It’s not all mountains, meadows and vineyards. Bavaria is also for gourmets, as we found out one fabulous night at Fortnum’s
“It’s the best Chardonnay in the world,’ insists Two Michelin-starred Bavarian chef (‘Franconian’, he specifies) Alexander Herrmann, as he pours me out some more wine. This may have something to do with the fact that it has his name on the bottle, or at least half of it.
HerrGott is a blend of his name and that of wine expert Ser Guido Gottwald. Together for thirty years they’ve been bringing wines to market that mix their unique skills and are perfect for fine dining occasions such as this.
This occasion being dinner in Fortnum & Mason’s Food & Drink Studio up on the third floor. It’s a glass box that is both kitchen and dining room combined, a place where chefs can show what they do and then serve what they’ve done.
It’s a Festive Bavarian Culinary Evening hosted by the Office of the Free State of Bavaria in the UK, and the Nuremberg Convention and Tourist Office. Its purpose is to showcase the dining that’s possible in Bavaria, as well as the remarkable natural, local, produce the region generously provides.
A buffet of preserved vegetables demonstrates how Bavarians make the most of what can be a very short growing season, ‘just a few days’ window for some berries’, says Chef Herrmann, ‘we have to preserve the harvest so that we can enjoy it over the winter months ahead.’
Based in the Posthotel in Wirsberg, which has been in his family for over 150 years, where he has the two-star restaurant “Aura by Alexander Herrmann and Tobias Baetz,” he can also be seen a lot on German TV, when not in the kitchen.
As he preps with his small team, he talks of his region, Franconia, and the family hotel where, in addition to the Michelin-starred restaurant, he also runs the Future Lab “ANIMA” developing all kinds of new products such as ‘ham’ made from turnip, a long process but which I can testify actually works as he hands out tasty samples. Using fermentation, maturation and smoking, he and his team are working wonders in the lab.
In Aura, he explains, the philosophy is #limitlessHOME which means using only produce from Franconia and Bavaria. That doesn’t mean it’s boring though, as through use of energy-neutral tropical greenhouses they grow ‘exotics’ such papaya, chickpeas and artichokes, while the meat comes from Texan cattle and Iberico pigs that live in Franconia. His in-house food scout knows around sixty producers of vegetables, meat and exotic fruits and is always out looking for more
Add to that produce his native creativity and we are soon enjoying remarkable dishes such as prawns (yes, local) with a broth of root vegetables; Icewater trout Mullerin cooked in brown butter, with celery puree, spinach, lemon vinaigrette and almond crunch and, of course, some potato dumplings.
Yes I know what you’re thinking, dumplings, oh no! But Chef Herrmann is ready for this negativity. His dumplings are light as a feather, almost like Bao buns, and inside is rich duck meat while outside is delicious cream cabbage. Dumplings elevated.
The whole meal is remarkable, ample evidence of why Chef Herrmann has his two stars, but it is just a taster of what the region has to offer beyond Bratwurst.
The scenery is fantastic of course and all over the region are remarkable hotels and restaurants, and then there is the beer brewed in the monasteries where tradition is still crucial, even as many of them cheerfully embrace modern green technology, such as solar power.
Right now a great reason to visit Nuremberg of course is its castle and its almost legendary Christmas market. And Chef Herrmann is there as well with two restaurants in the town.
Regional cuisine, sustainable and mindful with many restaurants following an ethos of nothing travelling more than a few kilometers to their creative kitchens, Bavaria is a culinary capital that needs your attention.
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Aura & Anima – Alexander Herrmann and Tobias Bätz is out now
The two star chefs present their pioneering #grenzenloseHeimat concept in detail and comprehensively in their joint book.
A look at the unique symbiosis between the 2-star restaurant AURA and the laboratory of the future ANIMA, in the Franconian town of Wirsberg with more than 50 recipes from Michelin-starred cuisine and the Future Lab
They show the journey from farm to gourmet dish and their knowledge of innovative refinement techniques.