Zeit online
22. Feb 2022
"You can't cook worse than you cook" A visit to the Genuss-Atelier with star chef Marcus Blonkowski If you're looking for culinary surprises, you'll find them in the restaurants of Dresden and the Elbland region. For our series, we spoke to some of our top chefs about their passion for good food, what drives them and what makes their cuisine special. Enjoy reading and bon appétit!
Marcus Blonkowski never had his sights set on "cooking up" a star. Not even when he opened the Genuss-Atelier together with his sister Nicole in 2014. "You can't cook worse than you cook," says Blonkowski, commenting on the fact that he has held a Michelin Guide star since 2019.
If you want to dine at the Genuss-Atelier Dresden, you have to book early
So the star itself has found its way to the Genuss-Atelier, just as the guests have found their place at Blonkowski's table. Passers-by hardly recognize the Genuss-Atelier as a restaurant, which is a good thing. After all, a restaurant like this doesn't thrive on walk-in customers, but on advance orders. In the period before corona, the Genuss-Atelier was fully booked on average four to five weeks in advance.
Word that the restaurant on Dresden's Waldschlößchenbrücke is a great place to eat had already spread before the star blessing: Many of our guests come by recommendation or are regulars. However, more than a third are now attracted by the Michelin star, especially international guests. People travel to eat well and on the Berlin-Dresden-Prague route, the highlights of the top metropolises are on top," explains star chef Marcus Blonkowski
Marcus Blonkowski became a chef after the exclusion procedure
But where does the passion for cooking come from? Here, too, the 35-year-old (born in 1986) breaks with the mold and doesn't talk about his grandmother's skill with the wonderfully fragrant cooking pots or the "aha" experience he had during a random internship in the kitchen. Marcus Blonkowski became a chef by process of elimination: office, machine work or a career in academia were not his thing, "so all that was left was the service industry" and a place where you can't put your foot in your mouth with an open manner and tongue: the kitchen. Blonkowski leaves the role of friendly hostess to his sister Nicole.
The Genuss-Atelier promises: The finest dishes without a lot of frills
He cooks what he himself likes. The menu, which changes six to eight times a year, includes meat dishes, vegetarian dishes and fish - "prepared without a lot of frills, but guaranteed with the best quality ingredients," says Blonkowski. Guests appreciate this and trust the Michelin-starred chef and his 3-person kitchen team almost blindly. Most of our guests order the 4- or 5-course surprise menu and they also rely completely on our recommendations for the wines," says Marcus Blonkowski
Blonkowski's sister orders the wines and creates a wine list that is an exception in Dresden. "We only serve wines from our local wine-growing region, the Elbland, and from the Saale-Unstrut region. My aim is to surprise even connoisseurs of regional wines - with smaller, less well-known winegrowers," says Nicole Blonkowski.
Prices in the Genuss-Atelier are comparatively low for a Michelin-starred restaurant
Guests at the Genuss-Atelier pay 55 euros for the 4-course menu and 29 euros for the corresponding wine pairing - comparatively inexpensive for a Michelin-starred restaurant. "Good food should be possible for many people, even if perhaps not every day," is the claim of the Blonkowski siblings.
And what about their own enjoyment of food? "My wife and I like to eat out very well. When our son is a little older, we want to travel more again and combine this with a visit to other good restaurants, such as in Scandinavian countries, France and Germany," says Blonkowski. Or in Austria, for example at the gourmet restaurant at Palais Coburg in Vienna, where Blonkowski was Junior Sous Chef until 2014. "Vienna is a fantastic city, the choice of 1 a restaurants is huge, the quality is top and people spend a lot of money on good food here, going to Michelin-starred restaurants at lunchtime and in the middle of the week," he enthuses.
Dresden: A treat for Michelin chefs too
Blonkowski lived in the Austrian capital for a total of eight years. Nevertheless, his path led him back home to a restaurant that only serves lunch on Saturdays and is open five days a week - the Genuss-Atelier.
After all, Dresden is Dresden and not Vienna or Paris. And when the many tourists come to the Saxon state capital to get to know the special features of the city, then the Genuss-Atelier Dresden is also a very special part of it.
This is what a surprise menu might look like if the guest doesn't like meat but is particularly fond of fish and is a real lover of wine from the Elbland region.
Example 4-course surprise menu
From the current menu of the Genuss-Atelier:
- Mustard egg - potato - cress (optionally with Imperial Gold caviar from sturgeon)
- Yellowtail mackerel - quinoa - algae - lemon
- Cod - chicory - rutabaga - curry
- Poppy seeds - Rosehip - Hazelnut
Wine pairing
Cabernet Blanc, Weingut Jan Ulrich, Diesbar-Seußlitz, Sachsen, Prädikatswein, trocken
Muscaris, Weingut Rothes Gut Meißen by Tim Strasser, Meißen, Sachsen, QbA-trocken
Blanc de Noir, Weingut Stefan Bönsch, Langebrück, Sachsen, QbA-trocken
Regent Likörwein, Weingut Schuh, Sörnewitz, Sachsen
22.02.2022 / by Karla Kallauch