Claus-Peter Lumpp is the head chef at Restaurant Bareiss in Germany’s Black Forest.
He has worked with many renowned chefs all over Europe, such as Alain Ducasse, Eckart Witzigmann and Heinz Winkler. He has held three Michelin stars since 2007. Claus-Peter was born in 1964 in Tübingen and learnt cooking from his grandmother.
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Why did Claus-Peter Lumpp start cooking?
“She was a wonderful cook”, Claus-Peter says. “It wasn’t so easy to put one over on her when it came to cooking. And even if I wasn’t really aware of this as a child, I am sure that she was the person who influenced me in my formative years.“ He did his apprenticeship at the Hotel Bareiss, back then still called Kurhotel Mitteltal, in Baiersbronn.
After serving in the army he went to work with Heinz Winkler at the Tantris restaurant and Eckart Witzigmann at the Aubergine restaurant, both in Munich. He followed this by working with Alain Ducasse at Louix XV in Monaco, Ezio Santin at Antica Osteria del Ponte in Cassinetta di Lugagnano and Johann Lafer at Val d’Or in Guldental.
Hotel Bareiss
In 1992 he returned to the Hotel Bareiss as head chef. The restaurant was holding two Michelin stars at the time. Claus-Peter kept the two stars for 15 years until he was honoured with the third in 2007, a moment he can still recall in every detail. It was “the best and most wonderful day of my time [at the restaurant].”
In 2002 he was also rewarded with the Chef of the Year title by the magazine “Der Feinschmecker”.
+4 About the chefs he has trained under, Claus-Peter says: “They have all shaped me, but over the years you grow with your task, with yourself and with your team. So today there is relatively little influence from the old masters.”
Claus-Peter’s cuisine
Claus-Peter’s cuisine is French with Mediterranean influences and also very rich. “I am a man who likes to enjoy good food”, explains Claus-Peter. “What I like to eat most is what I cook for my guests.” And his dishes are not only rich they are also big; his Á la carte dishes usually don’t fit on one plate.
“There is always a little menu completing the main ingredient.” He lays special emphasis on regional and seasonal food. First and foremost Claus-Peter and his team concentrate on the flavour and in a second step what it looks like, he explains. “The visual presentation of the dish is always secondary. At first, the vision of the dish develops in my head. At this stage I already know what it should taste like and roughly what it should look like.”
“Everything we do is devoted to the flavour of the products,” he adds. 
+4The secret to Claus-Peter’s success is that “the work you do has to be done by the whole team, with its heart and soul, and this every single day for lunch and dinner.” His newest project is his book “Nahaufnahmen” (close-ups), which features photographs from the kitchen.
The images were taken live in the kitchen, before the dishes went out to the guests and show the busy atmosphere and the food. Alain Ducasse and Eckart Witzigmann wrote the foreword to this special book; A look behind the scenes of one of the best chefs of Germany.
By Vera Kleinken
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