Let's talk about German cuisine

[BrentKulman]

I have been a long time fan of yours dating back to around the time you published The German Cookbook, so I am very happy to have the chance to have a virtual conversation with you.

I'm quite curious about your view on the state of German cuisine in the United States. My experience dates from the Yorkville scene in the 1960s, where there were a number of great German restaurants. Now, you can barely tell that there once was a thriving German community in that area and the remaining German restaurant, I have read, is not much more than a tourist stop.

Elsewhere, around the country, most German restaurants that I have visited appear formulaic and uninspired. While my experience is clearly limited and probably uninformed, I am curious as to your perspective on German cuisine in this country, particularly as in the restaurant trade.

Having travelled to Germany earlier this past year, I experienced a number of excellent dishes that I have never seen over here. I was particularly impressed by schweinhaxen, which in our BBQ-crazed country, ought to be a very popular dish over here. I am also a big fan of blood sausage, which is another dish that I never see on restaurant menus.

Looking forward to your comments.

[Mimi Sheraton]

Happy to report that The German Cookbook is still in print and doing very well after 40 years - 2005 is its anniversary. So I love German food and like you bemoan its disappearance in the U.S. This is partly due to the feeling about heavy food and the rather leaden presentations turned out by many old German restaurants in this country..Much the same can be said about Scandinavian, by the way. Yet there is a lot of light and stylish German cooking especially in the Schleswig-Holstein area around Hamburg and Bavarian food could also have an appeal if lightened a bit - but not lightened in flavor. Schweinhaxen for example as well as the veal kalbshaxen sell very well in Italian restaurants where they would be described as stinco or as jarret in a French bistro.

Ditto blood sausage - boudin noir - Maybe it's all in a name....