2004

 

Awarded with the Witzigmann Award 2004 on 16 November 2004 at the Neues Schloss in Stuttgart:

EXCELLENT CULINARY ART

Marc Haeberlin, ***Auberge de l’Ill, Illhaeusern

Rarely have so many top chefs been guests in the Marble Hall of Stuttgart’s Neues Schloss. This is because there is finally a prize in Germany for truly great haute cuisine. The chef Marc Haeberlin was awarded the “Eckart Witzigmann Award”. For years the chef from Alsace has been running the restaurant “L’Auberge de l’Ill” in Illhäusern, which has three Michelin stars, at the very highest level. He was very moved at the festive awards ceremony. Marc Haeberlin: “I am very impressed and very honoured. We have always been closely connected with Baden-Württemberg. The first gastronomic meals that I recall were at Franz Keller in Oberbergen; whenever we went out with my father, it was always to Baden-Württemberg.” The jury, consisting of members of the Academy for the Culinary Arts, unanimously decided in favour of the 50-year old top chef, who is also linked by a deep personal friendship to the man whose name is on the prize, Eckart Witzigmann. “The cook of the century” learned quite a number of years ago at  Haeberlin the father.

His father Paul is all the more happy about the jury’s decision for this reason. Eckart Witzigmann: Marc Haeberlin is of course, one can say, well on his way. By now he is known in France as well, and I consider the “Auberge de l’Ill” unique in its manner. It is simply an Eldorado, great cuisine and hospitality, and because guests are treated accordingly with heart and soul.

SCIENCE AND MEDIA

Carlo Petrini, Bra

The award winner selected for the category science and media is Carlo Petrini, founder and president of Slow Food and also the initiator of the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo. Alois Wierlacher, chairman of the German Academy of the Culinary Arts, announced that the Academy and the new Italian Università di Scienze Gastronomiche have signed a partnership contract. Wierlacher: “I have the honour and the great joy of officially announcing the unanimous decision of the board: the International Eckart Witzigmann Award of the German Academy for the Culinary Arts goes to the founder of the Slow Food movement and of the university mentioned earlier, Mr Carlo Petrini.”

SUPPORTING THE YOUNGER GENERATION

Prof. Karl Heinz Hänssler, DHBW Ravensburg

Prof. Karl Heinz Hänssler, rector of the Cooperative State University at the Ravensburg campus, has been setting standards for tourism, the hotel business and gastronomy in the academic sector for many years, cultivating the younger generation in the field at a high level.