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FINE DINING
MAXIMILIAN LORENZ
»A jack-of-all-trades bubbling with energy and ambition« is how
a restaurant critic recently described Maximilian Lorenz – and
that’s certainly not bad for starters. As meteoric as it is unique,
his career path began with a day of work experience with Dieter
Müller, a three-starred chef, which his parents had arranged
for him as a gift – for his eleventh birthday. Later, he went on
to train as a chef at Zur Post, an upscale restaurant in the Berg-
isches Land area east of Cologne, before deciding against going
abroad to work in as many big-name restaurants as possible,
the standard path for up-and-coming chefs de cuisine, in order
to, at the tender age of 21, set up in business by himself instead.
At L’Escalier, he spent four years honing his craft on French-
style cooking until he got his first Michelin star – and started to
have doubts about the path he was on. »I started to ask myself
if cooking French dishes really was my true passion. Soon, I
realised that nothing could be further from the truth.« And so
he opened his new restaurant, located between Cologne’s cen-
tral station and the River Rhine, eponymously named, and dedi-
cated to German cuisine. If it doesn’t grow between the Alps
and Baltic, it doesn’t make it onto the table, and so since 2018,
Lorenz has been researching, refining, and then deconstructing
traditional German dishes such as the marinated pot-roast Sauer-
braten, the typical Cologne bar snack Halver Hahn, and even
the humble fish roll, Fischbrötchen. Here, too, his efforts have
been recognised with a Michelin star. He also runs a wine-bar
called heinzhermann, the barbecue-bistro concept Pigbull, and
a container-based take-away by the name of Smax; he has also
taken a stake in upmarket gastro-pub Alten Lindenhof on the
outskirts of his town of birth, nearby Bergisch Gladbach.
FREIFRAU: Mr. Lorenz, you live what looks from the outside
like a hectic, stress-filled life running your restaurants
and cooking in them. How do you unwind on a day off?
MAXIMILIAN LORENZ: I get up at seven and am on the
golf-course by eight to play at least nine holes and
confirm my handicap. When I’m back at home, I have
breakfast – and maybe allow myself a glass of champagne
with it. Then I head to the spa: two hours in the sauna
and at least two naps. Back at home on the couch, I watch
television for half an hour or so and then go out to eat
with friends or my family. I like to have a glass of good
wine – and to back at around eight in time for cult detect-
ive series Tatort if it’s a Sunday.
FF: It sounds like you have a tightly-woven schedule – even
on your days off.
ML: Yes, my entire life is scheduled, because I need struc-
ture to make sure I keep on top of everything. It doesn’t
bother me, though, even if it is stressful: I chose my
profession – and all that goes with it. If I hadn’t have had
my passion for award-winning cuisine, I could have taken
it easier and run a simple diner or a steakhouse.
FF: But don’t you ever want to just take it easy?
ML: Not right now, no. Maybe when I retire.
FF: You’ve been working as a top-flight chef for over ten
years now, non-stop. Don’t you ever think about just
jacking it all in?
ML: Yes, I was close at one point during my training. There
was always somebody trying to tell me how to do this or
that, and it really annoyed me – because I thought I could
already do everything. Luckily, though, I soon learned
that I wasn’t perfect.
FF: What else would you have done?
ML: If I hadn’t stuck with being a chef, I probably would have
become a soldier or a police officer, perhaps for the
special squad. I’ve always wanted to do something to
help other people.
FF: Do chefs help people as much as special squad police
officers, then?
ML: The way I see it is that, when I cook, I make you happy.
Being freed from a hostage situation by me in a bullet-
proof vest would make you happy, too!
FF: In your highly-structured day-to-day professional life,
how do you find the time to be truly creative?
ML: We manage well enough. Whenever it’s time to develop
a new menu for the restaurant, my chef de cuisine Enrico
Hirschfeld and I keep an evening free and hole up with
lots of wine and felt-tip pens; then we jot down all of the
ingredients currently in season – and that can lead to un-
usual combinations such as filet of pork with strawberries
and potatoes. The morning after, we present our pro-
posals to our head chefs, and they develop them before
testing the recipes. Then Enrico and I try them, nit-pick
a bit, and make suggestions and changes like ›swap the
pumpkin for celeriac‹. After that, the dishes are ready
to hit the menu. We’re lucky in that we have a highly-
dedicated team with a lot of creativity. The restaurant
has been around for two years, and in all that time,
we’ve very rarely had to scrap a dish.
A
Der Kölner Maximilian Lorenz hat
sich während seiner Ausbildung
klassischerweise der französischen
Küche gewidmet. Heute kocht er
deutsche Gerichte und wurde dafür
bereits mit einem Michelin-Stern
ausgezeichnet. / During his train-
ing, Maximilian Lorenz of Cologne
concentrated on classic French
cuisine before turning his hand to
German dishes, an approach which
has won him his first Michelin star.
»LOTS OF WINE
AND
FELT-TIP PENS«
At the age of 28,
Cologne’s Maximilian
Lorenz isn’t just head
chef in his own
Michelin-starred restaur-
ant, but also the man
behind a wine-bar,
a BBQ bistro, and a
gourmet takeaway.
How does he manage all
the work – and what
is it that motivates him?
Angrenzend an das Gourmet-Restaurant leitet Lorenz außerdem
das Weinlokal »heinzhermann«. / Next to his gourmet location,
Lorenz also runs a wine-bar called heinzhermann.
