“Cheaper than car repairs”: Koch explains why a vegan menu costs 225 euros

He is considered a pioneer of vegan high-end cuisine and, according to the US magazine “Forbes”, offers the best vegan menu in the world: Andreas Krolik, 48, head chef at the 2-star restaurant “Lafleur” in Frankfurt. Shortly before the first guests arrive, the highly decorated chef from Saxony-Anhalt talks to FOCUS online about his work, money, taste and food culture.

FOCUS online: When I told friends and colleagues that I would try a vegan menu for 225 euros, they said it was crazy. Can you understand that?

Andreas Krolik: Because of my background: Yes. Otherwise: no.

When I tell friends or family members at home in Saxony-Anhalt how expensive the food in our restaurant is, they don’t understand. They would never spend the money. They have completely different worries and problems than worrying about high-end gastronomy. Unfortunately, quantity is often still the decisive factor. That it is a large portion and costs little and that you get really full. They can’t understand that.

And the people in the west?

rabbit: In the old federal states, especially in metropolitan areas, this is not a contradiction at all. People often have other options financially and usually have a different attitude towards food.

They appreciate the food more and spend more money on it?

rabbit: That is my experience. And you must also see which one there is an incredible amount of work in our courts. We are always at least nine trained cooks and three trainees in the kitchen – and that for a maximum of 30 or 40 guests, but sometimes only for 20 or 25. That is an enormous personnel ratio per guest. And of course it costs money.

In addition, we only use premium products. Premium in carrot, premium in onion, premium in seafood, premium in meat, premium in berries. Premium does not necessarily mean that it has to be a luxury product. It means they are the very best products in their category that money can buy.

Can I still ask how the price of the vegan menu is determined? If there were fine fish or excellent meat, one could understand that. But a little salad?

rabbit: You won’t get a bit of salad from us anyway. There are seven courses with some very expensive products that have been processed very elaborately and at the highest level. But I want to explain the price question to you with another example…

Go ahead!

rabbit: When you take your car to the workshop, there is usually one person working on it, and that is not necessarily always a master. The working hour is then calculated at 100 euros. With a five-hour repair, the labor costs alone are 500 euros.

That’s more than double what your vegan menu costs.

rabbit: Yes. But the most important thing is that we have at least five or six cooks working eight or ten hours every day just to prepare all the ingredients and components for a vegan dish. And if you then calculate: six cooks a ten hours, then you have 60 working hours for 30 guests, of which maybe ten take the vegan menu. And if you then break that down to the hour, it becomes clear: Our hourly rates are significantly lower than those of a car mechanic.

You spoke of expensive premium products. Can you give an example?

rabbit: Every day we buy fresh from gardeners and vegetable farmers in the region. They have incredibly good potatoes, types of cabbage, vegetables and fruit. In Nieder-Erlenbach, at Andreas Schneider’s, for example, there are the best strawberries you can buy. They cost five times as much as on the market. But they are worth it. Good fruit or vegetables can cost as much per kilo as a good piece of meat. If you want the best quality strawberries, a kilo can cost 20 euros.

How do you deal with the valuable products?

rabbit: My aim is always to fully utilize the products. If we have a dish with carrot, then there are at least three preparations from this one product, sometimes four or five. We make creams or another sauce or an emulsion from the carrot greens. The carrot itself is processed in various states. Fried or grilled, braised or as fresh, raw marinated slices. The corresponding sauces with different spices then bring a certain power and make the whole thing spicy.

So you don’t lose anything?

rabbit: I try to waste food (Food waste, the editors) to an absolute minimum. We produce almost no waste in the kitchen. This principle is very strong for me. This is also based on my childhood. Because we didn’t have anything in excess, everything was used and made sure nothing wasted. I still think so today. At home, I’m not too happy if there’s something in the fridge that my children or my wife forgot and then has to throw away. I don’k think that’s so good.

What works better for you – the traditional menu or the vegan one?

rabbit: 75 percent of our guests choose the traditional menu with meat or fish, 25 percent opt ​​for the vegan menu.

Are you vegan?

rabbit: No. But we don’t eat a lot of meat in the family. That wasn’t the case before either. In my childhood and youth in the GDR, meat was something exclusive. There was actually only one really warm meat dish a week, usually on Sunday. Saturday was always soup or stew day. And during the week there were cold evenings.

Should we go there again – meat once a week, the famous Sunday roast?

rabbit: Personally, I don’t think that would be a wrong approach. There is always the fish that you could do on a classic Friday. A steak or roast doesn’t have to be on the table every day of the week. Vegetables are so versatile and can also be filling if you combine the right things, especially legumes, chickpeas, lentils and the like. You don’t always have to have meat with it.

Her colleague, star chef Steffen Henssler, predicted in a 2014 FOCUS interview that vegetarian and vegan diets were “just a wave”. You saw it differently back then – why?

rabbit: I always had vegetarian menus on the menu, even when I was the head chef in 2002 at the “Brenners Park Hotel” in Baden-Baden. That wasn’t the rule. That wasn’t even remotely available in most gourmet restaurants. But we couldn’t foresee at the time that things would develop like this.

And yet you have continued to expand your vegan line. Why?

rabbit: In November 2013 I had a pivotal experience. At that time I was head chef at the “Tigerpalast” in Frankfurt. Our managing director and owner Robert Mangold asked me if I could imagine offering vegan cuisine at the highest level in his restaurant “Lafleur”.

Were you immediately enthusiastic?

rabbit: Before I tackle things, I think very deeply, weigh things up and question a lot. After two or three months, I came to the conclusion: Yes, that’s possible. For me it was clear from the start: The vegan menu must be absolutely equal to the conventional menu – in quality, in taste, in versatility, in excitement, in all facets. I knew: A guest who comes to us and chooses a vegan menu will not lower his expectations by 20 percent. He always expects the best, the perfect. We have to live up to this claim with every dish.

For me, meat is part of the food culture – not for you?

rabbit: I can understand that to a certain extent. It depends on how many hundred or thousand years you go back. Meat has been part of human food culture for a very long time. And there are cultures in which meat plays an extremely important role, such as minority tribes in jungles. Or Eskimos, who are still allowed to catch a small amount of seals because they live on the fats and oils in this barren environment and, of course, on the meat. I think if this all happens within a certain framework without ruining stocks, I have no problem with that.

But what do you think of meat consumption in the modern, civilized world?

rabbit: We also offer meat. But you should always look at where it comes from, how the animals grew up, how they are bred. And best of all, who does it. And then enjoy in moderation. From my point of view, there is not only black or white. I think there is always a healthy middle. And we present them quite well in our restaurant. It’s all voluntary. We don’t have to convince any guest with any dogma here. If you want meat, you get meat. If you want to eat vegan, you get vegan dishes.

Sounds good.

rabbit: It’s just contemporary. We live in a multicultural metropolis with people from different cultures who, for ethical or religious reasons, do not eat or prefer certain things. We’ll pick them up with it too. We pick up families where the parents like to eat fish and meat, but the children eat vegan. They come to us from a distance of 100 kilometers only for dinner because they know that neither the children nor the parents have to do without anything. And so everyone has a very relaxed and happy evening.