The hotelier was so crazy that he wanted to open a luxury hotel in the heart of the German car industry, in the shadow of the famous Wolfsburg VW power plant with its four emblematic chimneys. And it should be nowhere else than in the darkest culinary diaspora of the northern German lowlands also house a gourmet restaurant.He is the right person for the jobThe chef who got wind of this crazy plan firmly believed that he was the right person for this impossible mission, even though at 30 he was no longer the youngest and had worked in excellent establishments, but without earning any spectacular merits himself. The two quickly came to an agreement; the chef took care of it months before the opening of the hotel on the construction site in time for Expo 2000 in Hanover, every detail was taken care of – and anyone who would have bet back then on what was to follow would be a rich person today. Sven Elverfeld has not become Midas, but he has found happiness in his restaurant “Aqua” in the Hotel Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg’s Autostadt. A fairytale story from the Hessebub from Hanau From the nothingness of a crazy idea, he has made one of the best addresses in the world of gourmet food: one of ten restaurants listed by the Michelin Guide decorated with three stars in Germany, also given top marks by all other restaurant guides, frenetically celebrated by the critics, beloved by the regular audience – a fairytale story from Hessebub from Hanau, who set out to conquer the world of indulgence. And he doesn’t leave us in any doubt for a second about the fact that he hasn’t gotten tired after almost a quarter of a century with his tasting menu. Greek influences So pleasurable, so artistic, so Only a person who still enjoys cooking can have a promising start to the evening: Elverfeld caramelizes a Kalamata olive from Greece and stuffs it with Lower Saxony goat cheese and anchovy cream and dusts them very carefully with yoghurt powder. Then he tops a tortilla chip with cockles, shallots and coriander and decorates it like a painting by Mark Rothko with a dusting of red algae – but not from l’art pour l’art, but to stimulate our palate a second time with the combination of sweetness and saltiness. The perfectionist at the pass: Every single plate goes through the hands of Sven Elverfeld, who doesn’t tolerate the slightest negligence. Daniel Pilar He condenses the Andalusian classic gazpacho with tamarillo, oregano and pistachios into a heart-refreshing nectar of the gods. And he cooks his pork belly for a whole day at a minimum temperature and then ennobles it with a gel of citrus fruits, a dusting of laurel and a cream of black pepper to create a miniature work of aromatic art that turns German home cooking into a culinary high aristocracy. Such a light-handed, effortless, natural mastery cannot be learned. You have to carry it within you. Good food in childhood. Fate distributes talent so unfairly. But Sven Elverfeld, who was born in 1968, was not born with golden spoons. His mother cooked well and freshly, and her scrambled eggs with spinach are still one of his son’s fondest childhood memories. But top-class gastronomy was a closed book for the family, which had never had a chef. Since the boy loved baking cookies and, as the child of a passionate tinkerer, really wanted to do something with his hands, an apprenticeship as a pastry chef was an obvious choice – although more out of embarrassment than passion – for which an unspectacular business in the neighborhood was ideal. “The beautiful thing was that we didn’t have to get up as early as the bakers,” says Elverfeld. His father’s teacher, probably because he recognized his talent, advised the boy to take a second apprenticeship as a chef, which Elverfeld completed at LSG, Lufthansa’s catering company, at Frankfurt Airport – exactly where his fate would be decided years later should. And a first step out of the Hessian province into the wide world was also taken. A promising future “A capable young man who will make a name for himself.” That’s what a prophetic instructor wrote in the young chef’s certificate, and this same Dieter Biesler brought Elverfeld in after his apprenticeship. He had set up his own business, the “Gutsschänke” in Johannisberg Castle in the Rheingau, where he brought home-style, technically flawlessly cooked home cooking to the people on a piecemeal basis. “We had 300 guests every day, put the herring salad in two giant tubs and left the boiled beef overnight in stool cookers, did everything ourselves and didn’t tolerate any convenience in our kitchen. “So I not only learned the fun of cooking, but also the logistics of cooking,” says Elverfeld, who remains in friendly contact with all of his teachers to this day. Out of gratitude, out of humanity. He can’t do anything else. After just a year, the young chef moved on, driven by burning curiosity and in the growing certainty that his life’s journey would not end in a country tavern. Hiking through the Rhine-Main area He dared to take the step into star gastronomy, He started working at the “Humperdinck”, at that time the first house in Frankfurt where he got to know French kitchen classicism. He then moved on to Doris-Katharina Hessler in Maintal, a career changer, self-taught and pioneer of vegetarian cooking in Germany, who taught him how important it is to think unorthodox and unconventional in the kitchen. Elverfeld followed at every stop on his journey The new, the unknown, the unheard of with a keen eye, broadened his horizons, deepened his knowledge, and trained to become a master chef and state-certified restaurateur collected lots of puzzle pieces for the big tableau that he was supposed to put together in the “Aqua” in Wolfsburg one day far away. He even found time to take part in a cooking competition run by the Japanese soy sauce manufacturer Kikkoman, of course he won and was awarded a trip to Tokyo and Kyoto rewarded. “The brilliance of craftsmanship” He quickly experienced a completely foreign world, saw ingredients that had never been seen in the markets and came at a time when there were none in Germany Asia Shops returned with a tremendous wealth of experience. A promise of enjoyment that is brilliantly fulfilled: Sven Elverfeld’s goose liver with smoked almonds, grape relish and mushroomsDaniel Pilar “The dedication when eating and the reverence for good cuisine, the concentration when cooking and celebrating the meals, the brilliance of the craft and the respect in front of the chefs: “All of this opened my eyes and has remained a part of my life to this day,” says Elverfeld with humility. He had a similar experience when He cooked in a luxury hotel on Crete for two summer seasons, learning a lot from the locals and browsing for their ingredients in corner shops. The caramelized Kalamata olive is an heirloom from this time and further proof of how much every stage of his career shapes Sven Elverfeld’s kitchen to this day. Two years under star chef Dieter Müller. He experienced the most formative time with one of the greatest chefs to ever exist Germany gave. For two years, Elverfeld worked first as a clerk and then as chef de partie for the three-star legend Dieter Müller at Lerbach Castle in Bergisch-Gladbach. He learned more there than anywhere else during his years of travel. He was shown how one can radically develop French classics without betraying it, how one can integrate influences from foreign countries into one’s own cuisine without simply collecting culinary souvenirs, how one can masterfully bring cosmopolitanism and curiosity to the plate, without Losing one’s own identity. Above all, Elverfeld learned that no cuisine can be really good without treating each other with respect. Dieter Müller was strict and yet gentle, demanding but always fair. “He is a person with a heart and from whom I learned more about employee management than from anyone else,” says Elverfeld, to whom it is clear how grateful he is to this day. And when you accompany him behind the scenes through his empire, you immediately understand how well he has learned his lesson. What makes a good boss? Sven Elverfeld is a patron, but not a patriarch, a boss who is generally addressed as such by everyone but always also a colleague. He is the epicenter of the universe “Aqua”, without allowing himself the airs and graces of a Sun King. Instead, he warms his employees, makes jokes, distributes compliments, inquires about the well-being of relatives, seems to know and avoids all worries, hardships and joys strictly that generous friendliness in which nothing other than authoritarian hierarchy manifests itself. We accompany a jovial, down-to-earth, fun-loving person who, however, As we will later experience in his kitchen, he is also highly emotional in his passion, uncompromising in his perfectionism, relentless in his discipline. It has to be perfect In the kitchen, people only chat and listen to loud music during preparation. During the service, not a single superfluous word is uttered, then there is high concentration, then everyone is at their post and the boss is at the pass, where he prepares all the plates himself. Anything else would be incompatible with his claim to perfection. This is the only way he can complete his great tasting menu, evening after evening, in which every plate is plausible, well thought out, the result of a long process – and whose alpha and omega are concentrated on, despite all the technical effort the essence lies. Effortless perfection: Shrimp with veal head and tartar sauceDaniel PilarThe powerful sea flavor of the eaglefish carpaccio is wonderfully nuanced with cut out and marinated pearls of papaya, mango and cucumber, fried nori seaweed, smoked olive oil, a brunoise of peperoncini and a mixture of lime and lemongrass The local char is an image of its creator’s desire for harmony and is produced by one dance around a well-tempered Rondo made from miso and shiso, carrot thalers and char caviar. And with the Breton sole with mashed potatoes, dried tomatoes, green and black olives and a salad of paper-thinly sliced fennel, you completely understand Sven Elverfeld’s refusal to cook German cuisine alone because it would be far too boring for him – even if he did Apart from Joachim Wissler, no other German chef has done as much for the emancipation of German cuisine from French models as he has.Star cuisine in the Wolfsburg AutostadtThe effortless combination of German virtues and inquisitive cosmopolitanism is an ideal fit for the place where Elverfeld cooks. Ferdinand Piëch, the former CEO of Volkswagen, had the idea of using the Wolfsburg Autostadt to create a symbiosis of a delivery center for new cars, presentation rooms for the group brands and a think tank for mobility issues – including an automobile museum and a luxury hotel with top-class cuisine for gourmets Piëch was part of a good life. A culinary construction: The onsen egg with mimolette foam, pulled chicken leg and Pimientos de PadrónDaniel Pilar. The result is a park landscape made up of artificial lakes, spectacular pavilions and glass cylinders with new cars, which harmoniously combines its diverging components – a place that is not only popular with Wolfsburg residents as the most pleasant in their city. The “Aqua” is the quintessence of this symbiosis. We sit in a room of minimalist elegance, free of all baroque ornamentation, looking through large window fronts onto the park landscape of the Autostadt and an illuminated garden with a bonsai look, onto the VW power plant and the Mittelland Canal, onto steel pipes, chimneys, conveyor belts. That Warm in the coldIn the brutalist roughness of this brick industrial architecture, we become aware of its simple beauty and are served lots of plates that are exactly the same unfussy and essentially true, the truth and wisdom of a four-decade-long life as a top chef. There is nothing left to improve on the veal’s head, the blue shrimp from Hildesheim, tiny ebi shrimp from Thailand and seemingly banal ingredients such as cucumber and tartar sauce to create a virtuoso Lower Saxony dish Variant from Mar y Montaña combined. The purest joy is the onsen egg, which is made with foam Mimolette cheese, fried egg white, pulled chicken leg, Pimientos de Padrón and parsley oil conjures up the memory of Mother Elverfeld’s leaf spinach scrambled eggs so lovingly and artfully. Pure happiness is the Étouffée pigeon with salted lemons and radicchio and the Wagyu bar with the Tunisian sauce Méchouia and the cantaloupe melon, which dissolves on the tongue into the highest pleasure like a promise of eternal happiness. The dream of traveling Can a man, who cooks so perfectly, still have dreams? Elverfeld hesitates, seems a little indecisive, which can be seen as a very happy sign, then calls traveling and discovering the world a dream and raves about his past culinary treasure hunts, which are as present to him as if they had happened yesterday He has fond memories of Dubai, for example, where the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain sent him as head chef in their newly opened hotel because the branch in Wolfsburg was far from finished at the time. Pure happiness: Elverfeld conjures up Wagyu with cantaloupe melon and a Tunisian Méchouia sauce. Daniel Pilar “We all lived together in a staff house and everyone cooked, Indians, Sinhalese, Indonesians, Chinese. I learned from everyone, I tasted everything and I still benefit from it today,” says Elverfeld, who has a teenage son and is an ardent fan of VfL Wolfsburg, which is why many trips go to away games of his favorite club rather than to Victoria Falls.And By the way, says Elverfeld, the Germans never come from the Wolfsburg professionals, but the Spaniards, Brazilians and Croatians often do because the food is valued much more highly in these countries than with us. That’s a shame, probably for all time. The bill in his private life Sven Elverfeld also had to pay the toll of the toughness of the business. “In the beginning I was open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, 16 hours of hard work every day, and my first marriage fell apart because of that,” says Elverfeld, who therefore has to be content with the role of part-time father – and who married one two years ago celebrated a wedding for the second time, to which the entire group from “Aqua” was of course invited; Of course, they were all lined up with pots, rolling pins and spatulas. When he was awarded the first Michelin star in 2002, he could afford to close one day a week; with the second star in 2006, the second day was added, and in 2009 with the third the third.This now leaves the boss enough time for his beloved rock music – three record players, two DJ consoles and a drum set are at the Kiss fan’s home – and for the equally valued gardening. “It clears my head,” says Elverfeld, although you don’t get the impression that his head is full of troubles and worries that urgently need an outlet. At home in the kitchen We can assume that this man enjoys going to work . Because we experience a chef who has created his own culinary cosmos, in which not only he feels as at home as in the harmony of a happy family. His employees do the same and thank him with extraordinary loyalty and loyalty, a rarity in this industry. The fact that Elverfeld is probably the best trainer of his generation speaks volumes. At least 20 Michelin stars have passed through his kitchen and his hands, the most prominent of which is his former sous chef Jan Hartwig, who earned three Michelin stars in Munich and, of course, maintains friendly contact with his former boss.More on the topicThen Sven Elverfeld takes his cell phone out of his pocket and shows us the WhatsApp group of his former protégés, mentioning name after name, all of them He still knows it, he knows everything, with a shy, proud smile flitting across his face, remarkably reserved in the face of this tremendous life achievement – and we suspect that for him life consists above all of giving back what was given to him. The Whatsapp -List will definitely get longer, the first candidates are already ready. Because this chef, who has achieved everything a chef can achieve, who gives so much and loves to share, is far from finished with his fate.
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