Table, spread yourself

Food and drink is more than is needed to keep body and soul together. Good food and good drink are part of the quality of life and culture. What better way to discover your holiday region than with a typical local meal or a glass of wine or beer from the region?

Baden-Württemberg is like a massive banquet, with something to please every palate. Tasty rustic dishes are available as well as highly refined meals for gourmets. Take a culinary tour through the south-west.

A Mecca for gourmets: The stars in the culinary firmament of Baden-Württemberg shine far beyond the borders of the state. Nowhere in Germany will you find as many starred restaurants. Every day, master chefs influenced by French cuisine bring dishes based on regional specialities to the table. It is hardly surprising that both Germany's best cook, Harald Wohlfahrt of the Traube Tonbach in Baiersbronn and the Akademie für Kulinaristk are at home in Baden-Württemberg.

A culinary tour of the state: But it doesn't always have to be truffles and lobster. Regional dishes such as Zwiebelrostbraten, Kässpätzle, Maultaschen or just a simple salad make your mouth water when you are reading the menu. The regional differences can be tasted clearly. Each region has its own specialities. What they all share is the use of fresh regional ingredients.

It is easy to explore the regional menu. Just follow the culinary routes such as the Baden asparagus route (Badische Spargelstraße) or the Baden and Württemberg wine route (Badische und Württembergische Weinstraße). The campaigns "Seele-lächle-Teller" in Upper Swabia and "Naturparkteller" in the Swabian/Franconian Forest pay homage to regional cuisine. As part of these campaigns, selected restaurants present fresh dishes typical of the region and season.

Specialities

Basically they are nothing but oversized ravioli: Maultaschen - probably the most famous of our specialties. Some say, they are like the people here: nothing to write home about outwardly, but precious inside. Legend has it that they were invented during lent in the Maulbronn Abbey; the monks covered the meat with a pasta dough to avoid trouble. They chopped the meat up finely and, to camouflage it, mixed it with spinach and herbs and rolled everything into a piece of dough. Other typical specialties of Baden-Württemberg are Spätzle, Butter or Whipped Cream, Onion Tart, Carnival Doughnuts, Lentils with Spätzle and Sausages, Steamed Dumplings, Potato Salad and Whitefish à la meunière.

A highly developed inventive cleverness and a touch of perfection have always been the basic ingredients in the kitchens of our land. You will find more Michelin stars shining for the restaurants of Baden-Württemberg than for any other German region. And also the Gault Millau gourmet guide awards its highest scores to the largest number of restaurants in Baden-Württemberg.

"Kulinaristik-Pool" in Baden-Württemberg

Top restaurateurs are now promoting their home region. Eleven top restaurants from Baden-Württemberg have pooled their resources to promote local products internationally. 57 Michelin stars in 52 top restaurants – more than in any other German state and almost a quarter of the stars for Germany as a whole.

Baden-Württemberg is a Mecca for gourmets. The Baden-Württemberg Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) and Tourismus-Marketing GmbH Baden-Württemberg (TMBW) are using this potential for the national and international promotion of Baden-Württemberg as a holiday state. Together with the eleven leading hotels of the state, they founded the "Promotionpool für Kulinaristik Baden-Württemberg in 2004.