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Spreewald Journal Issue: March/April 2016

Interview with chef Marco Giedow: "The majority of our guests are open to everything."

Good food really rounds off the Spreewald experience. Culinary specialities that are regional and seasonal in origin tickle the palate here. Great importance is also attached to this in the Speisenkammer in Burg. Here, chef Marco Giedow and his team serve rural cuisine with a Spreewald twist. The "Brandenburg Master Chef 2011 and 2015" was recently able to impress the Gault Millau testers once again with his creations. He is the first chef in Brandenburg to have been awarded this title twice.

Mr Giedow, you put an extra portion of Brandenburg on the table out of conviction. What constitutes authentic Spreewald cuisine for you? "Attributes like simple - delicious - tasty." What do you think the guests of the Speisenkammer appreciate about the farmhouse cuisine that they can enjoy at your place? "The freshness, the flavours, the ideas and the interplay between kitchen and service in terms of wine and design of the evening/lunch." Are there any dishes that are particularly in demand? "Everything balances out there. The majority of our guests are open to everything and sometimes try things they never ate again because of childhood memories - spinach, beetroot or tongue, for example." A question about the menu of the food chamber: What criteria are decisive for you in the composition? "Our dishes should be seasonal and understandable, characterised by unchanging basic flavours and sometimes with surprises." Are there any ingredients, perhaps directly from the Spreewald, that you particularly enjoy cooking with? "The super vegetables that still have their original typical taste!" Where do you get the ideas for ever new variations that bring variety, but still don't taste too extravagant or too "wanted"? "I visit Mr Baronick, look at his vegetable selection, get inspired by the season, the weather and feelings. Then you get an appetite for a wide variety of tastes, which flow into the respective menu!"