Painful and profitable consequences of the corona pandemic are only one floor apart in this building.

In Klingenberg am Main, Ingo Holland produces the well-known green spice jars of the "Altes Gewürzamt" brand in this two-storey new building.

He also gives his popular cooking seminars here.

Sadness has reigned on the upper floor for two years.

The 600 square meter room with generously glazed walls, in which up to 200 people sometimes celebrated at large events, has been mostly deserted since the first lockdown.

There was something going on here every week before.

Marco Dettweiler

Editor in Business.

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When Ingo Holland and his head chef give cooking and spice seminars, only a maximum of fifteen course participants stand around the well-equipped kitchenette, where pots, pans, mortars and grinders are being handled.

But Holland still fills the whole room with life with his relaxed and funny manner.

But it was dead up here for two years. "I refused to give my seminars with a mask and acrylic walls," says the native of Klingenberg.

Online events are not an alternative.

He must "have the people in front of him" and must feel "whether they are fascinated".

People like Ingo Holland need people around them.

He likes to chat, but never out of the box.

His qualities as an entertainer could have opened the door to television for a cooking show.

But he probably feels most comfortable in the Franconian province, where he has spent most of his life.

And that, although "Klingenberg is half the size" of "the main cemetery in Chicago, but twice as dead".

The fact that he had no contact with course participants for almost two years "hurt a lot", also financially.

The humans will be back soon.

At the end of the month, participants can sniff truffles on the upper floor of the production building.

Like some others, this course is already fully booked.

His strong hands will then attack deer, sausages or lobster week after week,

"My God, people are cooking again!"

But Ingo Holland is not only a star chef who likes to give courses and write books.

What he is best known for in Germany are his green tins labeled “Altes Gewürzamt”, many thousands of which are stored on the ground floor and three to six pallets are shipped daily.

The tin cans contain spices and mixtures that are known and loved by ambitious hobby cooks and those with a star.

Corona has ensured that they became even more popular and sales went up as people left the house less and rediscovered their kitchen.

“My God, people are cooking again!” thought Holland at the time when demand for his spices had increased.

Holland personally takes care of the up to 350 varieties.

Where he buys the spices, how he processes them, and the ratios of the mixtures remain his secret.

He not only has a fine nose as a cook.

With a lot of skill and patience, Holland has built up its brand and established itself in the market.

He constantly tries to optimize the production process, to perfect his spices.

That's why he integrated an "X-ray machine" at the control station, changed the route the spices take to the filling machine, bought mills with new suction technology and has been cleaning machines with dry ice for a while.

“We try a lot of things,” he says.

Some of the machines are custom made for him and he had the idea for them.