Amidst the imposing mountain scenery of Zug near Lech lies a place that is more than just a hotel with excellent cuisine: the Rote Wand is a creative epicenter, a culinary laboratory of ideas at 1500 metres above sea level. After checking out the Chef’s Table the previous evening, today I’m off to the culinary laboratory with mastermind Jamie Unshelm.
In the Rote Wand Culinary Lab, alpine down-to-earthness merges with intellectual curiosity: game, fish, mushrooms, forest herbs and garden harvest meet old craftsmanship and modern technology. This is not just about cooking – it is about creating a new Alpine identity. Taste is deconstructed, reconstructed and developed further. This evening’s masterclass will focus on the three types of fermentation. Then – after the theory – there will be the practice and Jamie Unshelm will serve an extraordinary menu. There will be four of us at the table that evening, together with the two owners of Les Œillets in Paris, a very unconventional natural wine bar.
- Seiler, Christian (Author)
The complexity of what is created here in the culinary laboratory is beyond the scope of a workshop (and also beyond the scope of this article). However, a very comprehensive book has recently been published in which host Joschi Walch, together with author Christian Seiler and chef Jamie Unshelm, explains the ideas and processes in great detail and also provides many specific recipe ideas. Definitely worth reading!
We learn a lot about the basic types of fermentation, their specific uses and typical products that are created in this way. According to Jamie Unshelm, fermentation is a method that has been practiced for thousands of years, primarily to preserve food, but also to change its taste and make it more digestible and healthier for human consumption. Above all, the rennet succeeds in intensifying the taste and transforming it into other aggregate states.
Lactic acid fermentation (lactic fermentation)
Typical foods: sauerkraut, kimchi, yoghurt, pickled cucumbers, sourdough
Microorganisms: lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus)
The picture shows, for example, a kimchi made from savoy cabbage that has just been prepared, as well as a bell bell pepper that ferments to produce an intense juice or broth (lacto-pepper water), which in turn can be used in its own dishes or as a flavoring agent in marinades or vinaigrettes.
Vinegar fermentation
Vinegar products are usually created in two stages: Sugar turns into alcohol (alcoholic fermentation), alcohol turns into acetic acid (vinegar fermentation). While alcoholic fermentation takes place in closed containers, vinegar fermentation requires open containers and the supply of fresh air. The picture shows a vinegar mother, which is the active fermentation medium that converts the alcohol (ethanol) into acetic acid with the help of oxygen. Incidentally, a few days later I was to find a similar vinegar mother on my plate at Etz – but that’s another story.
Koji fermentation (fermentation with molds)
Typical foods: miso, soy sauce, sake, shio koji, amazake
Microorganisms: Aspergillus oryzae (koji mold)
A very large and extensive topic. We were able to taste numerous home-made soy sauces and misos, as well as garum, which is not only made from fish, but also from game, lamb and pigeon. The taste of unpasteurized miso (unlike most pasteurized products on the market) is particularly diverse and intense.
Also very exciting is charcuterie végétale, the plant-based reinterpretation of traditional sausage and meat specialties from the French and European art of charcuterie – but without animal ingredients. It combines vegetarian or vegan cuisine with the techniques and aesthetics of meat processing – and is an up-and-coming trend in modern gastronomy.
Still in the test kitchen, we slowly glide into the evening’s menu, starting with some snacks. The mountain cheese pralines with juniper and meadowsweet are particularly noteworthy.
Lamb, wild garlic and salted lemon are served in small tartlets. Finely grated, dried lamb heart is placed over the tartare – similar to bottarga.
An almost classic combination: salmon trout and its caviar, topped with preserved bergamot, underneath a crème made from the egg yolk and a blini. The fish comes from a neighboring mountain lake.
The next course is a variation on phở, featuring a gyoza filled with duck and pigeon legs.
Also from the mountain lake is a mighty sturgeon, whose fillets were first grilled on Binchotan charcoal. Combined with a sauerkraut made from fennel, flavored with the fat from Nduja and topped with crispy chilli flakes.
For me, this series of small plates could actually go on forever. There are always details to discover, new products from the labs to see and, above all, exciting flavors to discover. Because nothing that is served here is merely conceptual. All the courses are highly exciting and in most cases a pure delight thanks to the complex, concentrated flavors. This also applies to the roasted sweetbreads of lamb (!).
Only this course, which has celeriac, beetroot and pepper as an umbrella term, doesn’t quite appeal to me. This may be mainly due to the consistency of the celeriac, which has been cooked for five hours. The dark sauce consists of sections of celeriac that have been cooked and roasted for 48 hours. Underneath is a fermented beet and duck stock.
A small sorbet is followed by venison in two preparations. First, obviously roasted until tender, followed by a kind of pulled deer, which is then compressed and roasted again. Topped with chanterelles and a pine broth. Great!
Very similar to the previous evening’s menu at the Chef’s Table, here too there is a cheese dessert based on a voluminous mountain cheese crème. It sounds heavier than it is here: small pieces of pickled cucumber and a vinaigrette made from the sour cucumber water make the souffléed cheese appear much lighter.
Visually somewhat inconspicuous – but aromatically very exciting and new: pear with saffron and sherry – which, fittingly, is also available in excellent quality in the glass.
Fujisan is a pastry somewhere between a croissant and a brioche. However, this one is given a very special twist by a glaze with liquid lamb fat. The final dessert course is therefore somewhere between sweet and savory. The lamb note quickly disappears after the first taste.
An evening in the Culinary Lab at the Rote Wand is a special experience – no matter how intensively you engage with modern fermentation cuisine. It is not a dogma here, but is skillfully used to change products, in most cases to intensify them. You can sit back and simply enjoy a very good and very unique menu that is characterized by the flavours of the Alps.
Inquisitive minds can also take a regular look (and walk) into the open kitchen, look over Jamie Unshelm’s shoulder, ask questions and learn lots of new things about fermentation and many other kitchen techniques.
- Seiler, Christian (Author)
