With a lot of heart and creativity

A piece of Italy in Thuringia

He brought Thuringia its first Michelin star: Marcello Fabbri, an Italian through and through. For 25 years, he worked in the kitchen of the Anna Amalia restaurant in the Hotel Elephant. Now he is creating new masterpieces in the form of 5-course menus at the restaurant. The First in the Spa & Golf Hotel Weimarer Land. He cooks Italian food, combined with other European influences. The menu includes fine creations such as roasted duck breast with taggiasca olives, aubergine caponata and potato pavé. Accompanied by fine wines from Piedmont, Tuscany and South Tyrol. Buon appetito!

Not exactly run of the mill

Cod ceviche, Fregola Sarda, eggs in mustard sources: the regularly changing menu created by chef Marco Brauch contains both unusual and everyday dishes. The common theme is that they are all soul food dishes. In 2015, Marco fulfilled his dream of opening his own restaurant in Gera. The dining area of his Küche im Keller is reminiscent of a home dining room from years gone by. In old farmhouse cupboards and on the walls, there is a collection of kitchen utensils from Grandma’s day. But the food on the plates is modern.

Surprising twist

Martin Hofmann’s cooking is characterised by fresh ingredients and a lot of passion: it was almost ten years ago that he took over his mother’s hotel and restaurant in Oberhof – and he has changed a lot since them. The furnishings in the Vergissmeinnicht are more modern, the menu more unusual. But some things have remained the same: “I am keen on the old things,” he says. What does he mean? Thuringian cuisine, but with a completely new twist. For example, Hofmann serves rostbrätel (a marinated cutlet of pork neck) not in a bread roll, but on an exquisite slice of bread with mustard cream sauce. There is a new menu every eight weeks. Hofmann finds anything else boring – not least for himself.

⠇

 

Steffi and Martin Hofmann give old favourites a new twist in Oberhof. ©Florian Held

Gourmet journey through the Rhön Mountains

Two restaurants, one master at the oven: in spring 2018, Björn Leist opened the Rhöner Botschaft in Dermbach. A hotel with two completely different styles of cuisine, housed in one magnificent restored complex of buildings, the former Sächsischer Hof. In the smaller of its two restaurants, the BjörnsOx, Leist surprises his guests with eight courses, with a culinary journey through the Rhön Mountains, with “things that people are normally not keen on trying,” he says, meaning offal, sweetbread, scallops on blood sausage. And in the à la carte restaurant WohnZimmer, the focus is on dishes “like Grandma used to make”, not least a traditional Sunday roast.

Whisky, coffee and gourmet cuisine

The first mention of the castle on the mountain spur over Eichsfeld was in 1209 – a date that the Feinschmecker-Restaurant in the boutique hotel “Burghotel Scharfenstein” borrowed for its name. In a puristic ambience, enriched with a lot of wood, Martin Henning and Lisa Honda present contemporary and creative cuisine made from regional products. If you fancy a spirit or an espresso after your meal, Scharfenstein Castle is the right place for you: within its historic walls, you will find, as well as the restaurant, a real Whisky World (with a “whisky cinema” and tasting opportunities) and a fragrant coffee roastery, where delicious cakes are served with freshly brewed speciality coffees.

⠇

 

Björn Leist serves up eight-course surprise menus ©Gregor Lengler