Guest chef Sven Elverfeld at Restaurant Ikarus

November 2010 at Restaurant Ikarus: Sven Elverfeld

A pastry chef reaches for the stars

Sven Elverfeld started his career in the Schadeberg bakery in Hesse as a pastry chef. As sweet as his creations may have been, no melt-in-the-mouth praline could still his culinary fantasies. Here we are twenty years later: Elverfeld is living his dream at the the Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg – and how! As the chef in charge of the hotel's own restaurant, Aqua, he plays with different textures and combines flavours in surprising new ways. In his avant-garde cuisine the top chef reinvents good home cooking, by breaking down the dishes into their original components and combining them with each other in contravention of every rule. In the process he pays attention to where his ingredients come from and obtains them from the local area. He cooks up ideas for new creations in his head. He has an innate understanding of the different flavours and products and combines the various components without ever switching on the stove.

But let's return now to his early days in haute cuisine. After training for three years as a pastry chef, Elverfeld said farewell to sweet temptation and embarked on training as a chef with Lufthansa Service GmbH. These were followed by years as an apprentice with renowned top chefs Dieter Biesler at the Gutsschänke in Schloß Johannisberg and with Dieter Müller at Schlosshotel Lerbach in Bergisch-Gladbach. Even then his two teachers could see that the man from Hesse had something about him and predicted a great career for him.

When he graduated as a state qualified gastronome and master cook in 1998, he launched his career with the Ritz-Carlton. His first post was at the La Baie restaurant in Dubai; two years later he opened Aqua at the Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg. From the start Elverfeld was able to incorporate his own vision into the restaurant's planning and design, and successfully so, because he and his team have ensured that Aqua has remained one of Germany's top restaurants to the present day. Elverfeld's highly personal style of cooking has surely contributed to this. He reinterprets familiar, traditional dishes such as Schnitzel nach Zigeunerart mit Vichy-Karotten, or pork cutlet gypsy style with carrots Vichy. The simple sounding name conceals a complex interaction between various ingredients, which is also reflected in his Tafelspitz von Müritz Lamm mit Frankfurter Grüne Sauce, Kartoffel und Ei (rump of Müritz lamb with Frankfurt green sauce, potatoes and egg).

Someone who cooks like this deserves a sky full of stars, but a chef doesn't reach for the sky, but for stars from the Michelin Guide. In November 2008 the top chef was awarded the guide's highest accolade – three stars. The German edition of the gourmet guide describes the stars' significance as follows: "One of the best kitchens – worth the trip". One award exceeds all the other and the Feinschmecker Guide 2010 honoured Aqua with the highest rating of five Fs. Gourmet magazine Der Feinschmecker also ranks the Wolfsburg gourmet temple first in the fashionable cuisine 2009 category. His cuisine is awarded 19 points, four toques and menu of the year in the 2009 Gault Millau.
If the top chef is not accepting awards, his first cookery book "Küche der Gefühle" is competing with the hotel's cuisine, or he's writing another. Or he's busy designing a new tasting spoon with silversmiths Robbe & Berking.

It's not unusual for guests to be amazed merely by the intentionally simple names of Elverfeld's creations, such as Sole – modern Finkenwerder version or Fillet of Simmenthal beef Stroganoff. His new interpretations of the seemingly mundane awaken memories in his guests of their own childhoods. Sven Elverfeld could have long since rested complacently on his laurels. That he doesn't stems on the one hand from the fact that he cooks with body and soul. On the other it would be contrary to his philosophy of life – achieve your goal through commitment and attention to detail. A philosophy you can taste.