Those who cook vegetarian are very trendy in Munich. And that in a city that is best known for its Weißwurst, roast pork and Wiesnhendl, and where vegetarians used to be fed with Kasspatzen or creamy mushrooms. But those times are over. The vegetarian restaurant Tian on Viktualienmarkt has had a Michelin star for years, and the newly opened Käfer restaurant Green Beetle on Schumannstrasse has been awarded a “Green Star” right away. And now even a time-honored beer garden like the Seehaus in the English Garden is starting to become vegetarian!
However, the situation for carnivores is not quite as dramatic as it appears at first glance. Of course, Stephan and Sebastian Kuffler didn’t completely overturn the card in their lake house. Instead, they have set up a pop-up restaurant in part of the ensemble on Kleinhesseloher See, in which star chef Jan Hoffmann is expected to cook for a maximum of 45 guests until the end of September.
Jan Hoffmann was one of the first vegetarian star chefs in Europe
The cooperation came about because Hoffmann worked in the Adlon in Berlin in 2008 and dealt with the kitchen director Christian Müller there. But today he is the kitchen director for the entire Kuffler Group, which, in addition to the Seehaus, also includes the Spatenhaus, the wine tent at the Wiesn, the Hotel Palace and numerous other gastronomic establishments, also in Frankfurt.
Hoffmann, who was born in the Rhineland, celebrated his greatest successes in Frankfurt. With the restaurant Seven Swans, he received a Michelin star for the first time in 2016, which he later defended – even when he switched to a purely vegetarian menu in 2017. At that time he was the youngest vegetarian star chef, of which there were only four in all of Europe at the time.
Today, the 38-year-old works independently on various projects and is particularly committed to sustainability in the kitchen. You can read about it on his skin, because his many tattoos not only include his grandmother’s favorite recipe for gratin datchi (“you can really cook that”), but also his favorite herbs chickweed, yarrow and ground ivy. “I’m not a vegetarian,” he says anyway, “but since I’ve been vegetarian, I’ve eaten significantly less meat.” When it comes to vegetables, fish and meat, however, he attaches great importance to throwing away as little as possible: everything is recycled because everything has its own value.
Appetizer with a carrot accent: Bunched carrots, parsley, figs and ricotta work together harmoniously.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
And that’s how he does it with the two four-course menus that are now available in the Seehaus. One, entitled “Flora”, for example, consists of a starter in which almost everything from a normal carrot is used – up to the green carrot herb. There are also parsley, figs and ricotta; even the ricotta whey is still used to ferment the carrot before it is braised. Hoffmann is just as thorough with leeks, spinach, cucumber and goat’s cream cheese in the other courses. And the dessert made of asparagus, rhubarb, quark and oats is not particularly sweet, but it’s still a stunner.
Since one menu is called “Flora”, it only makes sense to call the other “Fauna”. Finally, there are also two dishes with fish and meat. It is a catfish with roasted potatoes and chive and wild garlic oil as well as the topside and the mayor’s piece of a “Tegyu beef”, i.e. a Wagyu beef from Tegernsee.
The two menus cost 69 and 89 euros and are available Wednesday to Saturday evenings and Sunday lunchtime.