Restaurant: After 10 years, Restauarnt La Vie has much to celebrate. Awarded three Michelin stars six years in succession, 19 Gault et Millau points, and top ratings in Feinschmecker, Gusto and other guides. Additional impressive statistics: 6,500 bottles of champagne served, 2,800 saddles of venison prepared, 225,000 pralines created, and no less than 880 hours worked in Ippenburg Castle kitchen garden. The gourmet restaurant lies in the heart of Osnabrück’s historic Old Town, opposite the town hall where the Peace of Westphalia was proclaimed in 1648. Not only is the food exceptional in flavor, it is so beautifully plated that you could take a photo of it and hang it on the wall.
Chef: Chef Thomas Bühner has been one of Germany’s top chefs for over 20 years. He has developed avant-garde, aromatic cuisine by utilizing his three-dimensional philosophy. First, Chef Bühner is convinced there is no more authentic and intense flavor than the original, pure flavor of a product. Second, his cuisine is dominated by his penchant for low-temperature cooking. His motto is “take your foot off the gas”, and by this he is not only referring to the time taken to prepare a dish but also to the temperature at which it is cooked. Third is the extensive range of his cuisine: rather than viewing his set menus as a collection of disparate courses, chef Bühner likens them to a symphony. “Sometimes the violin can be heard, at other times it is the oboe – but strong emotions are only ever aroused when the whole orchestra comes together.”
Butter: La Vie serves salted and unsalted French butter from Le Beurre Bordier. Waiters serve butter embossed with the La Vie logo on a small white porcelain trays with matching knifes.
Chef Commentary: “Butter really reminds me of my childhood.” Admits Chef Bühner. “When we visited my grandparents on their farm, they would always offer us rye bread with butter and Westfalian ham.” (Westphalian ham is a ham produced from acorn-fed pigs raised in the forests of Westphalia, Germany. The resulting meat is dry cured and then smoked over a mixture of beechwood and juniper branches.) He fondly remembers this butter because at his parent’s house, they would only eat margarine. Chef Bühner admits that he has not touched margarine in over 35 years. However, he does think it is getting more difficult to find really good butter these days.
La Vie
Krahnstraße 1, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany
+49 541 331150
