The World’s 17th Best

26. Jul 2022

 

It’s old news by now: last week, we made an incredible 17th place on this year’s The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. And when we say incredible, we mean it. We were already flabbergasted when we came in at 45 last year; this year, we’ve jumped up another 28 places and were awarded the “Highest Climber” award in the process. Aside from Joachim Wissler’s Vendôme in 2013/2014, we are only the second German restaurant to have made it into the top 20. Crazy times!! 

We are by no means alone in our incredulity either – that much is clear from a quick look at the media, social and otherwise. Why are we the highest German restaurant when we serve  beans, kohlrabi and savory? How can it be that Nobelhart with one Michelin star is now higher ranked than Restaurant Tim Raue with two stars (26th place), while our three-starred colleagues at Rutz didn’t make the list at all? How does the voting process work? And what kind of hipster event with Nestlé sponsoring is the whole 50 Best thing anyways?

We are well aware of the criticism. It’s the same year after year; the only difference being that we’re now benefiting from the intransparent voting process even more than we have in the past. Of course, it isn’t our job to offer justifications for our placement, the underlying evaluation criteria or the award business itself. As far as voting criteria are concerned, we know as little as you do, and as profiteers of the whole affair, we are too biased and/or champagne drunk to offer up anything of value. (You’ll forgive us – it’s pretty exciting to know we’ll likely have a full house for the rest of the year and will be able to keep funding projects like Die Gemeinschaft and Zero Foodprint.) It would also be rather presumptuous for us to explain to you why we are absolutely 100% definitively and without doubt Germany’s best restaurant. After all, who is to say that grumpy Micha is better at sauteeing baby carrots than Marco Müller? Certainly not us! After all, there are plenty of places where the food tastes as good to us as it does at Nobelhart. (Check out our list of recommendations here.)  

Be that as it may, we are really rather happy about the whole thing. And regardless of whether you love or hate us, we do think you should be a little bit happy too – at least if you care about German food culture. But hear us out. 

Since we opened our doors back in 2015, Billy has been busy lamenting that people are quite willing to place stock in Germans’ ability to play soccer, but much less so in our culinary skills – at least when it’s not about plagiarising French cuisine. Now, with four German restaurants on The World’s 50 Best top 100 list and the The World’s Best Pastry Chef, it finally seems that times are changing.

And that’s not all, either. Consider that the list features two German restaurants – Ernst (62) and ourselves – which place regionality, small scale agriculture and a close relationship with local producers above the accoutrements and ingredients of traditional haute cuisine. At Ernst as much as Nobelhart, you get to experience the taste of Berlin and Brandenburg. Our recognition on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants creates new visibility not just for a specifically German food culture, but also for our amazing local farmers, artisans and food producers. We can only hope that this will draw more people into Germany’s restaurants and, beyond that, serve as an inspiration to those pursuing a career in food production or gastronomy. Keep in mind that Germany’s farms are dying. To make money, you farmers have to opt for large-scale, industrialised agriculture. If our placement in The World’s 50 Best  can help drive consumer demand for high quality, local produce, that would be a welcome development. 

It is about time that things change. For far too long, we in Germany had looked abroad for supposedly luxurious foods and desirable ways of preparing them. In the process, we had forgotten what actually grows on our own doorstep and how great German cuisine really is. We simply did not believe in the greatness of our local produce and culinary tradition – so it is little surprise that the world didn’t either. 

You can see from this year’s The World’s 50 Best list: we are on the right track! German cuisine is making a mark in the world. Not just in the form of restaurants drawing inspiration from France or the Far East, but with produce, techniques and recipes that are uniquely German. And that really is a great success for all of us. 

Your Nobelharts

 

Ps: Yes, a lot is happening in Berlin, but the rest of the country isn’t standing still either. Have a look at our selection of restaurants which share similar values.



The World’s 17th Best

26. Jul 2022

 

It’s old news by now: last week, we made an incredible 17th place on this year’s The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. And when we say incredible, we mean it. We were already flabbergasted when we came in at 45 last year; this year, we’ve jumped up another 28 places and were awarded the “Highest Climber” award in the process. Aside from Joachim Wissler’s Vendôme in 2013/2014, we are only the second German restaurant to have made it into the top 20. Crazy times!! 

We are by no means alone in our incredulity either – that much is clear from a quick look at the media, social and otherwise. Why are we the highest German restaurant when we serve  beans, kohlrabi and savory? How can it be that Nobelhart with one Michelin star is now higher ranked than Restaurant Tim Raue with two stars (26th place), while our three-starred colleagues at Rutz didn’t make the list at all? How does the voting process work? And what kind of hipster event with Nestlé sponsoring is the whole 50 Best thing anyways?

We are well aware of the criticism. It’s the same year after year; the only difference being that we’re now benefiting from the intransparent voting process even more than we have in the past. Of course, it isn’t our job to offer justifications for our placement, the underlying evaluation criteria or the award business itself. As far as voting criteria are concerned, we know as little as you do, and as profiteers of the whole affair, we are too biased and/or champagne drunk to offer up anything of value. (You’ll forgive us – it’s pretty exciting to know we’ll likely have a full house for the rest of the year and will be able to keep funding projects like Die Gemeinschaft and Zero Foodprint.) It would also be rather presumptuous for us to explain to you why we are absolutely 100% definitively and without doubt Germany’s best restaurant. After all, who is to say that grumpy Micha is better at sauteeing baby carrots than Marco Müller? Certainly not us! After all, there are plenty of places where the food tastes as good to us as it does at Nobelhart. (Check out our list of recommendations here.)  

Be that as it may, we are really rather happy about the whole thing. And regardless of whether you love or hate us, we do think you should be a little bit happy too – at least if you care about German food culture. But hear us out. 

Since we opened our doors back in 2015, Billy has been busy lamenting that people are quite willing to place stock in Germans’ ability to play soccer, but much less so in our culinary skills – at least when it’s not about plagiarising French cuisine. Now, with four German restaurants on The World’s 50 Best top 100 list and the The World’s Best Pastry Chef, it finally seems that times are changing.

And that’s not all, either. Consider that the list features two German restaurants – Ernst (62) and ourselves – which place regionality, small scale agriculture and a close relationship with local producers above the accoutrements and ingredients of traditional haute cuisine. At Ernst as much as Nobelhart, you get to experience the taste of Berlin and Brandenburg. Our recognition on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants creates new visibility not just for a specifically German food culture, but also for our amazing local farmers, artisans and food producers. We can only hope that this will draw more people into Germany’s restaurants and, beyond that, serve as an inspiration to those pursuing a career in food production or gastronomy. Keep in mind that Germany’s farms are dying. To make money, you farmers have to opt for large-scale, industrialised agriculture. If our placement in The World’s 50 Best  can help drive consumer demand for high quality, local produce, that would be a welcome development. 

It is about time that things change. For far too long, we in Germany had looked abroad for supposedly luxurious foods and desirable ways of preparing them. In the process, we had forgotten what actually grows on our own doorstep and how great German cuisine really is. We simply did not believe in the greatness of our local produce and culinary tradition – so it is little surprise that the world didn’t either. 

You can see from this year’s The World’s 50 Best list: we are on the right track! German cuisine is making a mark in the world. Not just in the form of restaurants drawing inspiration from France or the Far East, but with produce, techniques and recipes that are uniquely German. And that really is a great success for all of us. 

Your Nobelharts

 

Ps: Yes, a lot is happening in Berlin, but the rest of the country isn’t standing still either. Have a look at our selection of restaurants which share similar values.