Alison Flemming
I am one of only 80 women in the world to hold the title „Master of Wine“, a title which is acknowledged as being the most difficult and demanding wine qualification to obtain. I first started to become interested in wine around the age of twenty. At this time German wine was very popular in the UK.
Motivated by my university studies in European languages, including German, I sniffed and gargled my way through the world of German and other European wines. New World wines were at this stage largely confined to the odd bottle of fortified wine. How things have changed! Wine became a total fascination and an all-consuming passion for me, shaping my working life completely. Even my personal life has been influenced by wine – it was at a wine evening that I first met my husband.
Just like people, every wine tells its own story. The wines which impress me the most are those which are shaped by their origins. The individual character of these wines always stands out, even with vintage variation. Such wines are for me part of our cultural heritage.
Alongside my main career as Export Director for a leading German wine producer, I hold tastings, seminars and lectures in wine, so that I can also show you how fascinating wine is.
Bernd Flemming
Whilst I was learning to be a cook in different countries in Europe, I lived and breathed my belief that „it is possible to copy well, but the original is always better“.
I had an extensive and classic training with my creative role-models, Anton Mosimann and Gualtieri Marchesi, who both had a profound influence on me. Marchesi, the first three Michelin star chef in Italy, helped me to understood the philosophy of Italian cuisine and Mosimann, who had two stars at the legendary Dorchester Hotel in London, fostered my creativity, and occasionally just let me „go crazy!“
However, when I took over running the Restaurant Français in the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof Hotel, I did not copy my mentors, but rather, with my own talent and imagination, transformed what I had learnt into my own creations. During my time there the restaurant was praised as one of the top hotel restaurants in Germany and was awarded one Michelin star.
With my passion and knowledge I can take you step by step along the road to achieving culinary excellence: