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There are currently seven restaurant guides in Germany.

Its purpose is not to honor chefs, but to give their readers recommendations for dining out.

Actually, we cooks are reluctant to express ourselves critically about the guides.

But behind closed doors - I know that from conversations with colleagues - their appearance in a year in which they only had five to six months for testing was accompanied by some resentment.

"With full pants is good stink", they say in my home in the Black Forest, so I allow myself to open my mouth here.

How were the guides able to visit and rate 1,000 restaurants in such a short time?

In the months of January and February, guides traditionally test little or not at all.

The lockdown came in March.

Our restaurant opened again on May 20th and was booked out for months.

It was similar for many colleagues.

At the end of September I got calls from two editors-in-chief of restaurant guides asking me if I was even open because there were simply no tables available.

Wouldn't it have been more honest to just let the leaders miss a year?

After all, “Gusto”, who initially updates its reviews online, has postponed the publication of its printed edition.

The "Gault & Millau" has changed its concept and only rated 500 addresses.

I do not wish a chef a grade or a star to be deducted.

Especially not to my colleague and quasi-neighbor Klaus Erfort - and that for a very selfish reason.

There are only about 70 kilometers between our restaurants, and for us in the small Saarland, two three-star restaurants are a marketing advantage that has brought us many additional guests.

So when Erfort recently lost his third star, I called him right away and offered him my support.

It smells like offended liver paté

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In this context, I would like to respond to an allegation.

A former editor-in-chief of “Gault & Millau” throws his successor Dr.

Christoph Wirtz suggests that I prefer me to Klaus Erfort because a few years ago he gave a laudatory speech when I was appointed “Japanese Cuisine Goodwill Ambassador” in Berlin.

There is a sloppiness that leaves me speechless and still smells like an offended liver pate.

Is there no code of honor that one does not disregard one's successors?

There is one among us top chefs.

Collegiality, decency and mutual respect are fundamental for us.

It is not my place to judge the award practice of the “Guide Michelin”, but why, for example, Daniel Schimkowitsch from the “Ketschauer Hof” in Deidesheim has not yet received his second star, I do not understand.

I have been there several times in the past two years for food and product quality, craftsmanship and taste were worth two stars.

I have to credit the "Michelin" that he does not make revaluations as well as devaluations easy.

I was visited five to six times before my third star before it was awarded.

But: Last year, the testers would have had a hard time getting so many reservations with us.

Christian Bau cooks in “Victor's Fine Dining” in Perl-Nennig, which has been awarded three Michelin stars.