There we were, Sunday morning the 23rd of September, in the car on our way to Germany. After 4 hours of sleep in the car we drove into the direction of the Grand hotel Schloss Bensberg in Bergisch Gladbach. This is close to Köln. We were invited to cook here at a culinary event. 

The event took place for the 5th time. The location looked a bit like Versaille and the surroundings were stunning. I will not try to describe this, but you could visit www.schlossbensberg.com . It’s worth it.

The owner of this all, Mister Althoff, has more hotels with 4 and 5 stars. These hotels are situated in Germany, France and England. A couple of these hotels have restaurants awarded with Michelin stars. Chef cooks Dieter Muller of Schloss Lerbach and Joachim Wissler of Schloss Bensberg are their most famous cooks. Both of them have 3 Michelin stars. These hotels are situated close to each other. At Schloss Lerbach is also the cooking school of Dieter Muller situated.

This Sunday was especially meant to ------guests, interested people and the culinary press. Together with 18 other Chefs from all over Europe we cooked. The Netherlands were presented by us, Akira Oshima of the Yamazato restaurant at the Okura hotel and Jannis Brevet of restaurant Inter Scaldes. In total there were 24 Michelin stars and 291 points Gault Millau cooking this afternoon present.

Every Chef had a luxurious Table d’hôte where every cook had his own table to prepare the appetisers. Wines accompanied the appetisers.

It was a great afternoon with very nice weather. De guests could sit on the terrace to enjoy the appetisers and the beautiful location. This is really a great place for a culinary weekend holiday.

The next web log will be written bij Noel Vanwittenbergh. He will discuss the trends in winery.