It sounds like a catastrophic clear-cut, but it makes sense: All top German chefs lost their points in the edition of Gault & Millau 2022 just presented in Berlin, even the world stars who were previously enthroned in the Olympus of culinary art with 19.5 points .

Instead, chefs are now only rated between one and five toques - a homage to the 'toque', the towering chef's hat worn by French chefs - with the toques being differentiated in black and red, with red being reserved for the outstanding establishments in each category.

One toque stands for a house that is highly recommended, two toques are awarded for a high degree of culinary art, creativity and quality, three toques for the highest quality and creativity and the best possible preparation, four toques for a formative kitchen,

which is a leader in quality, creativity and preparation.

Five toques are reserved for the best restaurants in the world.

Rigid, arbitrary, implausible

Jakob Strobel and Serra

deputy head of the feature section.

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Christoph Wirtz, editor-in-chief of Gault & Millau, justified this turning point with his appreciation of the thousand chefs featured in the new restaurant guide.

He told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that your assessment based on a maximum of twenty points, which is based on French school grades, does not do justice to your work.

The system is too rigid, arbitrary and implausible because the wide range of cooking styles that are now being served in Germany cannot be categorized using the comb of a strict classification and the difference between sixteen or seventeen points can no longer be credibly conveyed to anyone .

Only three restaurants in Germany have been awarded the highest rating of five red toques by Gault & Millau, and in view of such a categorical decision the Hautgoût cannot be denied a certain arbitrariness: Christian Bau from "Victor's Fine Dining" in Perl on the Moselle, Clemens Rambichler from the "Waldhotel Sonnora" in Dreis and Joachim Wisslers, head of the "Vendôme" in Bergisch-Gladbach, who will be particularly pleased because this year's Michelin Guide has given him his third star after sixteen years, to the surprise of many gourmets has deleted.

For Christoph Wirtz, on the other hand, the doyen of new German cuisine, with his highly innovative style that pushes boundaries and questions everything that already exists, belongs to absolute world class.

There should be little discussion about the five restaurants with five black toques.

They are Sven Elverfeld's "Aqua" in Wolfsburg, Torsten Michel's "Schwarzwaldstube" in Baiersbronn, Christoph Rüffer's "Haerlin" in Hamburg and the houses of Thomas Schanz in Piesport on the Mosel and Tim Raue in Berlin, each named after their respective bosses.

women to the front

The new Gault & Millau is also essentially in line with its competitors in the category of four toques.

He awards four red toques to Kevin Fehling (“The Table”, Hamburg), Claus-Peter Lumpp (“Bareiss”, Baiersbronn), Andreas Krolik (“Lafleur”, Frankfurt), Marco Müller (“Rutz”, Berlin), Daniel Schimkowitsch ("LA Jordan", Deidesheim) and Chris Rainer ("Luce d'Oro" at Schloss Elmau in Krün).

Peter Maria Schnurr ("Falco", Leipzig), Michael Kempf ("Facil", Berlin), Klaus Erfort ("Gästehaus Klaus Erfort", Saarbrücken), Sebastian Frank ("Horváth", Berlin), Christian Jürgens ( "Restaurant Überfahrt", Rottach-Egern), Hans Stefan Steinheuer and Christian Binder ("Steinheuers Restaurant Zur Alten Post", Bad Neuenahr) and Douce Steiner ("Hirschen", Sulzburg).

She is still the only woman in the ranks of the absolute German cooking elite, although she is not alone in the field.

Sigi Schelling from "Werneckhof" in Munich, for example, is a hot candidate to advance into this circle.

Being voted Chef of the Year is a coup, because Gault & Millau has chosen a chef who neither shines in the limelight nor is one of the usual suspects for this award – in the best sense of the word: Dylan Watson-Brawn from “ernst” in Berlin was not selected because he is on the verge of joining the ranks of the very best chefs in the country, but because he follows his own path with consistent determination and has developed the "clear, unmistakable vision" of a highly concentrated, no-frills, micro-seasonal cuisine.

Restaurateur of the year is an old acquaintance who has made outstanding contributions to top-class cuisine and hotels like no other in Germany: Hermann Bareiss from Baiersbronn, for whom such an honor was long overdue.

The vote for host of the year is also beyond any doubt.

Because Eric Huber has been showing for many years in "Erno's Bistro" in Frankfurt how to ideally fill the role of host with unpretentious omnipresence.

The discovery of the year is Adrian Kuhlemann, who has enough daring to serve top cuisine in his parents' hotel in the heart of the Upper Palatinate.

The choice for the newcomer of the year fell on Viktor Gerhardinger from "Tian" in Munich, the pioneer among top vegetarian restaurants in Germany.

Christoph Meyer from the "Pavillon" in Bad Peterstal is Sommelier of the Year, which is also a good choice because this restaurant and its chef Martin Herrmann urgently need more attention and appreciation.

Pastry chef of the year is the young Larissa Metz from "Favorite" in Mainz, the only woman among the honorees who was already a master confectioner at the age of 22, who virtuously blends classic patisserie with the avant-garde and could have a great future ahead of her - as ever the whole Gault &