Back when I was starting out as a chef, I wouldn't even get through the first day of vacation before I was already looking forward to the end – because then I could finally get back to cooking! Even today I can spend a half-hour standing wordlessly in front of my cooking pans, quietly enraptured in the joyous expectation of watching the Krustentierconsommé clarify.
Cooking is a passion that involves one's head as much as one's hands.
Eating utilizes all of our sensory organs: the eyes, the tongue, the nose, the taste buds and even our ears 'eat with us'. Think for example of a loaf of freshly baked bread, laying crispy and warm in your hands – the joyful anticipation of breaking through the crust that is awoken at that moment, inhaling the aroma of the warm steam, and then sticking that piece of soft bread into your mouth.
Or how sensual a visit to the market can be – with all its colors, voices and smells, reminding me that I exist.
But cooking brings our heads into the process as well. It's a systematic process in which the individual ingredients codetermine each other, and through their interaction produce something new. The question "What is a good match" is a complicated one, with many elements playing a role. The history, the cultural background, the characteristics and behavior of a product are aspects that I always play around with when creating something new. It's like a journey for which many paths are possible; I let my insatiable curiosity and joy in experimentation lead the way.
Every recipe I create is thus a work of cognitive thought and the senses all at once.
Do you want to know more? You can learn more about my craft in "VAU – Das Kochbuch" or have a look at my recipes.