Überfahrt: A Menu That Captures Europe

Have you ever drunk strawberry champagne in a rural coffeehouse?

People do it in Tegernsee, a cute small village with its population of 3500 in heavenly Bavaria. It is an interesting place where the roads are brimming with luxury cars like Porche, Bentley or Lamborghini and the coffeehouses offer its wealthy customers strawberry champagnes.

In addition to being very close to Munich, the Tegernsee Lake has the clearest waters in that region of lakes. As the photographers earn their living by photographing the picturesque area, it is also a popular place those visit for recreational activities after a boring workweek in the city.

Of course, the unintentional smile on your face and a pleasant walk around the lake filling your lungs with oxygen comes with a growling in the stomach.

One of the 5 starred hotels of the village, Athoff Seehotel is the first choice of the gastro-lovers with its restaurant Überfahrt which has three stars and 19 Gault Millau toques.

The Chef Christian Jürgens (47 years old) worked for several restaurants such as Tantris, Heinz Winkler, Jörg Müller, Aubergine which I also frequently visit. Having been voted “the Chef of the Year” by Gault Millau in 2013, the highly-acclaimed chef took the helm of Überfahrt in 2008 with a team of 20 people. Since then, he’s been offering 2 tasting menus with dishes mostly from the French cuisine.

The quality woodworking that prevails the hotel’s design shows up in the design of the restaurant too. After we sat at one of the tables which didn’t have tablecloth but looked glittering with their varnished surface, we started the night with an appetizing ball of lightly-flavored butter that looked like a walnut.

It was followed by the star of the amuse bouches: quail egg. But it was a quail egg only in words, in fact its white was made from Frankfurter sauce (It. “salsa verde”, Fr. “sauce verte”) which is prepared with a variety of greenery and mostly served with beefsteak in Germany. And its yolk was a piece of beef made into mousse form. The edible eggshell with its grain flavor and the melt-in-the-mouth consistency of the beef was a great combination in harmony with each other.

The next dish was Harald’s Garden with a fine presentation. The salad was a refreshing combination of beetroot with yoghurt, garnished with almonds.

In the seafood category, Christian Jürgens came up with scallop. It was boosted with mussels, quince, chestnut and celery leaves.

Following the scallop, risotto featured offal, number one ingredient that I look for in a menu. As the dish was composed of calf’s head and softly and richly flavored “vacherin” cheese which is genuine to Sweden and France and made with cow’s milk; if you wish, you can boost its taste with some thinly grated Alba truffle.

Another seafood dish was autumn leaves made with codfish and oyster locked inside a layer of fried-onion. With a sprinkle of cress buds on top, the dish was appealing both to the eyes with its colorful presentation and to the palates.

It was followed with baby chicken which was composed of, what is called in gastronomy, “spring chicken”. The spring chickens grow only to be 28 days old and they are 400 grams in average. Here it was braised with a delicious sauce and was accompanied by a small piece of duck liver and grilled asparagus, one of my favorites in grilled vegetables.

The star of the night was a game dish, heart shot. The saddle of venison was accompanied by some seasonal vegetables and mushrooms and enhanced with “rounnaise sauce” which is similar to the famous French sauce “bordelaise” made with marrow, onion and red wine but additionally includes duck live puree.

As it was time for desserts, we ended the night with Indian summer featuring banana which was enhanced with Baileys, and stone garden made with mascarpone, coffee and chocolate and it was admirable even with its marvelous smell.

Europe in a Nutshell