Berlin’s rapid gastronomic development would not have been possible without the culinary groundwork laid by the city’s grande dame hotels Above: Pierre Gagnaire of Les Solistes; below: Michael Kempf in the tree-lined gardens of Facil fish sauce, mango and carrots. Raue was one of Germany’s first chefs to demonstrate his creativity not only in the kitchen, but in his entrepreneurial thinking. In the past year, he called attention to himself with two new restaurant openings: in collaboration with Berlin’s Hotel Adlon, he heads up Sra Bua (srabua-adlon.de) on Behren Street, where specialities include fresh salads and aromatic Thai curries, while at the always crowded new La Soupe Populaire (lasoupepopulaire.de) Raue presents his interpretations of Königsberger meatballs and bienenstich – a popular German layered dessert with a sweet honey topping – amid the post-industrial atmosphere of the Bötzow Brewery on Prenzlauer Allee. In all of his restaurants, Raue avoids the stiffness found in many highend eateries: as a principle, he targets both veteran epicureans and a younger, curious but inexperienced audience. Indeed, Berlin’s rising culinary talents are increasingly freeing themselves from the constraints of traditionladen gourmet rituals, putting the focus on pure, unadulterated flavours in a casual, unpretentious setting. Take Austrian chef Sebastian Frank, who, from the diminutive kitchen of his Kreuzberg restaurant Horváth (restaurant-horvath. 68 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Top: Matthias Diether at First Floor; bottom: Atlantic sea bass, parsley and Périgord truffle from his restaurant in the Hotel Palace de), dreams up toothsome and increasingly veggiecentric works of art with a decided sense of humour. Or Marco Müller, at his Weinbar Rutz (rutz-weinbar. de), where he works with his exceptionally dedicated sommelier to pair each and every dish coming from his detail-orientated kitchen with the perfect wine – resulting in a truly magical confluence of tastes and aromas. Berlin’s rapid gastronomic development would not have been possible without the culinary groundwork laid by the city’s grande dame hotels. Among the forerunners was Hotel Palace, next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and its First Floor (firstfloor.palace.de) restaurant, which was given its first Michelin star in 1994. “The gourmandise is an important marketing tool for us,” says the hotel’s general manager Michael Frenzel. Last year, chef Matthias Diether was named “Berlin Masterchef” for his French-inspired menu, whose focal point is locavore ingredients. He has come up with some unusual pairings: from roasted pig’s stomach with poached oysters to a dish in which char and veal complement one another with carrots in various forms acting as an aromatic bridge between the two ingredients. The Mandala Hotel on Potsdamer Platz is also home to a young chef who has systematically cooked his way to the top. Michael Kempf, now 37 years old, is a long-distance runner – not just in his rare spare time (he’s run the Berlin marathon four times), but also professionally. He earned his first Michelin star in 2003, and was honoured with his second last year. The airy, modern ambience of his restaurant, Facil (facil. de), makes it an oasis of calm in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the German capital, one all the more pleasant in summer when the glass roof is left open. Kempf’s light, contemporary dishes – like his Müritz char with cider foam, char caviar, roasted leek and leek crème – are a fitting complement to the fresh atmosphere. The fact that Berlin’s restaurant scene is being carefully attended to by those across Europe was made clear in 2012, when Pierre Gagnaire opened his Les Solistes (waldorfastoriaberlin.com) in the Waldorf Astoria. The three- Michelin-starred chef stops by every two months for a look, leaving his kitchen the rest of the time in the capable hands of head chef Roel Lintermans, who has taken on his patron’s signature rich style, created from the most grandiose of ingredients. There is nowhere else in Berlin that feels quite so close to Paris: one variation of foie gras, for example, is served on three different dishes – as a soup with green lentils, roasted with sauerkrat and crispy turnips, and as a terrine streaked with fig chutney. For Gagnaire, Berlin is “a city full of culture and history that is currently in the process of reinventing itself”. It is a process, at least on a culinary level, that the cosmopolitan gourmet mogul is glad to be a part of. CENTURION-Magazine.com 69
