Ramirez and Snow White also came. Tohru Nakamura met them at the asparagus farmer Rehm, who grows rare and special varieties near Schrobenhausen, and he immediately invited them to dinner. Now they are part of his champagne garden menu this evening. Because “Ramirez” is the name of the white asparagus variety, “Snow White” the green one, and they both play the leading role in the aisle called “Last Asparagus 2022”. This is served with “La Grande Dame Blanc”, vintage 2008, from the magnum bottle. This evening, the great French champagne house has invited Veuve Cliquot. It accompanies the individual courses with selected products from the company. Gastro professionals casually call the drink “the widow”, after the German word for “Veuve”.
Star chef Tohru Nakamura and gardener Johannes Schwarz first teamed up in 2017 to invite guests to the “Garden Dinner” in the greenhouse. At that time, Nakamura’s gourmet restaurant was still called Geisels Werneckhof in Schwabing, today it’s Tohru in the Schreiberei. For one summer week they moved out there to the outskirts of the city, to Johanneskirchen, where Schwarz has his nursery. It’s not there yet, to quote the great colleague Unterstöger, “where even fox and hare pass each other without saying hello”, but it’s quite remote. Schwarz is not only considered a great luminary of vegetable cultivation by Munich’s top chefs and supplies almost all of them with rare salads, herbs, edible flowers and all kinds of plants and vegetables that they need in their gourmet kitchens. Soon he will decorate the roof garden of the new Mural Farmhouse restaurant in Obersendling with his products.
That evening, around 30 invited guests are sitting in Schwarz’s large glass house and being spoiled by Nakamura’s dishes, almost all of which are based on products from the nursery. For example, there is fresh pea tofu with watercress and zucchini, followed by young vegetable onions with beetroot and a slim gamba roja. Or with the crisp, fresh Yamashita daylily, one of Schwarz’s favorite flowers. At least then you can see why Nakamura has two stars in the Michelin Guide.
The nursery is moving. Whether there will be garden dinners again is still uncertain
The head cellar master of Veuve Clicquot, Didier Mariotti, presents the matching drinks from the vintages 1990, 2006, 2008 and 2012 as well as a Pinot Noir, which also forms the basis for the rosé champagne from the company. The big champagne houses are apparently trying to place their products back in the gastronomic premier league. Their reputation has suffered somewhat since well-known wine experts have been vilifying their products as “bulk goods” or even as “fizzy drinks”. And so they are now touring halfway around the world with exclusive dinner events to show what they’ve got. Veuve Clicquot does that in Europe, Japan and the USA. In Germany they decided to work with Tohru Nakamura. On September 6th and 7th, two exclusive evenings with champagne rarities and a Nakamura menu will be held in the then opened Schreiberei, Nakamura’s new bistro. It will cost 570 euros per person, which is what the prices are now.
It is still uncertain whether there will continue to be garden dinners at Johannes Schwarz. In any case, Tuesday’s event was the last of its kind, because Schwarz has to move his nursery at the end of the year. The city wants to build apartments where he still grows vegetables. After all, he already has a new property, “about 800 meters away, over the railway”. However, it is still uncertain whether there will be a similar greenhouse where such large panels can be set up.