Cooking with the Kitchen Coach
In the Adlershof cooking studio culinary skills are taught
Does a baron have its roots in royalty? What actually is lobscouse? And is a cocotte really of a dubious nature? The kitchen nurtures its own language – from barding and boning to trussing and vandyking. And then there are the courses. There are many obstacles on the way to the steak à point or the fine jus lié. Yet ever since cooking has evolved into a trendy sport, these challenges are being taken up by a growing number of passionate cooks. For instance, in the cooking studio in Adlershof. There, pots have been simmering, steaming, and cooking since 2012.
Alone last year saw 12,000 guests attend the courses, almost 1600 in number, at this cooking studio in Berlin-Mitte and Adlershof. In five kitchens in total, up to fifteen cooks together with their students prepare courses that they afterwards enjoy. “Cooking has become an event in recent years,” said Marko Kermer (41). He must know: Kerner was, so to speak, raised in the kitchen. His grandma is a cook, his mother a baker, and his family ran a wine bar and steakhouse in south Brandenburg. “The kitchen,” he said, “was always the strongest tie of our family.”
And Kermer intends to let others share in this. Following explorations into star gastronomy, he founded together with Marcus Buckow their cooking studio in Berlin in 2006. Buckow, cook and hotel manager, worked in the Berliner Philharmonie and the Komische Oper. When they are not giving cookery courses, Kermer and Buckow organise cooking events and run a catering service and a web shop selling kitchen aids and special ingredients. “Handcrafted products that have fully convinced us,” said Kermer. Or they produce “Kitchen Coach” cookery videos.
Cooking unites. Not only do the beginners’ and professional courses attract private persons, also a great many companies use the cooking studio for their presentations, anniversaries, and incentives or book a show kitchen or catering services for exhibitions. Kermer once organised in the shell of a building a street food market and a beach party, run two restaurants at the fashion show “Bread and Butter”, and catered to investors with a whole day of “flying fingerfood” in Adlershof. Whether fish, meat, or completely vegan, Italian, Asian, or Latin American – menus, ingredients, drinks, music, and equipment are tailored individually to each of these events. Right up to the apron bearing the company’s logo in the corporate colours. And finally there are the recipes and photos of the event to boot.
And even though soccer fans would argue with him, cooking for Kermer is “the greatest pastime in the world”.
By Rico Bigelmann for Adlershof Special