Cologne loses three Michelin stars: The shock for the gastronomy!

Cologne loses three Michelin stars: The shock for the gastronomy!

The gastronomy scene in Cologne has suffered a severe setback. The city suffered a loss of three stars at this year's Michelin star awards on Tuesday evening, bringing the total down to nine. This means that Cologne now shares first place in North Rhine-Westphalia with Düsseldorf, which also has nine star restaurants. A bitter loss for Rhenish cuisine!

The loss of the star was particularly painful for the “Maibeck” restaurant, which was left without such an award after 14 years. Bosses Jan C. Maier and Tobias Becker were disappointed and could not understand the decision, as they had always delivered consistently high quality. The team felt particularly affected as they had invested heavily in their restaurant.

Neobiota and its change

A similar fate happened to the restaurant “Neobiota”, which also lost its Michelin star after moving to a new location. Erik Scheffler expressed displeasure with the Michelin testers who listed his restaurant as closed for longer despite increasing the capacity for dinner from 25 to 40 guests and for breakfast from 28 to 100 guests. “Neobiota” strives to offer guests an uncomplicated and tasty experience without special dress codes or brunch offers and focuses on sustainable gastronomy.

Although “Neobiota” is part of the casual fine dining scene, it was not recognized this year as desired. The unpredictability of the Michelin system causes some chefs to despair, while others, like Daniel Gottschlich from “Ox & Klee”, who again received two stars, were lucky enough to be recognized. Gottschlich emphasizes the importance of his strong team.

Cologne's culinary future

Despite the disappointment, there remains hope for positive developments. The “Fine Food Days Cologne” expresses their regret about the lost stars and hopes for a return to previous successes. There are still numerous restaurants with one star in Cologne, including “Le Moissonnier”, “Pottkind” and “Sahila”. Competition in the city remains strong, especially as the total number of Michelin stars in North Rhine-Westphalia has fallen from 52 to 46. There are currently 341 stars across Germany.

Essen does not go unnoticed with its three-star restaurants, but at the moment no restaurant in North Rhine-Westphalia seems to be able to reach the top of this award. A look at Berlin shows that the gourmet sky is shining bright with 22 award-winning restaurants.

While the awarding of the stars has a major impact on the restaurant landscape, there is always uncertainty beforehand. This year, Cologne has impressively shown that the road to the culinary Olympus remains rocky - outstanding food alone does not always seem to be enough to convince the testers.