Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012 - (Page 110)

enraptured smiles on the faces of those guests lucky enough to get one of the first plates. Right beside them, Klaus Erfort (three stars, Saarbrücken) is rolling a perfectly cooked saddle of venison in a coating of pain d’épice; the dish will be served with a champignon crème and elderberry gel. On a normal day, the thick carpeting in Aqua’s dining area settles the room with a gentle hush. But tonight, when Elverfeld introduces the chefs, the mood is boisterous. The chefs are playful together, a little boyish, punching each other and laughing, somewhat like a soccer team before a match. But during service they are focused exclusively on the cooking, speaking only to their co-workers and moving with the tight, economical precision of practiced chefs. As the evening becomes more hectic, they seem to become ever more calm. As the temperAture rises, the guests are cooling off at the nitrogen pot of Christian Bau, a three-star chef from Perl-Nennig on the Moselle. It’s bubbling like the porridge pot in the old German fairy tale “Der süße Brei” (“Sweet Porridge”). Yet nothing is traditional about Bau’s creations. He serves goose liver with algae, mushroom vinaigrette and sudachi, a Japanese citrus fruit, playing with the contrasts in temperature between the ice-cold goose liver and a tepid mushroom vinaigrette. It feels a little like a salad, but it’s not. Bau doesn’t like the separation between main dish and side dish anyway. To fully understand what he’s up to, it’s important to know that the German word Sättigungsbeilage, which literally translates to “filling side dish,” is central to the history of German cuisine — it’s the essence of the heavy food that was eaten merely to fill up. Today, the German gourmet kitchen has mastered the art of interpreting simple, traditional dishes in a refined way. Together with Henkel, Bühner and Elverfeld, Bau was one of the founding members of the new German school. While the use of local and seemingly plain ingredients was previously unthinkable in a three-star restaurant, the new chefs brought back such forgotten delicacies as pork from the Schwäbisch-Hällisch (“saddleback”) pig, which had almost become extinct by the 1980s and is now highly popular again. The new-school cooks also put mackerel and char on their menus. Bühner serves a cucumber and leek variation of the Büsum crab, once favored by people who couldn’t afford prawns. Elverfeld offers Bismarck herring, pumpernickel and Labskaus, albeit prepared in such a sophisticated way (in knusperillo parcels) that these Northern German delicacies no longer seem like food for sailors. Elverfeld grew up in a small town in the middle of Germany in the province of Hesse. One can find a lot of his childhood food in his super luxurious, ambitious cuisine. There is an elegant variation of the Frankfurt grie sos, which is traditionally a green sauce made of sour cream and herbs that is eaten with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Elverfeld also has an abstract, surprising take on the so-called KI TCHEN CONSEQUENT IAL Clockwise from top left: Guests enjoying a behind-the-scenes peek; gently poached dove with mushroom soil and sunchokes, by chef Thomas Bühner; superstar cooking station; chef Claus-Peter Lumpp plating a dish. 110 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012
Table of Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... Boston
Technology
Design
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family Travel
Wellness
Outdoors
Barcelona
Istanbul
Fashion
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012