It's a story like something out of a fairy tale book of culinary miracles: A boy from the Moselle, son of a Piesport winegrower and small hotelier, first learns the trade of hotel manager, then fortunately he also trains as a cook and moves out into the world because it is not particularly well ordered in his homeland with the good food.

Jakob Strobel and Serra

deputy head of the feature section.

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He goes to the Black Forest to work in the famous Traube Tonbach, then continues his education under the three-star chefs Klaus Erfort and Helmut Thltges and in 2011 opens his own restaurant in his Moselan home village.

There he cooks quietly, getting better and better, but doesn't appear on any television programs, doesn't write any books, doesn't pretend to be the big talker, because all he wants is to stand at his stove.

His drive: the desire to taste the best

Just one year after opening, he got his first Michelin star, in 2015 his second, and now at the age of 42 he has achieved what every ambitious chef only dares to dream of in his wildest dreams: Thomas Schanz has been one of the nine Germans since Wednesday and 134 three-star chefs worldwide.

He has well earned his place in Olympus, because he manages the feat of being firmly rooted in classic haute cuisine and still cooking in such a modern and light-handed, so inspired and individualistic way that he never even comes close to a traditionalist haute cuisine .

He doesn't put himself in regionalist shackles, doesn't like the role of the local patriot who cooks, but he's also not an avant-garde kitchen artist who confronts his guests with puzzles about flavors.

The desire for the best taste, nothing more and nothing less, is the alpha and omega of his cuisine, and for this he has rock mullet and hake transported from Brittany to the Moselle, cooks with Mexican leaf pepper and ancient sherry, and shows no shyness when it comes to foie gras or lobster and is daring enough to combine one with parmesan and the other with calf's head.

And his plates can only taste so wonderfully harmonious and balanced because the chef is like that himself.

Every guest feels that Thomas Schanz is at peace with himself because he cooks at home.

His restaurant "Schanz" is neither the prestige object of a grand hotelier nor the toy of a major investor, but a family business of the purest water and therefore an affair of the heart.

The boss is omnipresent in the restaurant and in the small, adjoining hotel, his father and mother are always there to give the guests the feeling of being part of the family for a few hours.

And just as great as the hope is the probability that this will not change with the third star.