll around in the Autostadt, the VW ‘museum’ on the past and future of automobiles,visit the Phæno museum or watch a soccer game of one the finest teams in the Bundesliga, VFL Wolfsburg.

A must – I will be back soon!