The lamb is a contradictory being.

Chosen by God to be his image, mentioned in the Bible more than five hundred times - we count its full-blown version generously - it is the proverbial epitome of piety and sacrifice, and has a supporting role in one of the most gruesome episodes of the Old Testament, sacrificing his life to save that of Abraham's son.

On the other hand, lambs and sheep are not exactly the brightest lights in the animal kingdom, are mocked for their herd instinct and have to be insulted by Alfred Brehm as "stupid, simple-minded, servile, weak-willed, timid, cowardly".

In the kitchen, too, the lamb evokes nothing but contradiction.

Some give a heavenly kingdom for a nice square, others prefer to burn in hell themselves,

than to do the same with a leg of lamb - which is often because they have never eaten a really good lamb, instead they have been served older animals and are thus permanently traumatized by the mutton skin taste.

But that can easily be changed, for example in Lower Bavaria.

The top chef's bitter lament

Jakob Strobel and Serra

deputy head of the feature section.

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According to many of Germany's top chefs, the best German lamb comes from a farm in the Rottaler Hügelland, a bucolic landscape between Munich and Passau that seems like its inhabitants still make a living from nothing more than farming and raising livestock.

Here, the Freiherren Riederer von Paar have been running the Polting estate for five generations and supply a considerable part of top German gastronomy with their lambs.

This has been a tradition since Johannes Riederer von Paar, the grandfather of the current boss Leonhard.

He was a classic itinerant shepherd, but as president of the Bavarian Sheep Farmers' Association he also often had business to do in Munich, where he met the kitchen luminary Otto Koch, who bemoaned his suffering: he couldn't get lambs anywhere in Germany,

that could compete with the top goods from Normandy or Corrèze, that shouldn't be.

Quite right, said the baron, and that's how the success story of the Polting estate began.

Leonhard Riederer von Paar writes them with the same serenity and calmness that is characteristic of his animals.

The qualified agricultural scientist took over the farm from his father Franz two years ago in his early thirties, now watches over 115 hectares of land, 650 ewes and a dozen rams, slaughters 1200 lambs a year and delivers four-fifths of them to top chefs such as Christian Jürgens, Christian Bau, Jan Hartwig, Juan Amador, Tohru Nakamura or the Munich star chef Sigi Schelling.

He can continuously supply his discerning clientele with consistently high quality goods because he no longer wanders around and keeps Merino sheep,

who, in contrast to other breeds, lamb all year round - and because the well-being of the animals and thus the good taste of the meat have top priority at every step of its rearing.

Even the shepherd layman feels that when he enters the stable in the farm.

Compared to other animal farms, it is as generously dimensioned as a grand hotel, depending on the position of the sun and the temperature, the outer walls are automatically raised and lowered, and the animals are obviously so stressed that one briefly wished one was a sheep .