Preserving Techniques in Modern Cuisine
Use traditional preserving techniques and local ingredients to create modern dishes that evoke memories of past seasons
Preserving food is no longer the necessity that it used to be, however these traditional techniques are being revived by chefs today and can transport us back to the origins of central European cuisine.
Chef Micha Schaefer will explain these techniques, why they are used, how they differ, and what each technique brings to the product from a culinary perspective.
In addition to nutritional benefits, preserving techniques can also bring new tastes, flavors and properties to vegetables and dairy products. Preserving techniques can also help us to avoid food waste, and also to promote local consumption.
We will discover that seasonal food can be consumed all year round in a different way and that vegetables don’t have to be fresh in order to be tasty and healthy.
Micha will incorporate a range of interesting ingredients sourced from within close proximity to his restaurant, including dill blossoms, elderflower, elderberries, cherry blossom, green walnuts, rose, and blackcurrant wood oil.
We will appreciate how his dedication to rigid local restrictions ultimately forces him to be creative in his use of preserving techniques, and also to seek alternatives to ingredients, such as olive oil and lemon, that we might otherwise take for granted.
You will learn to take full advantage of top quality fresh products by preserving them at their optimum point in order to enjoy them all year round.
Chef Micha Schäfer will apply a range of preservation techniques to seasonal local ingredients, including preserving mushrooms in oil, pickling tomatoes, fermenting sauerkraut, infusing oils, and preserving one of the most sought after seasonal products - white asparagus.
You will also see how to make simple, yet well executed preparations to serve with the preserved ingredients, including a buttery potato puree and a bright green parsley sauce.
Micha will demonstrate how he uses ingredients, such as pickled cherries, black walnuts and cherry blossom to create desserts that evoke memories of summer during the winter time.
Who is it for?
For professionals and foodies who would like to learn more about traditional preserving techniques and their creative uses in modern cooking.
What you'll need
Chef Micha Schäfer was born in Unterseen, Switzerland, but grew up as the oldest of six siblings in a small village near Paderborn, Germany. Just a few semesters into his university studies, Micha Schäfer discovered his passion for the kitchen. He entered the industry as a dishwasher to help finance his training, but eventually put his academic career on ice and switched to the other— the right — side of the prep line as a chef. The big breakthrough came in his position at the Villa Merton (Michelin**, 18 points in Gault Millau), which at that time was the sole establishment in Germany that celebrated a restrictive regional kitchen. Schäfer was invited by Head Chef, Matthias Schmidt, to assume a vital role in the restaurant’s creative process, a massive boon to Schäfer’s profile over time. It also marked the inception of Micha’s dedication to using only top-notch raw ingredients. Since early 2015 he’s wielded the big spoon in the kitchen of Billy Wagner’s eatery“Nobelhart & Schmutzig” in Kreuzberg, Berlin. His efforts played no small part in helping the restaurant earn its first Michelin star and 16 points in the Gault Millau a mere nine months after opening. Here his cooking relies almost exclusively on products — particularly vegetables and herbs — from the Berlin region. Now and again, if a product is unavailable there, he’ll reach as far as the Pfalz region of Germany. It is exactly these rigid local restrictions that ultimately force him to be creative in his use of preserving techniques, such as pickling, drying, and brining, in order to ensure an interesting range of ingredients through the winter. In 2021, Nobelhart & Schmutzig ranked at number 45 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
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