FRANKFURT: With all the accolades that Andreas Krolik has received you would think that he would be a household name. Two Michelin stars, a 19 out of 20 rating in Gault & Millau which places him firmly among the world’s great chefs as well as the chef of the year title in 2017, Andreas, chef of Frankfurt based restaurant Lafleur prefers to let his cooking do the talking.
Since 2014, way before vegetable-based cuisine became the trend of the day, Andreas has been serving a vegan menu alongside a normal menu where he extracts all the flavour from vegetables to make it as satisfying as eating meat or fish.
A little shy and also humble, the German chef is slowly starting to be recognised outside of Germany. This year, he was invited to present his flavourful vegan cuisine at Madrid fusion and this will be followed by the same Madrid Fusion in Bogota later this year. He is also heading to London later this month to showcase his vegan cuisine in the margins of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards taking place there.
Born in East Germany, Andreas Krolik became a chef thanks to the fall of the Berlin Wall because without that he would have likely ended up a forester following in the footsteps of his uncle. Despite working in traditional restaurants, Robert Mangold, the owner of the restaurant Lafleur offered him a position at Tiger in the Tiger Palace Theatre which was his first Michelin starred experience and where he found his true calling and understood this was his path in life.
Andreas wants his guests to leave the restaurant happy but with happiness from the inside, from the soul. “What we serve is not necessarily a loud show. But we really work hard to feed the soul. We want our guests to leave surprised by our combinations, to feel relaxed and to realise that a two Michelin star restaurant doesn’t have to be stiff. Superb flavourful food, amazing wines and great service, that’s key.
Read our interview below:
How did you enter the world of gastronomy?
I was born in the DDR (East Germany) during the Communist time and it was typical for us to know what you were going to study or work when you were in 8th or 9th grade. My first choice was to become a forester because my uncle lived in the second biggest forest area in all of Germany and I used to go there during summer. I loved it. I was very much a child of nature. Spending time outside, fishing, climbing in trees.
But then came the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was between the 9th and 10th grade for me and the forest became a less interesting or the smart choice. Most of the forest areas owned by the state all became private and at that point I had to change my choice very fast, and my second choice was to start as a cook. It really was a particular time for me when I had to make that decision.
My next step was sending applications to restaurants in the Black Forest but I saw in the newspapers that in West Germany they were looking for cooks and waiters. It was sort of the same situation as we have going now with lack of staffing. They needed staff in the West and we needed work. I was 16 at the time and during the winter holidays I was planning to get some trial days of work at one restaurant, to see how it was and get some experience. One day a week turned into working the whole week and my parents ended up going on holidays by themselves. It was great. It was absolutely right for me and after that I started my apprenticeship in the same restaurant.
It was a very basic hotel with a basic kitchen. It was a restaurant serving regional cuisine from the Black Forest without any stars or accolades. At this point I had never heard of Michelin or any other guides. It was all very basic, but good because we did everything ourselves. My head chef was also a butcher and grew up helping his family in a bakery so he taught me a great deal of things. Moreover, the owner of the hotel was a hunter and he would bring game to the hotel for us to clean and cook. It was a great place to learn the basics and the fundamentals of a real kitchen.
The next years were also full of learning experiences. After a year in the military I moved back to the Black Forest where I met my wife, then we moved to Switzerland to work, then back to Germany to Karlsruhe, back to Switzerland and so on. All the time working in restaurants with typical cuisines and certainly not gourmet. Then we met Robert Mangold, the owner of Lafleur where I am today, and ended up moving to Frankfurt to work at my first Michelin-starred restaurant, Tiger in the Tiger Palace Theatre. It was then that I found my true calling and understood that my path in life was fine dining.
You grew up in a really small village surrounded by nature. Would you say that this influences how you cook today?
Of course. I would say that this is where I created the base of my knowledge about flavour and taste. My family was not poor but we were very far from being well-off. We didn’t have a lot of material things but what we did have was our own fruits, vegetables and animals. I remember it was a lot of work to maintain the garden and the animals, but it also allowed me to learn about seasonality. When you try vegetables and fruits in their perfect ripeness and temperature you forget about salt, pepper and oil. It was perfect as it was and this is something that has remained firmly imprinted in my brain. I’m always looking for this pure taste that I learned during my childhood. I didn’t have time to do other things or for other hobbies. Now, with another perspective, I’m very happy that I grew up like that. It was helpful in many ways, not only in finding my taste and my voice but also it made it normal for me to work hard.
I think that all this is the real reason why taste is so important for me. It is essential. My kitchen is loud in flavours but not loud in other areas. I don’t like too much noise or shows. I like flavours.
Frankfurt isn’t particularly known internationally for its great cuisine. How would you describe it as a city?
I’m a child from a village and not the biggest city lover, but I have learned to love Frankfurt. It’s very international, a city with many cultures. Not as big as Paris or London but with a lot to offer. And I adore our location. We’re situated in the great Palmgarden; in the very green heart of an urban jungle with lots of skyscrapers, inside a big, big park. That I love very much.
From an all over culinary perspective Frankfurt might surprise you as the city mostly is known for being the financial centre of Germany, and therefore also of the EU. But what comes with that are also many cultures and many different cuisines. It’s a diverse scene but unfortunately not in any way as famous as Copenhagen or Berlin. But it’s very dynamic and I would say that in the last five years it’s growing and growing, with more Michelin-starred restaurants, fine dining, casual places, vegetarian restaurants, great coffee houses and so on.
I see. Would you say that local guests are hungry for more in terms of fine dining?
I think that local people are definitely open for more. Some of them tell us about their culinary travels when they come to Lafleur. But we also have a lot of people in Frankfurt and in Germany that don’t really like spending money on fine dining. I think it’s a cultural thing. We’re not yet like the French, Italian or Spanish in that way and sometimes it can be a challenge for a fine dining establishment like Lafleur. Thankfully we also get a lot of foreign guests – global diners that travel the world looking for great gastronomic experiences, great wines and unique dishes and flavours.
In a sentence or two, can you define Lafleur?
That’s a good question! (Andreas Krolik laughs). To me it’s a special symbiosis of great food and wine, the best possible seasonal produce and a local touch. We’re also very proud to be pioneers in creating fine dining vegan menus since 2014, way before it was fashionable or trendy. Lafleur is a flavorful pearl in the green heart of Frankfurt, so vegetables par excellence make all the sense in the world to serve here.
Vegan menu since 2014, you say? What made you create that?
At this time you couldn’t find a vegan menu anywhere in fine dining. It was, and still is for some, a horror scenario to work on a vegan menu. But in my history, since my first chef position in 2002 I have had a vegetarian menu. It wasn’t really popular. But actually the mastermind of the vegan menu here was Robert Mangold (the owner of Lafleur and other restaurants in Frankfurt). He came to me when I was working at one-Michelin starred restaurant Tiger and asked me what I thought about the idea of creating a full vegan menu.
I took some time to think about it. I thought about different animal preparations that normally are very intense and how I could do them. I also started thinking about everything I couldn’t use to create my dishes. At that time you didn’t find as many alternatives for vegans as you do now. The most important thing was to achieve the same amount and intensity of flavour. I wasn’t thinking about a menu that would be good considering the fact that it was vegan. It had to be good in spite of that. It had to be with dishes that meat lovers also would want and enjoy.
My thinking was to be open and completely free. If you already come into the process with a bad idea of vegan food, you limit yourself. I took the time to understand what I had available, what I couldn’t use, and then the creative process began. The hardest challenge was the pastry side, mostly with the textures, but we have definitely improved that over the years.
Following the menu didn’t only become an option for vegan guests, regardless of the reasoning behind their veganism, it also became a great option for lactose intolerant guests. But for me, the greatest reason to create this menu was the challenge; to show myself that it was possible to create an amazing and intense vegan experience, and at this point more than 30% of our guests chose the vegan option. This makes me very happy.
When you go to Eleven Madison, Geranium or other fine dining establishments where they now offer vegan menus, it almost seems like they want to make it as light as possible because, well, vegetables must be light. But in your case the dishes taste way more intense. They have deep structure and substance. Do you spend a lot of time achieving that depth in flavour?
We do, specially to achieve the broths and sauces that we serve to our guests. In my opinion they are very deep and we could serve them over a piece of meat and any regular eater would be happy. I think it’s possible to taste the vegetable or fruit on its own but we also achieve so much character and complexity by presenting different preparations and textures of the same product in one dish. This is evident by the fact that a lot of the guests that come to Lafleur and get the vegan menu actually do eat fish and meat. But they don’t miss it during their meal here.
At Lafleur you also serve a menu with seafood and meat. What do your two menus have in common?
I think that you can smell, see and taste the fact that they both have the same DNA. For starters they are both very fragrant menus. They both have the same presentation aesthetic, as I like simple, symmetrical, clear and colorful dishes. And most of all, they are both filled with intense, deep flavours. They evidently come from the same mind and hands.
You spoke about changing dishes or creating new dishes. At Lafleur you like to change the menu regularly but how is that creative process?
The process depends on my stress level… (Andreas Krolik laughs). If my head is clear then I only need a couple of days. I start with sketches and ideas. It’s always pretty much completed in my mind first. I can mentally imagine how things will taste, how the recipes would be, the preparations and the presentation. When I feel like I have an all round completed idea, I try it. First I write everything down, draw it and then cook it and present it. Then we usually just make a few adjustments and jump on to the wine part.
I see. Are wines an important factor at Lafleur?
Very. Lafleur is very much a wine restaurant and has a list of some 1200 wines and many from some of the best producers in the world, including old vintages. So from scratch I always think about my dishes as if they come paired with wine. We cook with many sauces, strong flavours, we look for a great balance and to add some acidity, and because of that our dishes become a great way to also display our wonderful wine cellar. So we see wines as a beloved partner in the kitchen. For us they have the same level of importance and one brings the other up. They compliment each other.
Overall I think that my dishes and cooking complement very well with wines. Alexandra Himmel, our sommelier, comes in at that point because finding the exact match is not an easy job, at least not to me. So I always talk to her in advance and give her the ingredients of our next new dishes upfront, and when they are done she already has a selection based on our first meetings and then we get to try the new dish with that selection. In that way we find the best possible pairing for every new creation.
Where do you find inspiration? Cliche question, I know, but please give it a go.
(Andreas Krolik laughs) From many things. But I find that my cooking days at home inspire me a lot. I not only love to cook for our guests. I also love cooking on my free days for my family. Simpler, home food of course, but during those spontaneous moments I find a lot of inspiration. I also get it from my morning visits to the market. I go there every day and get veggies and fruits from an Italian family. A bike ride can also be very very inspiring. Sometimes an old dish also works as inspiration. I always like to make them better, to keep exploring with textures and flavors to make them even better.
One of the most popular dishes, not only for me, but also for guests is one that shows my style. It is one of the starters of the summer vegan menu. A variety of many different tomatoes done different ways and served with clear tomato juice. You have tomatoes on the plate, not spheres, foams or things like that. It’s a direct dish, tomatoes. We combine it with a green sauce ice cream. The green sauce is a traditional regional sauce done with 7 herbs.
Another must or signature would be our dessert with cherries. We fill them with caramelized hazelnut and then we marinate them and combine them with chocolate and sprout shoots of ice cream. I collect the sprouts myself, they have a citrus flavour and this year I collected some 10 kilos. I put them in a shock freezer so I can use them for a long time. A fresh and intense, but delicate flavour.
A savory dish that we can also highlight is the venison. We have great game in Germany and it is a dish that combines tradition and modernity. We combine it with apricot and a sphere of foie gras, for example.
Very interesting. So to you, what’s the perfect experience at Lafleur?
We want guests to leave very happy, it’s that simple. But happiness from the inside, from the soul. What we serve is not necessarily a loud show. But we really work hard to feed the soul. We want our guests to leave surprised by our combinations, to feel relaxed and to realise that a two Michelin star restaurant doesn’t have to be stiff. Superb flavourful food, amazing wines and great service, that’s key.
Last, what’s the flavour of Andreas Krolik?
Intense, pure and creative.
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