Coda" in Berlin is Germany's only dessert-dining restaurant with two Michelin stars. Master pastry chef René Frank's approach to wine pairings is as surprising as his overall sensory concept.
The now internationally renowned "Coda Dessert Dining" fits perfectly into Berlin's hipster district Neukölln despite its two-star level and purist interior. With the triad of food craftsmanship, pairing and wine expertise, René Frank sets new standards for a modernly interpreted pâtisserie. With a lot of pioneering spirit, he produces unusual desserts that are not desserts in the classical sense. Even though dessert is the most emotional part of a menu for him, each dish has a meticulously thought-out recipe. During the four-hour menu, wine plays the most important (secondary) role.
René Frank's creations are based on craftsmanship from all over the world using classic pâtisserie techniques. But what is innovative is the stylisation and deconstruction of the classics that can only be guessed at. They do not have to be sweet at all, but can be an interplay of different flavours, even savoury ones. The formula applies: Naturalness meets balance. Frank relies on a setting of sweet, salty, acid and bitter, which combine to create sophisticated consistencies. Frank derives natural sweetness from the starch of (root) vegetables such as celery, sweet potato, beetroot or fermented black garlic. Right behind are fruits, preserves or dried fruits such as dates, but also coconut blossom syrup, maple syrup and honey. Tart or bitter notes are provided by refined herbal tinctures. The saltiness of cheese and the acidity of citrus fruits are balanced with the umami of protein-rich pulses, shiitake mushrooms, fermented rice or algae. The art here is to achieve a maximum reduction to the essentials and to treat all ingredients at eye level, Frank explains his concept.
When it comes to wine, too, the world's best pâtissier balances sweet, salty and fine acidity. However, anyone expecting a traditional accompaniment to the menu will be proven wrong at "Coda" - because wine is only served with one course. This is a 2011 Riesling Auslese from Joh. Jos. Prüm with Frank's signature dish: the "Caviar Popsicle" - a Jerusalem artichoke bourbon vanilla ice cream on a stick with a pecan heart - is coated with cocoa and twelve grams of Osietra caviar "Sturia". This is where the subtle sweetness of the wine sets in and dissolves into the umami.
As a rule, the wine in the "Coda" is not drunk with the dishes, but between them. According to Frank's philosophy, it functions more as an interlude and flavours the pauses between courses. Wine is the perfect carrier of the long-lasting taste on the palate, preparing it for the following course. Therefore, there is no classic wine accompaniment to Frank's creations. Often the wine chosen by the sommelier is not expressive enough, explains René Frank. And it is "an absolute fallacy to accompany a very sweet dish with a very sweet wine, such as a dominant Beerenauslese". Here, it is important to balance the intense sweetness in the overall concept: best with acidity, minerality or fine fruit as co- or counterpart.
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Champagne from houses such as Egly-Ouriet, Agrapart, Selosse or Jacquesson is on the menu as an introduction to the menu or as a permanent companion, along with top German sparkling wines from Raumland, Griesel or Peter Lauer and a dozen Japanese sakes ranging from dry to sweet. As "intermission fillers" between dishes, Frank lists around 250 mostly German Riesling wines, including many from the Moselle. The wine list includes well-known German names such as Peter Jakob Kühn, Joh. Jos. Prüm, Maximin Grünhaus, Egon Müller, Kühling-Gillot and Battenfeld-Spanier. The depth of the vintages up to 1990 meets the Große Gewächse and all the Prädikats. The secret of Riesling is its fine interplay of sweetness, acidity and minerality, which makes it suitable for a multi-faceted interplay, explains René Frank.
The master chef guards his chocolate like a treasure: Frank gets the Arriba Nacional cocoa beans from a smallholder cooperative in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. The "Coda" team roasts the unpeeled fermented raw cocoa itself and thus determines the bitterness. The beans are ground with a stone roller in the open show kitchen and freshly processed by hand into fine cocoa powder. Particularly important to René Frank are the farm pralines, which are handed out like jewels with tweezers at the finale. A Pedro Ximénez sherry or a ten-year-old Tawny Port accompany the differentiated assortment like dehydrated Taggiasca olives coated in cocoa, beetroot, roasted almonds, vanilla, quark powder, beet syrup and fat from Wagyu beef.
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But what do you drink with it - besides wine? This is where René Frank's bar background comes into play: with each course he serves 20 ml small pairing drinks with and without alcohol on request. The homemade infusions with twelve percent alcohol by volume are close to wine. For example, the iced beetroot construct with cranberry and tofu is accompanied by a mix of Basler Langstieler cherry brandy, forest raspberry brandy from Fridolin Baumgartner and Vermouth from the Schwarzer distillery. To the miso butter cream with plum on plum chip with caramelised walnut and dulse algae, Frank serves a black tea tincture with Madeira Verdelho that has been boiled for seven hours.
Frank opened "Coda" in 2016 as a pure "dessert bar" after working as a chef-pâtissier in upscale restaurants for over 20 years. He wanted to get away from star-studded behaviour and initially offered his creations casually as a "late-night table" with matching drinks. For him, cocktails are like liquid desserts: "They contain a similar balance of sweet, fruity and sour," explains the native of Allgäu, who mixed the drinks himself at the bar in the beginning. The "Coda" stands for flowing transitions. Just as quiche lorraine is part of the pâtisserie in France, he sees himself more as a chef than a master pastry chef. Despite the unpretentious concept, the stars caught up with him: in 2020 and 2021, "Coda" will be honoured with two in a row, which was the starting signal for a menu with pairing - and since then, a new wine cosmos has opened up for the guests with dessert.
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