Gourmet events in Baiersbronn

There are major cities that can only dream of Baiersbronn's density of stars. Eight Michelin stars shine above this Black Forest community of just over 14,000 people, spread across four restaurants in three hotels. Nowhere else in Germany is cooking of this calibre packed so closely together as in this valley basin in the northern Black Forest.

The stars here are not some aloof parallel universe. They are part of village life. Sometimes only a forest path separates a three-star menu from a rustic platter at a hut. It is exactly this range that makes Baiersbronn perhaps the most exciting gourmet destination in the whole country.

The numbers are soon told. The achievement behind them is historic. The Schwarzwaldstube at the Traube Tonbach has held its three Michelin stars without a break since 1992, longer than any other restaurant in Germany. Restaurant Bareiss in Mitteltal likewise defends its three stars year after year. Then there are the 1789, also at the Traube Tonbach, and the Schlossberg at the Hotel Sackmann, with one star each.

If you want to see for yourself how precise, world-class cooking works, you have several addresses to choose from here. All of them set in a village where the butcher supplies the starred kitchens just as he supplies the weekly market.

A lively culture of events has grown up around the stars in Baiersbronn. The big hotels regularly host cookery courses, wine tastings and themed culinary evenings, at which the head chefs explain what defines their cooking, from a technique at the stove to the wine served with the dish. The Baiersbronn Touristik events calendar brings the dates together in one place.

Then there is gourmet hiking as a discipline of its own. The Genießerpfade, Baiersbronn's gourmet trails, link the landscape with places to stop and eat, and the huts along the way serve regional cooking with no white tablecloth in sight. And once a year the Baiersbronn Classic sends a classic car rally rolling through the valleys, with stops to eat and drink built into the concept. There is a separate article on that too.

Nobody at Engel Obertal has to talk about good food on an empty stomach either. Several restaurants belong to the hotel, first among them the Michelin-recommended Engelwirt's Stube with regional cooking of a high standard. One special feature is the hotel's own Destille. Behind the lettering on the wall, a copper still is at work, and what it produces is best sampled after dinner.

So there are two levels to enjoying the village of stars. The big gourmet evenings elsewhere as the high points, and a dependable foundation of good cooking back at the hotel. With the advantage that the way from dessert to bed involves no driving.

A few practical pointers to finish. The big restaurants are fully booked weeks, sometimes months, in advance. If you are planning an evening at one of the starred restaurants, it is best to reserve at the same time as you book your room. The dress code in the Black Forest is more relaxed than the reputation of the stars might suggest. Looking smart is enough, and nowhere insists on a tie.

And if you would rather ease your way in, start at lunchtime. Some of the hotels offer lunch menus that make the first step into haute cuisine easier, on the wallet as much as on the day's schedule. The evening then belongs to Wolke 7, or to the next attempt at a reservation.