The award came in time for the summit: In its new Germany edition, the Gault & Millau gourmet guide lists the Luce d’Oro restaurant in the Schlosshotel Elmau with four red toques (out of a possible five) as the most interesting restaurant in Bavaria – ahead of the Überfahrt restaurant in Rottach -Egern, which was the undisputed leader for many years, also with four but black toques. For the gourmet guide, red means: outstanding within its category.
Elmau’s head chef Christoph Rainer pushed his colleague Christian Jürgens off the throne as Bavaria’s best chef, albeit only just – at least according to Gault & Millau. The competition from the Michelin Guide sees things differently, last autumn they again awarded Jürgens’ restaurant three stars, while Rainer’s got two. Rainer and his team probably won’t have much time to celebrate, because the heads of state and the entire entourage of the G7 will be arriving shortly.
Adrian Kuhlemann, operator of the Restaurant Kuhlemann in Neustadt an der Waldnaab, was awarded discovery of the year.
(Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa)
But Bavaria is also well represented in other respects in the new edition of Gault & Millau. The editors presented Adrian Kuhlemann with his Restaurant Kuhlemann in Neustadt an der Waldnaab as the “discovery of the year”. The young chef set up the restaurant in the former hall of his parents’ hotel. According to the testers, it is now “one of the most exciting restaurants in the country”, which is already a statement. It got two red hats in the first attempt. Before he opened his own restaurant, Kuhlemann worked in a number of fine dining establishments, for example at the Wielandshöhe restaurant in Stuttgart with Vincent Klink, with Andreas Caminada in Switzerland and in the Nuremberg gourmet restaurant Essigbrätlein.
It even got three red toques in the new guide, as did the Etz restaurant owned by colleague Felix Schneider, who was previously the head chef at the gourmet restaurant Sosein in Heroldsberg. Nuremberg is now the Franconian center of gourmet culture, and Waidwerk and Zweisinn Meiers Fine Dining also received three – black – toques this time.
Also at the top with three red caps are the Dichter restaurant in the Egerner Höfe with head chef Thomas Kellermann in Rottach-Egern and the Essen:senz in Grassau, which only opened last year. Edip Sigl is the name of the chef there, he had previously worked as a chef at the Munich star restaurant Les Deux and then moved to the Chiemgau for family reasons. There he met the hotel magnate Dieter Müller (Motel One) and his wife Ursula Schelle-Müller; The two immediately hired him with a sure instinct for their golf resort Das Achental and equipped him with a kitchen and team that was perfectly tailored to his needs. The result was two stars in the Michelin Guide and three red toques in the Gault & Millau.
Thomas Breckle, cheese affineur at “Jamei Laibspeis” from Kempten, was honored as producer of the year.
(Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa)
In any case, the ongoing trend towards more regionality is clearly noticeable, as it has been for several years. Gault & Millau also takes this into account by naming a “Producer of the Year” for the first time. He also comes from Bavaria, it is the cheese maker, more precisely: “raw milk hard cheese affineur” Thomas Breckle from Kempten in the Allgäu and his company Jamei Laibspeis. Breckle and his colleague Martin Rößle produce hard cheese using traditional methods and milk from alpine cows. The cheeses mature in a 200-year-old vaulted cellar under the St. Rafael Monastery in Kempten.