Neil Walker

Ok, I can already feel some of you judging me. Feel free to do so but please keep it to yourself unless it’s in a good spirit. Germany has, last Monday, opened a lot of it’s restaurant’s doors and this is two visits to our lovely local restaurant here in Bremen Vegesack that I made this week. Firstly to be an amazing boss and treat my sous chef Suzanne Bezuidenhoudt to a well deserved treat and secondly for some of our crew (who all live and work together) to let loose a little. I am of the view that I will follow the government’s guidelines in the particular place I am. We will all eat in a restaurant again at some point and personally I will be taking a cautious approach to supporting this sector again. I have discussed this with friends and some agree and some of course disagree when I tell them that I feel much safer going to a restaurant than when I go shopping as part of my job to feed the yacht’s crew. On both visits we were told outside the restaurant that we must wear face masks when not at the table, the customers were very well spaced apart, waiting staff and chefs were all wearing masks and gloves throughout the evening, when we came as a large party (from the same ‘household’) we were seated in a separate section of the restaurant and we were maybe two metres from a door that was open to the fresh air all evening which I guess would help with preventing an environment of stale air.
I am eating out now. I feel comfortable doing so and am extremely mindful of people that I come into contact with to hopefully put both of us at ease somewhat.
I’m going to start posting the meals that I have but am not going to write this whole disclaimer above as pretty much the same people read these.
After all that, if you are ever in Vegesack, Bremen Germany then this is the best spot to come to. We went on their reopening night. They had not been doing takeout, as the food doesn’t suit. They were overjoyed to be open again and able to support their staff and hopefully be pulled back from the brink of permanent closure. Speaking to the owner, the German government has been reimbursing her for paying 60% of her employees salaries and she has received that money back within 3 weeks, keeping her afloat just about. However, I certainly remember being a young cook and living pay cheque to pay cheque so when it comes to the basics of survival, namely food and rent, I can only imagine how hard it has been for these guys and girls. I’m not encouraging you to rush out but to certainly consider the situation where you are and then if you feel comfortable and it’s allowed, support some of your local small business like this. Or give them a call and see if they maybe do takeout.
Have a nice day 🙂 Less

It turns out that being based in a Bremen shipyard for two months in the winter isn’t quite as bleak as I had feared. I’ve recently taken the train to Berlin & Amsterdam for the purposes of gluttony. Then last week, on a school night, I was easily able to head to Hannover and now Hamburg for some more eating.
100/200 is a 1⭐️ Michelin restaurant in an urban loft style space. Think industrial-chic with a centrepiece open kitchen surrounded by wooden tables for the diners to gawk from. It’s a beautiful space to be fair, but not the easiest to find should you be walking there after dark. I found myself walking along a footpath next to what was essentially a 6 lane motorway at rush hour.
Upon heading up to the restaurant entrance on the third floor, I was greeted by a member of the team offering me a glass of free champagne. It was made clear that it was free and an effort to show the restaurant’s appreciation for the diners who are still venturing out under current circumstances. There has clearly been a significant downturn in reservations with plenty of cancellations as well. I, however, as long as there is breath in my lungs, am eagerly pouncing on these empty seats that are popping up here and there, bagging a seat at Noma and Gaggan during this past week alone. I don’t mean to make light of the situation as it is extremely worrying to many businesses. Many of my friends from Asia have had to cancel European trips through no fault of their own. It’s tricky to justify keeping a reservation if you have to do a compulsory 14 day quarantine when you get home.
Anyway, the glass of champers was swiftly followed by the offer of a squirt of hand sanitizer.
The food was good with a focus on sea food including Arctic char, sea urchin, sturgeon, caviar, pike perch & oysters.
Service between courses was pretty slow. I started timing between a couple of the courses because I was getting a bit bored. At 23 minutes I decided to give it a friendly mention to the waiter. He apologised, agreeing that this wasn’t really acceptable especially with 7 more courses to go, and the speed quickly picked up. There was a weird vibe coming from the kitchen. It seemed like they were a little bit ‘dans la merde’ but because it’s a fully open kitchen, they were hiding this quiet panic with heads down and wide eyes. Like the string quartet aboard the Titanic, purposefully playing on even while the ship was clearly sinking around them. I may be wrong, but I’ve been cooking for 28 years now so I can pick up on that. Anyway, the ship didn’t in-fact sink in the end and all was well. The only other thing that I found pretty annoying was that they had a Pacojet right behind my table that they would regularly use to churn various things (sea urchin ice cream for one) throughout the evening. If you’ve ever worked with one of those machines, you’ll know how loud they are.
Definitely still room for improvement but overall an enjoyable meal. Less

An impromptu dinner at Handwerk in Hannover, Germany. Having researched on the ViaMichelin site where might be interesting to eat, I was heading to the only 1⭐️ Ole Deele. Upon arrival in Hannover, and after already travelling for 90 minutes on two trains it became clear that Ole Deele is not in-fact in Hannover but 16 km and another two trains or super expensive taxi outside the city. My own fault for not checking. The only other 2⭐️ was fully booked so after a little digging around on the Internet I came upon this place.
The michelin guide gave this place a 🍽 (indicating ‘good cooking’) again last week and describes it as a refreshing and youthful concept which combines creative modern cuisine, a smart and trendy bistro atmosphere and relaxed but accomplished service providing a personal touch. I can’t really argue with that description. The team were indeed young and the service very friendly and competent. The head chef was absent on my visit but the young sous, Martin Hartwig, handled himself very well. The cooking was excellent and I have had many lesser meals in restaurants that hold 1⭐️ Michelin.
One early pre-menu dish of a simple langoustine tail was of a standard where had I been served it in a 3⭐️ I would not have thought twice. It will almost certainly make my ridiculous ‘best dishes of the year’ list I’m sure.
So if you find yourself in Hannover then try to pay this little bistro a visit. Less

Lunch last week at ⭐️ Rijks at the Rijks museum in Amsterdam. Nothing wrong with it but not really a style of cooking that I super enjoy. Chefs Ivan Beusink and Yascha Oosterberg introduced ‘Low Countries’ cuisine, which is firmly rooted in Dutch produce. The chef and his young team draw their inspiration from ingredients grown on Dutch soil, often making use of the many international flavours that have influenced Dutch cuisine over the centuries. Less

Dinner in Amsterdam at Maris Piper Kitchen Table. 12 seats around the open kitchen of this busy brasserie that are only available on Friday and Saturday evenings. The food here focuses on Brasserie style dishes using luxurious ingredients. At the kitchen table you are offered a 7 course set menu that features some of the highlights of the more extensive brasserie menu. A nice enough meal but next time I will definitely go for the A La Carte menu. Worth popping in to. Less

Dinner at ⭐️⭐️ Spectrum in Amsterdam. Several people recommended that I eat here, sighting it as THE restaurant to visit whilst in the city, and I am grateful that they did. It’s exciting when you visit restaurants that are clearly pushing for that next accolade, wether that is a new young-gun shooting for her/his first Michelin star or an established two star that is reaching for the pinnacle. Spectrum feels like the latter. Maybe the chefs will say that they don’t care about such things but it certainly has an air of confidence and boldness that suggests otherwise. I say confidence because not all the dishes are pretty to look at, but they deliver on flavour. Meaning that the kitchen has made a conscious decision that any further prodding of tweezers will compromise the dish.
There are two menus here, one being a vegetarian menu. I was advised by more than one person to order the vegetarian menu as the cooking is apparently incredible. Not being psychotic, I decided to order the regular menu containing delicious meat and seafood but to ask them very nicely to add a couple of dishes from the vegetarian menu as well. They were more than happy to oblige. I recommend you do the same, it’s certainly not too much food.
There were certainly echoes of the excellent restaurant De Librije in Zwolle, where chef Sidney Schutte and restaurant manager Sascha Speckemeier worked together over a decade ago.
Overall it was a great meal and I look forward to them being awarded a third ⭐️. It’s only a matter of time. Less

Some sweet things to finish off another perfect meal at Frantzén in Stockholm
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Back to one of my favourite restaurants on the planet @restaurantfrantzen . I never get tired of the food and service by @bjornfrantzen , @carl_frosterud and the team. A truly outstanding, world class dining experience every time👌
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Michelin Guide - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
OAD - 1
W50Best - 21
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#achefabroad #itravelforfood #foodie #foodies #foodporn #foodpic #foodpics #finedining #michelindining #eats #instafoodie #michelinstar #oad #worlds50bestrestaurants #worlds50best #eater #iphonexsmax #michelinguide #foodlepro #influencer #oadtop100 #stockholmeats #stockholmfoodie #frantzen Less

Another fantastic meal at Ernst in Berlin last month. I am really becoming a bit of a fanboy about this place. And to preempt the inevitable couple of people who historically have always piped up about portion sizes when I post my meals from here, remember that there are between 30 and 40 courses. No one leaves Ernst hungry.
I can’t really think of an example outside of Japan where the chefs are being so pure to the product. I think most dishes have 3 or less core ingredients here, sometimes just a single ingredient ! There is such confidence in this style of cooking, with really nothing to hide behind. You may go to a restaurant and have you breath taken away by the beauty and intricacies of a dish with complexity of layers and presentation, but you absolutely have the same thing here. The dishes, in my opinion, are beautiful to look at and the complexity comes from the time taken to source the absolute best ingredient at the exact moment in time that it is at its peek and deserves to be showcased. Then to find a way to enhance that ingredient and show it’s true potential through ageing, fermenting, curing, seasoning or any other of a myriad of techniques employed by Dylan and the team.
Ernst will close towards the end of April (possibly sooner with the current situation developing) to redesign the space. I have been told it will reopen with just 6 covers, giving Dylan more opportunity to focus on the cooking and the customer. So what is currently a tough reservation will become even harder. I think there was talk of doing 2 sittings but I would be interested to see how that works as the meal in it’s current format takes a good 3 hours and that it at quite a fast pace. So you would either be seated very early indeed or finishing very late but we will see. There is also talk of opening a wine bar across the street with a more casual offering. Exciting times ahead for sure.
My Facebook feed is currently 90% corona virus related stuff and I of course realise the seriousness of the current situation. There is a split between my friends with some saying to self isolate now and others encouraging to support your local small businesses by still going out to eat or to shop unless you fall into the higher risk percentage of the population. At this stage I will go with the later and continue to eat out as long as I am allowed to although I fear that here in Germany we are just a few steps behind Spain, Italy and other countries that are now on full lockdown. One thing that I would say is that if you have restaurant reservations that have to be cancelled because of travel restrictions or the restaurant having to close down for a while then rather than ask for a refund (if you’ve prepaid) just try to move the reservation or get a voucher for a future meal. Indeed, if you haven’t prepaid then if you can, buy a voucher for a future meal anyway. Businesses like this who run on very slim margins and rely on steady cash flow are going to be in real trouble very soon so I would encourage you to take this into consideration. But most of all, pick up the phone and talk to each other and lookout for one another. Stay safe everyone 🙂 Less