A Culinary Neighbourhood

Special dining events revealing the common ties between German and Polish cuisine

This year Germany and Poland are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the signing of the “Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation”. The ties between Germany and Poland are not just political or economic; there are also many similarities in social and cultural life, especially food!

In the last days of November, three top female chefs will come to Poland at the invitation of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw. Together with some of the best Polish chefs, they will create a modern menu in four different cities that is nevertheless inspired by the traditional cuisine of both countries and based on local and seasonal products from Poland.

The German chefs are members of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance, a network of cooks defending food biodiversity across the world through conscious choices of products, active so far in 25 countries. They all share a commitment to protecting agricultural biodiversity and to safeguarding gastronomic knowledge and local cultures. Members also pay attention to reducing waste in restaurants and increasing awareness of the environmental impact of the service industry.

The German chefs together with their Polish counterparts will use only the freshest ingredients and regional specialties to create that night’s menu.

Chefs Luka Lübke, Barbara Stadler as well as Katharina Bäcker will travel from Germany to Warsaw on 24 November, Białystok on 25 November, Lublin on 27 November and finally Łódź on 29 November.

In each of these cities, they will prepare a 4-course menu with a chef on site, which is intended as a surprise for the guests. The menu will be designed using the best seasonal produce from a local market as well as from the suppliers of each restaurant. Each dish will be accompanied by a carefully selected wine from the portfolios of Wines of Germany as well as Polish wineries.

Luka Lübke sums up the concept of the project in the following words: “We will spontaneously create a new team each time so that we maintain a fresh perspective on culinary tradition. We don’t want to repeat the old familiar recipes and thus serve classic dishes. Rather, our aim is to rediscover familiar motifs and present them according to the rules of modern cuisine. We want to look responsibly into the past and think about how all that we eat can be healthier and better. This applies both to ourselves and to our planet”.

In Warsaw, Agata Wojda will host the dinner at Forteca, part of Kręgliccy. Wojda is a well-known top chef who has been awarded the Bib Gourmand of the Guide Michelin and the title of best chef in Poland by Gault & Millau. In Białystok, the German chefs will be welcomed by Anna Drelichowska (Kwestia Czasu), the ambassador of the Chefs for Change campaign. Drelichowska was the first in the city to introduce her own menu based on plant-based products in her restaurant. Jakub Piętowski (2 PI ER) will welcome the chefs to Lublin. Finally, in Łódź, the dinner will take place in the historic building Ogrody Geyera, in the newly opened restaurant Ukryte Rzeki, run by Michał Bartczak and Tomasz Janczewski.

Invitations to the dinners can be won in competitions/contests organised by either the restaurants themselves or local media.

The project is coordinated by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw. Partners in the project are the German Wine Institute (Wines of Germany), the German National Tourist Board in Poland and the Polish wineries Srebrna Góra from Krakow and Silesian from Lower Silesia.