NAVARRA GOURMET

The colours of taste

Andre Köthe “Essigbraetleim”, in Nümberg

“Our cuisine is based more on spices than on ingredients”

The peculiar cuisine of the German chef Andree Köthe is based on flavours and colours. In fact, the most characteristic feature of his art is that he divides the palate into a scale of shades ranging from white to brown, passing through red and green, amongst others, and tastes which range from the smoothness of water right up to prunes. "Our cuisine is based more on spices than on the flavour of the ingredients used", he indicated. This chef made a name for himself through his evening menu, which attempts to educate his clients with lighter, healthier and tastier dishes.

This simplified colour scale "facilitates conversions in the kitchen, making it possible to determine the characteristics of the mixture, and whether the aim is to go more towards the sweet or salty flavours, depending on the consistency of the dish".

His theory was demonstrated by the recipe Potatoes with grapefruit, a simple, minimalistic dish, an example of his cuisine, prepared from potatoes, grapefruit, herbs and fresh asparagus sauce. In this way, as Köthe explained, "we obtain a dish in which the potato neutralises the acidity of the grapefruit and which mixes the acidity of the herbs with the crispiness of the caramel, and all this with the asparagus juice which lends more freshness to the dish".

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