The best hosts and co.: These are our culinary "favorites of the year"

These are our culinary “favorites of the year”

December 29, 2022 Who are the best cooks and winemakers, what are the best wines?

Our gastro critic

and our wine columnist

will also choose their favorites in 2022.

chef of the year

Jan Hartwig, Restaurant "JAN", Munich

Three-star chef Jan Hartwig Photo: Lukas Kirchgasser

When three-star chef Jan Hartwig left the “Atelier” restaurant in the “Bayerischer Hof” hotel in Munich in 2021, it caused a lot of astonishment.

The three-star award, which only nine German chefs have at the moment, is the pinnacle of cooking life - not something you give up voluntarily.

But Hartwig has clear goals.

It was about independence and, above all, complete artistic freedom.

Now he has opened his own restaurant, the “JAN” in Munich and shines with outstanding cuisine right from the start.

He, who at the age of 40 has what it takes to be the new grandmaster of the guild, cooks with a palette of flavors that give his dishes an inimitable, elegant flavor and depth.

And he also deals with great classics of the art of cooking and dishes from our regional and traditional cuisine.

institution of the year

"Erno's Bistro" in Frankfurt, Valéry Mathis (chef) and Eric Huber (sommelier and host)

Eric Huber, operator of Erno's Bistro Photo: Picture Alliance

Actually, the small, cozy bistro in the shadow of Frankfurt's office towers is nothing short of an understatement.

One could also describe it as a hopelessly underrated gourmet restaurant with only one Michelin star, which, in addition to its excellent French-individual cuisine, also has an incredible wine collection that Eric Huber has been cultivating for many years.

This is where God and the world meet during the week, at lunchtime and in the evening, with subtle creations that lack nothing that taste good, but are surprisingly light despite butter, cream, truffles and foie gras.

"Erno's" has been around since 1974, it has been in the hands of Eric Huber since 1995, and chef Valéry Mathis has been there since 1996;

both come from Alsace.

Stability, quality and relaxation make it a real institution.

innovation of the year

Thomas Imbusch, restaurant "100/200" in Hamburg

Two-star chef Thomas Imbusch Photo: dpa

The kitchen needs creative people who not only have ideas, but also find practical solutions that inspire many people.

And today there is no way around Hamburg's two-star chef Thomas Imbusch from the "100/200" restaurant.

This year, he impressed with his strictly seasonal dishes, especially with a purely vegetarian menu, in which he presented rows of enormously attractive, light, aromatic and innovative dishes, for example the combinations of cucumber, beetroot and flowers.

In the large room with an open kitchen and a lot of industrial chic, Imbusch, who has worked for the best chefs, cooks as if for friends.

You talk, are advised, commented – everything is a little different here and it fits right away.

Imbusch's partner Sophie Lehmann will provide the drinks.

Climber of the Year

Nico and Jörg Sackmann, Hotel "Sackmann" in Baiersbronn

Star chef Jörg Sackmann Photo: Picture Alliance

Jörg Sackmann has been one of our most popular chefs for many years.

After a major renovation, he and his two sons Nico (also a cook) and Daniel (responsible for the hotel) have now followed up his never-ending ideas at the stove in one of the most beautiful restaurant landscapes in German hotels, in which the family's skills in shines with a new, convincing culinary splendor.

In the regional "Murgstube", for example, there is tripe baked with Fourme d'Ambert with braised tomatoes, spinach and butter crunch;

In the gourmet restaurant "Schlossberg" an impressive pigeon with Roscoff onions, wild garlic and Agria potatoes is served.

You can tell Jörg and Nico that they go to work in a particularly relaxed and inspired way in their new surroundings.

Incidentally, the “Panorama Hut” now also belongs to the empire,

New gastronomic formats    

"House Sternberg", Velbert, Sascha Sternberg

Top chefs Sascha Stemberg and his father Walter Photo: Picture Alliance

This honor goes to chefs and/or restaurateurs who do not allow themselves to be pigeonholed as bourgeois cuisine, casual fine dining or star cuisine, but offer this at the same time and in free combinations.

In the extremely popular "Haus Stemberg" in Velbert, not far from Düsseldorf and Cologne, there are Wiener Schnitzel or blood sausage, for example, alongside Balfego tuna with soy sauce, yuzu and spicy mayo.

Everything comes to the table here in exceptional quality, precise, modern, often creative and accompanied by the best wines.

The traditional house is now run in the fifth generation by Sascha Stemberg, 43, who, after training in well-known houses, replaced his legendary (and still present) father Walter in 2004 in the management of the business.

His motto was "Two kitchens on one stove" early on.

host of the year

Fabrice Kieffer, restaurant and brasserie "Les Deux" in Munich

Restaurant Les Deux Munich Photo: Restaurant Les Deux

Our Host of the Year could well be honored as "Host of the Decade".

Like a whole host of hosts, sommeliers and chefs, the 51-year-old Alsatian Kieffer comes from one of the regional winegrowing families.

At the age of 15 he began his training in Strasbourg and then went to Germany.

He became famous during the 16 years with the recently deceased legendary Heinz Winkler in Aschau.

Here he developed an inimitable combination of French friendliness and cordiality, a high level of professionalism as maître and sommelier and self-mockery.

Those who left themselves to his guidance could be sure of having a wonderful experience.

When he set up his own business in Munich in 2012 with “Les Deux” (and later the “Weinhaus Neuner”), he was also able to build on his work in Aschau as a host.

Sommelier of the Year

Maximilian Wilm, "Kinfelt's Restaurant and Wine Bar", Hamburg

Restaurant manager and sommelier Maximilian Wilm Photo: Picture Alliance

Many sommeliers have a similar problem: they vacillate between their specialist knowledge and the wishes of the guests, which they usually cannot or do not want to determine exactly.

And then there are the few sommeliers who get right to the point and present wines that make you erupt in "Ah" and "Oh" with every sip.

Maximilian Wilm, 34, is a qualified restaurant manager;

In 2018 he took over the position of restaurant manager and sommelier in "Kinfelts Restaurant und Weinbar" not far from the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg's HafenCity.

It is significant that Wilm works in a establishment that offers relaxed, easy-drinking gourmet cuisine;

precisely this type of cuisine is often particularly wine-affine and can be excellently combined with even the best wines.

White Wine of the Year

2021 Graach Cathedral Provost Cabinet, Willi Schaefer Winery, Graach

Photo: AP

Since your columnist has been drinking wine, he has been drinking Rieslings by Willi Schaefer.

No Riesling is lighter, finer, more heavenly, more incomprehensible.

And yet it has its feet in the slate, which produces unmistakable world-class wines in the Graacher Himmelreich and especially in the Domprobst.

One would still recognize its smoky flavor in one's sleep and immediately want to open a bottle cabinet!

The 2021 vintage was small in quantity, but the qualities!

I have not studied any wines longer this year than the 2021 cabinets of Christoph and Andrea Schaefer, who run the 4.5 hectare family winery today.

Although not dry, I understood the Domprobst for the first time as a fully-fledged dinner wine, as deep and complex as it is despite all its lightness.

Great art, spread over two loads: AP 1 and AP 3. Not enough for the world,

Red Wine of the Year

2017 Assmannshausen Höllenberg GG, Weingut Krone Assmannshausen 

Photo: private

You can't see them in the dark.

Bert Brecht hardly thought of the country's cellar masters in the "Threepenny Opera", but please: those in the light were always different, even at the Wegeler wineries.

So now: Michael Burgdorf, for 22 years the most reliable constant of the house, to which Krone Assmannshausen has also belonged for 15 years.

(Almost) nothing but red wine is produced here, Pinot Noir, of course, always has been, on phyllite slate that supports the Rhenish Slate Mountains and Burgdorf's red wines, above all the Großes Gewächs from the Höllenberg.

This juicy, salty and, above all, vital wine is only sold late, just like in the past, when German red wine still meant Assmannshäuser.

And then it stands there: bright red, firm, distinctive, no charmer, but self-confident and terroir-influenced;

a rigorous classic of German red wine literature.

Lasts forever.

Treasury Wine of the Year 

2009 Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling selection old vines, winery JB Becker, Walluf

Photo: private

Hans-Josef Becker's winery is something of a Gallic village in the Rheingau.

Becker is not a rebel, he is rather a keeper, a moustachioed patron saint of authenticity.

He still uses the old predicates for dry wines as well.

The message: My wine is natural.

Not improved, not sanded down, but God willed.

The Pinot Noir anyway, but most Rieslings are hearty dry too.

And if they aren't, then God wanted it that way.

When Becker's wines have matured in his cellar for a few years, like the 2009 selection from Walkenberg, which was not completely dry-fermented and which he put on sale again in late summer, then you want to drink each bottle alone.

That's a mouthful of Riesling!

Many 2009s are hanging on the ropes today, but this one dances, smacks,

Sweet Wine of the Year 

2009 Welschriesling dry berry selection, Velich winery, Apetlon, Burgenland (A)

Photo: private

It's not that there aren't enough world-class sweet wines in Germany, but who drinks them when you've paid for them dearly but still have to wait decades for them?

The 2009 dry berry selection from Heinz Velich in Burgenland matured in oak barrels until recently without ever having received any sulfur.

This Welschriesling, which has nothing to do with Rheinriesling, is correspondingly amber in colour.

Incredibly deep and intense in the balsamic scent, it combines sweetness with complexity on the palate in the form of a rich texture and variety of aromas that German Rieslings only develop after 50 years, if at all.

Dried fruit, malt, black tea, orange zest, caramel, plus the spicy, crystalline acidity of Italian: This TBA is a poem and yet only costs a fraction of the Germans in this class.

Winemaker of the Year

dr

Simone Adams, Adam's Wines, Ingelheim

winemaker Dr.

Simone Adams Photo: Johannes Ritter

I warned you years ago: something is happening in Ingelheim am Rhein that is worth following.

At that time, Simone Adams' wines were still named after caliber sizes: the bigger, the bigger.

In the meantime, she only needs caliber for hunting and in the vineyard she focuses entirely on the system of soil, plant and light.

At times it seems to me that her vines are her pets.

Their rows stand on weathered lime soil and bear Pinot varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir.

Adams once called what she does on ten hectares “emphatic viticulture”.

She does this with great care and creativity, of course according to biodynamic criteria, in search of "elegance, purity, finesse".

The result is subtle, speaking, highly authentic Ingelheim Burgundy, which even Hajo Becker,

Wine Innovation of the Year

Sophie and Steffen Christmann, Weingut A. Christmann + Sektgut Christmann & Kauffmann, Gimmeldingen

Sophie and Steffen Christmann Photo: dpa

"Innovation" is an award for established companies being able to reinvent themselves.

Steffen Christmann is not only president of the VDP, the association of quality wine estates, but also runs a family business that has been producing top-quality wines for a generation, above all the Großes Riesling Gewächs from the Königsbacher Idig.

Already in 2004, Christmann switched to biodynamic viticulture.

When their daughter Sophie joined the company, a wind blew through that carried away everything that didn't lead to the absolute top class.

What remained is the core of the estate: the very best vineyards in prime and large sites, planted only with Riesling or Pinot Noir.

The old vendor's tray: history.

In addition, father and daughter founded the Christmann & Kauffmann sparkling wine estate with Matthieu Kauffmann from Alsace.

which will bring world-class sparkling wines from top locations onto the market in the coming years.

Kauffmann can do that, he was cellar master at Bollinger Champagne for years.

Ever since everything changed here, Steffen Christmann is the only winegrower who keeps getting younger with age.

A gala with the “darlings”

Anyone who wants to convince themselves of the outstanding quality of our award winners can do so at a gala in the

.

On this evening, five award-winning chefs will cook a six-course meal together with Joachim Wissler from "Vendôme", the "Chef of the Year" 2021 (when the gala was canceled due to Corona).

In addition, wines from the award-winning estates will be tasted.

Our house critics and jurors

and

will guide you through the evening .

The price per person is 335 euros for menu and drinks.

The event starts at 6 p.m.

Participating guests have the opportunity to stay overnight at the Grand Hotel at special rates.

Program and booking via

and by phone at

or directly at the Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg under the keyword "Unsere Lieblinge" via reservations@schlossbensberg.com and by phone at

.

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