From February 4 – 9, 2014, the top floor of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart transformed into a gourmet restaurant. Since 2008, the Mercedes-Benz Nights of the Stars belongs among established meeting places for lovers of the finest cuisine and the event has become an integral part of the museum‘s calendar. We took a careful look into the saucepans…
Twice a year – in spring and autumn – top chefs from around the world on the invitation of Mercedes-Benz do some top-level cooking for their guests – on the ninth and top level of the Mercedes-Benz Museum, to be exact.
In a prelude to the actual Nights of the Stars , guests are squired down the red carpet to an aperitif in the cocktail lounge. Next came a short but highly fascinating tour of the car museum after which everyone was asked to table in luxurious and elegant ambiance.
In a separate review, we reported on the dramatic exhibition. And on our test drive in the Benz Patent Motor Car, the very first automobile ever built…
A culinary evening in a class of its own
It began with a beetroot macaroon appetizer served with smoked eel and salmon with avocado. The mere sight of it got the mouth to watering…
And it only got better!
An amuse-bouche consisting of a festive rabbit three ways materialized next, and then things really got going with a 5-course “Usedom Island menu” by star Chef René Bobzin…
A variety of local wines accompanied the mouth-watering menu. The friendly waiter took us on a veritable wine tour of Germany. We were pleasantly surprised!
So surprised in fact that we take the trouble of repeating here the names of the noble vintages for anyone who wants to go on the “tour” ;-)
The 2012 Scheurebe QbA from Saxony got the wines off to a brilliant start!
With it came a 2012 Silvaner quality wine from Franken.
Fortunately, the scallop is star Chef René Bobzin‘s favorite seafood – for it is mine as well ;-)
He followed up these promising starters with a Baltic cod on Pomeranian asparagus – black salsify root to us mere mortals – calf’s head and truffles as the “main fish course. “
accompanied by a 2012 Grauburgunder quality wine from the Palatinate
Then it was on to the main meat course: Supplied by a regional grower, it was tail of rump of Pomeranian beef with Mecklenburg pineapple (turnip) and béchamel potatoes.
The Cuvée Nr. 1 QbAdry from Baden complemented it extaordinarily well!
Came dessert time, and our senses were already so numbed that my photographer missed getting a really good shot of the dried fruit with nougat, mandarin orange and cardamom. We make do here by assuring ou readers that it rounded out the divine meal perfectly…
The “light” ending chocolate from the Kaiser Spa Hotel zur Post establishment then dotted the “i” at coffee time. (The coffee helped reanimate the photographer. The camera exposure, however, was still a little on the dark side…)
Star Chef René Bobzin’s artistic handiwork
Chef René Bobzin
For anyone seized by a craving: Here you will find prices and availability for the Kaiser Spa Hotel zur Post.
In 2002, René Bobzin was celebrated as “Discovery of the Year ” by the Gault Millau gourmet guide. Just in his first year as chef, he received an astounding 16 points! Not bad at all! In 2005, the passionate chef was awarded his first Michelin star for the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Congratulations!
The next Nights of the Starts in the fall of 2014
The Mercedes-Benz Nights of the Stars are open to the public and take place in the second half of the year for an entire two weeks from November 18 – 30, 2014.
One of the star chefs has already been booked for November: Rolf Fliegeauf from the Swiss Giardino Ascona or Giardino Mountain in St. Moritz will swing the cooking spoons during one of the weeks.
Fliegauf’s cooking earned him two Michelin stars each in ECCO in Ascona and in ECCO ON SNOW in St. Moritz. We wrote about our visit to Giardino Mountain as follows and also took pictures.
The mystery of the second star chef’s identity will soon be solved…
Making early reservations is definitely worth it regardless! All information about prices and reservation chances can be found on the Nights of the Stars website of the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
This time, we took up quarters within sight of Stuttgart’s central train station in the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin It is just a few minutes from there to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, if need be even by public transport. But, of course, we couldn’t pass up the chance to take the hotel’s e-mobility Panamera for a spin…
Anyone in search of still more gourmet experience will do well to reserve a table in the hotel’s restaurant “Olivio” …
You will find more images from the spectacular car museum in our Flickr photo gallery:
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Our thanks go to…
…Mercedes-Benz … for the generous invitation! Friederike Valet and Mareen Hoeppner have put together an overwhelming program…
Warm thanks also to Ingrid Feiler , the Mercedes-Benz project manager for Nights of the Stars, and Sandra Nörpel of with Stuttgart-Marketing for the organizing and the cheerful company ;-)
A big thank you to also to Oliver Sefrin , head of Press and Public Relations for the German National Tourist Board (DZT) for arranging this visit. It was an once-in-a-lifetime experience!
