Jeremy - New German Cooking

Text copyright 2014 by Jeremy Nolen.
Photographs copyright 2014 by Jason Varney.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN 978-1-4521-2806-1 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4521-3648-6 (epub, mobi)

Manufactured in China

Design by The Heads of State
Prop and food styling by Carrie Purcell

Chronicle Books LLC
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ASK MOST PEOPLE what comes to mind when they hear the phrase German food and the response is likely to be those three dishes, quickly followed by such adjectives as heavy, fatty, and meat obsessed. Germany is thought of as a nation of mirthful drinkers, their food nothing more than the fuel that soaks up the beer. In other words, the German kitchen is regarded as hearty and serviceable but certainly not great.

Here in the United States, German cuisine is never discussed with the same reverence accorded the tables of France, Italy, and Spain. This is, of course, nonsense. For far too long, German cooking has been underrated outside of its national boundaries, and this book aims to change that. New German Cooking celebrates the flavor, freshness, variety, and seasonality of German cuisine.

The earliest German immigrants to the United States, who began arriving in the late 1600s from the west-central region known today as the Rhineland-Palatine, established themselves as farmers in the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic. By the mid-nineteenth century, the period that saw the heaviest influx of German immigrants up to that point, major cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Saint Louis had developed thriving German populations of their own.

During this period, many of the German restaurants opened by immigrants in metropolitan areas, such as Bostons Jacob Wirth or The Berghoff in Chicago (both still in business), built their menus around food native to the mountains of Bavaria. Over time, dishes like pretzels, Weisswurst, potato salad, and sauerbraten grew to define German food in America, even though they represented only a fraction of the tradition. Bavarian social culture, with its oompah bands and giant beer steins, became synonymous with German culture, as well.

Just like France, Italy, or Spain, Germany is a country of regional cuisines representing a staggering diversity of dishes, styles, and ingredients. In the north, along the border with Denmark, seafood pulled from the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic dominates cutting boards. French influences creep into the cooking around the Black Forest area, bordered on the west by Alsace-Lorraine. The west-central region of Westphalia is widely known for the acorn-fed hogs used for making the areas famous juniper-cured hams, a centuries-old practice that yields a product reminiscent of the jamn ibrico of Spain. To the east, where Germany borders the Czech Republic and Poland, Slavic influences like dumplings and stuffed cabbage define everyday cooking. Even major cities like Munich and Frankfurt have dining traditions that are underexposed outside the countrys borders.

Germanys culinary wealth, bolstered by a strong agricultural backbone, seasonal appeal, and methods that span generations, suggest that its a nation ripe for international recognitionand it is starting to roll in. As of 2012, the country features the third highest number of Michelin-starred restaurants on the planet, after France and Italy. But the cuisine continues to struggle to find a foothold in America, which has never been known for high-quality German restaurants and chefs. How can we start to truly appreciate German food in the United States? The answer to that begins with Jeremys story.

Jeremys unconventional journey into German cooking

I was born in California, but my family relocated near to Reading, Pennsylvania, when I was four years old. If I had stayed on the West Coast, I could very well have ended up handling more serrano chiles than spaetzle. But growing up in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country established my fascination with German food early. My father, Ron, has been a chef all my life, and some of my best childhood memories include visiting the butchers at Readings Fairgrounds Farmers Market every Saturday to purchase sausages and liverwurst for weekend family dinners.

Germans first came to Pennsylvania in 1683, making it home to the longest-established German American population in the country. For both recent immigrants and those looking to stay in touch with their German heritage, my hometown features two private organizations, the Reading Liederkranz and the Evergreen Country Club. Both sponsor fund-raisers, dance lessons, and soccer leagues and take food and drink very seriously, hosting an elaborate annual Oktoberfest. (The Liederkranzs Oktoberfest, which draws thousands of revelers every year over its four-day run, is the oldest celebration of its kind in the state.) When I was a teenager, my father took a weekend consultancy at the Evergreen, in addition to his regular chef job, and he brought me in to help him out. Our cooking eventually caught the attention of the Liederkranz folks, and they lured me away from the Evergreenand away from my dadto run their restaurant.

It was at the Liederkranz that I really began to learn about German food, absorbing everything I could from the team of elderly German cooks looking to cede control of the kitchen to a younger generation. It began with the basics, like German potato salad: simply potatoes boiled in their skins, plus onions, vinegar, and parsley, served at room temperature. No mayo and definitely no bacon, even though much of America seems to think you need those things to make the salad German. Satisfied with my sauerbraten and Rouladen, I eventually gained the confidence to begin experimenting. I would go to the farmers market and buy the produce and meats that looked best, using them to create nontraditional dishes that were German in spirit. Duck and fish, neither of which have much of a place in German American cooking, began showing up on my menu. More unfamiliar techniques and ingredients Id studied on my own found their way onto my everyday prep lists, too.

Eventually I left Liederkranz and worked in a variety of different restaurant kitchens before finally landing in Philadelphia in 2006, where I continued to find restaurant work. None of the kitchens was German, but I found ways to sneak my version of German dishes onto specials boards. It was at Coquette, a neighborhood French bistro where I served as head chef, that people began to notice my German-inspired dishes on the menu. (This is also where I met my wife, Jessica, who is in charge of all things sweet in the world of new German cooking.) A regular customer who liked my Alsatian-inspired plates introduced me to Doug and Kelly Hager, who opened Brauhaus Schmitz, with me in the kitchen, in 2009.

Located on Philadelphias historic South Street, Brauhaus Schmitz is a true German beer hall, complete with perky servers decked out in traditional garb and the best teams of Bundesliga, Germanys premier soccer league, battling their way to victory across flat-screen TVs in the dining room. The draft lines of the two bars, in the lively dual-level front room and in the adjoining Brauer Bund (Brewers Guild), are regularly connected to kegs that are either scarce or unavailable in the rest of the country. (Doug believes it is the finest German draft selection in the United States.) Both the staff and the crowds love to have funwe are stocked with plenty of