The first two things started to miss from the shelves of the supermarkets were flour and yeast. First, the most common white wheat flour disappeared and then spelt, einkorn, durum, farro, barley, rye... But why flour and yeast? Because people started to bake breads at home.

Bread is alive. Bread is flour, water with a pinch of salt created by the four elements and human hands. Bread can teach us smelling, kneading, looking, listening and tasting. Bread is all in one, it is human history, it is our life.

But we do not bake anymore. Someone else is baking for us, and we are missing good bread like nothing else.

There has been a quality bakery, sourdough bread, and make-your-own-bread renaissance going on for the past 10 years. There are countless stories about people giving up their careers, to become bakers. All of them talk about finding their true vocation. I believe them, and you do too, if you have ever folded a warm bread dough or taken out a bread from your oven...

What I found very interesting what happened right in the beginning of the pandemic, as like first symptoms in private homes. I believe everyone knew at least one person, who started to bake - without having a previous interest or knowledge about bread. And it made me think: why baking? And why bread?

Bread is -still- the most basic food item all over the world. It is made in every corner of this Planet. Where there are people, there is also bread. And even though Europe does not bake at home anymore, it is still our main everyday food. We could basically survive on bread. A good bread has everything we need. And this is the most imporant thing when there is a pandemic; to stay alive. That is why flour and yeast were gone first. That is why people piled them up in their homes in huge quantities. That is why people turned on the oven and started to bake bread. I am convinced; the art of baking and the irresistible love of bread is encoded in us - in order to survive. That is why it is really difficult to find someone who can - out of free will - resist a crispy and yet soft bite of freshly baked bread.

If there is a good side to a pandemic, this time it made us realize how fragile and depended we have become. It awakened our inner survival animal. Instead of panicking, we started baking, kneading, swapping sourdoughs, and exchanging bread recipes. We started experimenting with different flours, nuts and fruits in yeast and sourdough breads. We took the first step of self-sufficiency with practicing the most basic and most favoured food.

No one knows how the corona pandemic is going to continue or end up. But we have already proven that we want to live here and we can still feed and sustain ourselves. Each of us, one by one, because we didn't forget one of the most basic skills, which makes us the opposite of being fragile and depended. And which makes us human more than anything else: the art of baking a loaf of bread, and eating and sharing it with love.

I made this cake for a summer party and it became everyone's favourite. It is light, creamy and fruity. I collected the berries and roses from the garden. If you do not have a garden, just go forage some berries, flowers and herbs for it.

It takes time to mix the sponge cake, but very easy to make. For the mousse I added some of the fuits, so it became pink, but you can also leave that out, so it remains white. I can imagine this as a wedding cake. Or just for a weekend family gathering, or just for a Monday evening to say goodbye to August...

I could still use fresh summer berries for this sweet cake 🙂

Why organic?

I used organic ingredients to make this cake. For me organic is not a label, but a way of living. Organic means not a way of producing food, but the one and only way how nature works. Organic means natural. All vegetables, fruits and flowers growing in my garden are organic, because I do not treat them with anything. Everything in the forests around my farm is organic.

I believe it is a wrong concept that we mark the organic products. I think products from "conventional" agriculture should be marked with all sorts of labels, and not the other way round.

Organic is natural, organic is the way how it used to be and how it should be. That is why I choose it over conventional, or why I avoid conventional.

Ingredients

sponge cake

• 150 g butter
• 300 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150 g flour
• pinch of salt

Whisk the butter with the sugar, add the eggs one by one in every 10 minutes. Sift in the flour as last. Bake it for ca. 30-35 minutes on 170 degrees in a greased pan.

• 100 g nougat
• 2 tbsp instant coffee

Spread it over the warm cake, let it melt. Sprinkle the instant coffee on the top of it. Cool down the cake.

mousse

• 400 ml cream
• optional: 50 ml jam
• optional: 2 tbsp cointreau liqueur

Pour the whipped cream mixed with jam (and liqueur) over the cold cake.

I used blueberries and red currants together with dried rose petals to decorate.

Yes, and no. I have never studied in a "real" chef school. I didn't put a mortgage loan on my parents house to study in one of the best culinary institutions in France. But I spent my entire life watching old women's and men's hands carefully, how to knead a dough. How to make a stock from scratch, how to butcher a chicken. How to treat your vegatable garden and how to salt a plate of food considered to be just perfect. I worked in restaurants, canteens, farms and even in a chocolate factory. I make catering. I teach people how to cook from scratch. I am cooking every single day.

I heard it so many times in my life: "he/she is only a chef". Well, go and work in a kitchen for one day, and repeat the same sentence with still emphasizing the word "only". Cooking is a complex task. Chefs have a huge responsibility and not only for guest's satisfaction. Chefs are connection points between agriculture and gastronomy, between nature and human. If chefs do the right things, the world is a better place. At least that is what I believe in, and work for as a "chef".

Taste is everything

I want to believe, that...

...It will only taste good if it had a good life. It will only taste good if it grew naturally, without chemicals. It will only taste good if farmers got paid well and live a quality life. It will only taste good if it does not harm the ecosystem and nature on any way. It will only taste good if it is in season. It will only taste good if you eat it fresh without a long transportation. Our food will only taste good if it is fair, organic, good quality, local, seasonal and treated well with love and care.

This is not part of the universal chef education when it should be. Because these are the basics for good taste. The way we prepare a dish is the next step after all of these.

Everyone is a chef

You do not have to be a professional chef to cook responsibly. We are all cooks of our own kitchen, home, family and friends. And besides the ingredients, we can use our identity, characteristics, ideology as spices to make a good, clean and fair food without remorse.

Cooking is not only a question of the chef and its fame, neither the numbers of starts. Cooking is not only about perfection and techniques, but also about respecting the work of others. Respecting nature, farmers, farm animals and all kinds of ingredients. Cooking creates community, therefore culture. Cooking makes us who we are, every single day. Gastronomy is about a past full with traditions, about a sustainable present, and about an equally livable future for everyone and everything. I am very lucky I can work with food every day. I am proud to be a chef and all of you should be.

It is the middle of August, and everything is available for this ice cold soup. I made it extremely hipster, so literally everyone can eat it (for sure not, because I am not keeping up enough with every diet). It is vegan. It is lactose free. It is also gluten free, if you make it with gluten free bread or leave it out. But most importantly it is delicious and refreshing in this heat. It is an umami bomb, especially if you make it the day before. Enjoy.

Get your ingredients from a reliable source. I used organic, european watermelon, local and organic tomatoes, fairtrade pepper, local salt and vinegar.

600 g watermelon

400 g tomatoes

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp vinegar

salt

pepper

lemon juice

slice of bread

basil

optional: pistachios

It is so easy to make this soup! You only have to cut the watermelon, the tomatoes and the bread into cubes and add all the rest of the ingredients, adjusting the taste.

Mix the tomatoes with the olive oil, the vinegar and the bread, let it soak for a couple of minutes. Add the watermelon, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of lemon juice to it. Blend the whole mixture. The longer you keep it in the fridge, the better it gets. The best is the day after, but you can also serve it immediately. Decorate with basil and chopped pistachios.

The green leaves and nuts look amazing in the middle of a red soup because of the color contrast. When a plate of soup is served harmoniously, it will also taste better, because your eyes prepare your tastebuds!

And you are the only one who knows it was so easy to "cook" it. 😉

There is nothing cooler, than making your own stock. It is cool, because you make it. It is cool because you do not have to buy cubes. It is cool because you use the leftovers (vegetable stem/peel, animal bones). It is cool because you can flavor it as you like with different herbs, veggies, spices...It is cool because it can hold basically forever in the freezer. It is cool because you have your own vegetable/meat/fish broth. It is cool because you can give it as a present. It is cool because everything taste better with a good stock than with water or even with the most expensive, organic bouillon cube. 

You can freeze it in bags, glasses, jars or ice cube trays. Use it to make soup, stew, pottage, risotto, sauce etc...

Make a vegetable stock from the veggies from your garden or use organic ones. Wash them well. If you want to make an other dish from the vegetables, peel them and make a stock from those. But you can also make a really rich stock from the whole vegetables and herbs, instead of only using the peels and stems. Add onions to it, an incredible amount of salt and some pepper. Cover all with water and cook it until it starts to boil. From then on simmer it up to 5-6 hours or until your whole home smells like the stock itself. Taste it sometimes and adjust the taste with more salt, pepper, other spices and herbs. When it is done, strain it through a dense sieve, let it cool and freeze it.

Chicken/pork/beef/fish stock. I always recommend to buy a whole poultry and butcher at home. You learn to respect life when you work with a whole animal with its heart, liver, bones and blood. You are not aware of the consequences of being an omnivore when it comes to perfectly uniformed, bleached white, tasteless chicken breast stored in an odorless plastic tray coming directly from a factory's processing line. That was never an animal, and it will never be "meat".

When I buy a chicken I know where it is from. When I butcher that chicken at home, I like to be alone and talk to it. It sounds creepy, isn't it? I pay my whole attention to it, try to feel that dead body with all my senses. I think of its life and pay my respects. I am aware it lived before, and died for me to eat it. So, it is my turn now to make the most delicious dishes from it, and a lot.

When I buy a chicken I use it ALL. I always make a huge stock with lots of veggies, herbs and spices. I freeze it and use it in different dishes. It gives the umami flavor to every dish I make without actually adding any meat. That is what I mean by using meat as "spice" more than an actual ingredient.

When it comes to pork and beef, try to get a piece of meat with its bone, so you can use it for stock. Use as many veggies and herbs you can. Simmer it as long as possible on the lowest temperature. Same goes for the fish. Buy a whole fish and make a stock with dill, lemon and vegetables.

Try as many different kinds of soups as you can, and create yours. Enjoy reducing, reusing and recycling. Enjoy the sound, smell, and taste of YOUR broth. Enjoy every spoonful of food which was made with that stock. Enjoy the freedom of the creative human hands. 

We have all experienced at least once a tiring, cheeky or annoying guest. So how to let them know and what to do to avoid being like that?

Why do I write about this, when it is not food? Well, there are many things which belong to gastronomy or even fancier: to culinary art. For me gastronomy is a whole universe, and I try to revolve around it completely. Being a guest is one of them. I am not a "how to be a guest" expert, I just have common sense- I guess. It is so true things are not simply black and white. But we tend to toss out all the rules just for the sake of not offending anyone.

The rules are getting looser and looser, and it seems like less and less people really know when, what, how, why and why not to do. Don't get me wrong, I do not wish to go back 200 years, not even 50! I think today, the rules are "unwritten", and even though no one really teaches us, we know them.

To know how to be a guest requires minimal intelligence- like many other things- and it will also give you the answers to almost all your questions. There are no stiff rules and guidelines anymore about how to dress or speak, what to do and bring, when exactly to do certain things etc. Thank goodness! So, use your common sense, and it will guide you through the dark forest of uncertainty. 😉

To bring or not to bring

I say bring something. Something. Anything. Just bring. Why? To contribute, to share, to care. Bring something homemade. A drink, a cake, cookies, a jar of marmelade or pickles. A sourdough bread or a non-sourdough bread. A bunch of candles or a lantern made from a jar, decorated by you to a garden party. Flowers, plants from your garden. Seeds, vegetables or fruits of yours. If you don't have time to prepare something, buy something on the way from a local farmer- fruits, veggies or some beautiful flowers. Wine is never wasted either- not to mention the stronger ones... Bring a song or a dance, sing it or play it with the others. I would never bring a ready-made cake from a supermarket. Why? Because I would never buy or eat it anyway. Bring something you like, and the hosts will also like it. If you care about what you bring, the host -and everyone else-  will do too.

Time

It is not a crime to be late- where I come from. But it is where I live now. The best if you try not to be late. If you are, use one of the hundred thousand possibilites to communicate. Do as if you cared. Imagine you are the host, and the guests are late and you don't know anything about them. Because maybe something is prepared, which requires you to be on time. Maybe. Maybe I am an idealist. Maybe I am a chef. Maybe I am a good guest/host. Maybe. Others will judge.

Music

Constantly feel the vibe! It may change from one minute to another. As a host it is your task to follow and make sure that everything - which depends a lot on good music - is perfect. And not because of high expectations or showing off. It is because on such an event everyone is affected by the fact of being part of something which they will remember - very well.

If I had guests tonight I would start the evening with this...

to be cont...