“As every ambitious young chef, the first decade of my career was spent in a different gourmet restaurant every year. I took part in a lot of culinary competitions during that time. I loved the kitchen but there were many chefs who are better than me. But in 2009 I received the “Hospitality Career Award” for the best young hospitality manager in Germany and I decided to follow that path.
Since, Marian has worked in climbed the culinary career ladder and is now the Culinary Director of Michelin star restaurant LAGO. “The inspiration and implementation come from [Head Chef] Klaus Buderath and the Team”, he tells us. “I input mostly to the conception of culinaryideas and design.”
“Nice cooking is gradually not enough anymore; people look for more. Our goal is to create a complete culinary concept that will change the guests’ view on culinary art and will give them an opportunity to be a part of it, not only by eating our food but also by understanding what happens behind the scenes. This is why we started with our concept, ‘The indulgence-faculty’ where we break each year up into six specific culinary fields that we change every two month. Each field includes an eight-course menu that includes its own conceptual design and content, which we pair with a movie trailer and a lecture. During the lecture we and our guests speakers give background information about the ingredients, the preparation and the work that’s behind each course.
“It’s not possible to start a “gourmet revolution” without the knowledge of how the gourmet world works. The whole team – service and kitchen – is well experienced in the fine-dining world; everyone’s worked in 1-3 Michelin-starred restaurant all over the world. I might be the initiator of some of the ideas but it is the team that brings them to life. The creative mind in the kitchen is Klaus Buderath and his Sous-Chef Matthias Pietsch.
“We give our guests what they expect from a 1 Michelin star restaurant but we also propel them into experiencing something different. We celebrate sustainable foods and in April we’re starting with our own apiary. Future plans are to own our own bakery, distillation and smokehouse, all of which will be interactive experiences for the guests.” Our goal is to.
“We are definitely proud of our Michelin star! It gives us recognition in the gourmet world and the freedom to follow our own path. Nobody believed that we are able to reach the Michelin star with our staff-policy, ‘fair gourmet’ that I initiated to give people a home in the gastro-world. The staff work a maximum of 9 hours a day with 2 days off per week. How can you expect people to create new ideas and give the best each day if they’re working flat out every day?”
Find out more about LAGO at lago-ulm.de/restaurant-barand about Marian Schneider .