The Berlin Menu of the Best of the Best

21st Gala of the Berlin Master Chefs

Berlin Partner is honoring the best of the best of the kitchen, scene, and hospitality and showing Berlin’s culinary development as a place for haute cuisine as well as for trends and innovations in national and international cuisine. This year’s award winners are showcasing their skills at the gala dinner at Kaufhaus Jandorf and presenting their Berlin menu to the 400 invited guests. The 2017 Berlin menu was developed by the outstanding Master Chefs and uniquely combines their kitchen philosophies. Both the different categories as well as every course of the Berlin menu reflect a facet of the internationally-inspired food metropolis Berlin and the regional origin of its chefs.  

Dr. Stefan Franzke, CEO of Berlin Partner: “By honoring Berlin’s Master Chefs, Berlin Partner is presenting the restaurant culture of the capital as a flagship of the city. From top cuisine to street food, with established old hands and creative newcomers, Berlin has a culinary range of international standards. This makes the city so livable and endearing, because the gastronomy scene is now an integral part of creative Berlin. It forms a foundation of the success we’re experiencing as a city at the moment. Berlin Partner, with the format of the Berlin Master Chefs, has been illustrating this dynamic development since 1997. A special thanks goes to our expert jury, who has the difficult task every year of finding the Berlin Master Chefs.” 

While the chefs prepare the 2017 Berlin menu live in the cooking arena of Kaufhaus Jandorf, they will be awarded a course by course, category by category: The award winners receive from their presenters – judges from the master chef jury – custom-made, hand-painted plates from the Königlichen Porzellan-Manufaktur from Berlin as well as a unique magnum bottle of Pommery champagne.

The 2017 Berlin Menu

For the reception Ilona Scholl, “2017 Berlin Hostess” from tulus lotrek, served a combination of mackerel, beetroot, and rose.

Amuse Bouche
“2017 Gastronomic Innovator” The Duc Ngo

“My contribution is a fried fish praline with a Japanese ginger-cucumber-remoulade and a shiso leaf. I tried my first fried fish in Germany and combine this traditional German dish with flavors from my home. This is precisely what Berlin stands for culinarily speaking as well – dishes from many cultures connect here with the German and Berlin tradition.”

First Course
“2017 Berlin Scene Restaurant” BRLO BRWHOUSE

“My vegetarian first course connects sunchoke, black salsify, sherry jelly, red mangold, and a celery vinaigrette. Our BRWHOUSE is defined a bit differently, we work a lot with vegetarian dishes and are less meat-heavy. That is why the course fits the Berlin Menu perfectly, because Berlin has a wide range of vegetarian or vegan offerings. Nowhere else would a brewhouse with a focus on vegetables work so well,” says Ben Pommer, BRWHOUSE chef.

1st Intermediate Course
“2017 Climber of the Year” Christopher Kümper

“As a first intermediate course, from me there is a cabbage roll of smoked pork belly with a beetroot dashi and beetroot miso. Despite the Asian influences, the smell of the smoked pork belly and the beetroot is very German. To prepare it, I borrowed techniques from Japan, which I learned during my stays abroad. The combination of regional products and a taste of German cuisine paired with international influences – my dish on the Berlin Menu reflects this mutlifacetedness.”

2nd Intermediate Course
“2017 Regional Master Chef” René Klages

“The fish course, i.e. the dish before the main course, is comprised of a fried scallop with a stocked sauce divine, a Japanese bouillon, and pumpkin. The dish corresponds to our philosophy, as hardly more than three flavors are combined and we reduce it to the essentials in terms of taste. High-quality seasonal products, classically prepared and inspired by Japanese cuisine as well as the Spreewald – in this sense our course fits very well into the Berlin Menu, harmonious and intense in flavor.

Main Course
“2017 Berlin Master Chef” Sebastian Frank

“The main course of the Berlin Menu consists of a boiled fillet of veal with a spinach soup-fat-emulsion, hazelnuts, grilled pickles, and pear-parsnip cream. The ingredients reflect a down-to-earthness that can be traced back to traditional Austrian cuisine. We take this as the basis, however give it a modern, creative, and vegetable-heavy interpretation. This is exactly what my contribution to the Berlin Menu is about as well – because for me, culinary Berlin is creative and modern, but at the same time traditional and down-to-earth as well.”

Masterful desserts will be served for the aftershow party of the Berlin Master Chefs: Each Master Chef will deliver a dessert for the first time and the guests are permitted to prepare their Berlin dessert themselves at the aftershow party: Matcha tiramisu from The Duc Ngo, BRLO spent-grain cookies with porter chocolate glaze from the BRLO BRWHOUSE, apple cake with milk confit from Christopher Kümper, coconut cream ice cream with kalamansi and rice vinegar from René Klages, and strawberry milk from Sebastian Frank.

At the aftershow party of the Berlin Master Chefs, open to all Berliners, more than 500 people will celebrate with DJ Noppe – one of the most popular DJs of the Berlin club scene since 1996 – as well as good food and drink: At various food stations there will be just the right sweet or savory snacks to go with the delicious drinks at the various bars until late into the night.

The Berlin Master Chefs
Since 1997, Berlin Partner have honored the best chefs in the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region every year. By honoring Berlin’s masterchefs, Berlin Partner profile the high-class restaurant culture and the diversity of the gastronomy scene of the capital as an important economic factor and embodiment of the city. So far, 123 cooks and restaurateurs have been honored in the various categories of the Berlin masterchefs. The former honorees include, among others Kolja Kleeberg, Tim Raue, and Markus Semmler.

The Jury of the Berlin Master Chefs
The independent 14-member jury – chaired by Dr. Stefan Elfenbein – made up of Berlin’s leading food journalists and connoisseurs, evaluates not only the quality of the cooking, but also the originality of the creations, the presentation of the food, the service, and the ambience. By honoring Berlin’s Master Chefs, the high-class restaurant culture of the capital is positioned as an embodiment of the city and the diversity of gastronomy in Berlin is visualized by Berlin Partner as an important economic factor.