Winter lightness and (light) glamour in the Golvet

The star restaurant Golvet above the rooftops of Berlin presents its winter menu as an indulgent palate sleigh ride: candy floss, funfairs, childhood dreams. So this is how winter announces itself. But not outside in the chilly temperatures. Rather in the cosy warmth of a casual room on the eighth floor. With a view of Potsdamer Platz and Berlin illuminated at night.

Candyfloss, salty and cheesy, as is the mini finger food of a star chef - this is how Jonas Zörner begins his winter menu at Golvet, one of the two highest star restaurants in Berlin. A greeting from the kitchen, an amuse geule, an amuse bouche, this synonymous pre-start to a menu is part of the top league of fine dining restaurants.

Like Jonas Zörner, who celebrates his 30th birthday in April this year. Said candy floss, accompanied by tartelettes with pear and smoked almond, among other things. A season, a seven-course menu (150 euros) composed precisely for it, still playing with time in winter. First served in 2022, it heralds the year 2023.

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One should hope for snow if one has taken a seat far up Potsdamer Strasse, not far from the Wintergarten Varieté, the New National Gallery and the Kulturforum with the Philharmonie, as well as restaurants that are also very noteworthy, such as Irma la Douce (also a Michelin star), Oh, Panama, the Berlin gastro pub institution Joseph-Roth-Diele or the iconic Victoria Bar.

Especially when the red light tubes of the Golvet illumination are reflected in the window panes and in the wine glasses on the tables, a snowflake dance would make for an even more magnificent view. As one is also greeted with beautiful views. The menu for the winter is in a large-format envelope, handwritten with the respective name of the guest.

The guests, the atmosphere: cosmopolitan. The service: at the table, exactly when you need it. In addition, a "kitchen ballet", i.e. a very well-rehearsed and precisely working team in the open creative centre. You should follow the "desire for variety", as the Golvet describes its beverage accompaniment, and let the sommelier pour you the right drinks for each course - wine as well as non-alcoholic.

Winter may stand for hearty food. However, Golvet Winter by Zörner, recently named Berlin Master Chef 2022 - the menu is available with fish and meat or as a vegetarian round - can be different. Although a beef saddle is one of the main courses, it comes with Happy Foie, the unstuffed and certified organic alternative to conventional foie gras, and not in a slaying portion size.

The courses of this palate-tickling sleigh ride are created equally, and so a smoked sturgeon from the mindful fish farm 25 Teiche in Rottstock, Brandenburg, with pickled quince, dashi stock and smoked oil, follows the beef. Then, with the Müritz pike with sea buckthorn and braised cucumber pickled in juniper as a starter, the menu offers two light yet full-bodied fish courses.

The sweet and sour marinated kohlrabi as carpaccio with blood orange tarragon vinaigrette, also the second course on the vegetarian menu, already tastes of spring. Jonas Zörner, who studied with no less a person than two-star chef Michael Kempf at Facil and worked for Nils Henkel, also two stars at Schlosshotel Lehrbach, knows how to surprise.

Free-range chicken with cauliflower is to be served in course number three. Instead of a plate, a white, tall vessel is brought up with a frothy sauce. The chicken as a curry, marinated in creamy whey and sautéed in nut butter, placed at the bottom of the vessel along with the cabbage, topped with a whey-based curry foam - a spicy-sweet taste journey to India, realised with regional products. A googly-eyed moment like candyfloss.

The fact that one of the two desserts has forest flavours in jelly ball form on edible pebbles is another winter surprise in terms of thinking outside the box. The latter is made of white chocolate, white and melting like the winter snow, soul food towards the next season and literally a round finale.

Manuela Blisse

Author Berlin