Henri Bach is dead

ESSEN. Former two-star chef Henri Bach is dead. According to the recently published obituary, he died on 23 July after a short, serious illness. Henri Bach was 68 years old.

Henri Bach was born in Boppard in 1956. From 1976 onwards, he worked at the Breidenbacher Hof and the Hilton in Düsseldorf, as well as the Landhaus Scherrer in Hamburg and the Sheraton in Essen.

He became famous as head chef at the Résidence restaurant in Essen-Kettwig, run by patron Berthold Bühler. The restaurant was awarded a star in the Michelin Guide in 1984, followed by a second star in 1989. In 2012, he became kitchen director of the Hotel-Residence Klosterpforte in Harsewinkel. In 2013, he took over the role of gastronomic director at Nelson Müller's Michelin-starred restaurant Schote.

With the death of Henri Bach, he has lost his long-time mentor, who accompanied him in the kitchen for 20 years, according to a social media post by Nelson Müller, in which he and his team express their grief for Henri Bach. "Henri is even the reason that I am now an Essener," Nelson Müller is quoted as saying, "because he brought me from the north to the Ruhr area and to his 2-star restaurant Résidence in Kettwig in the mid-2000s." For many years, the Résidence head chef guided his pupil and commis Nelson Müller - who was still completely unknown at the time - before he became self-employed and went public almost at the same time. "My time at the Résidence with Henri Bach was my most formative time as a chef. Henri is simply an expert in his craft and it was a great, instructive time with him as my boss. He led the team with a calmness and foresight that I always admired."

After leaving the Schote, Henri Bach worked for the municipal RGW, but remained closely associated with Nelson Müller, according to the posting. After retiring, he supported Nelson Müller as "part-time kitchen director", creating recipes for TV programmes and cookbooks as well as for various events.

"Henri was always a wonderful sparring partner for me when it came to culinary matters. He was also the calming influence that grounded the entire team, so to speak. He was simply a walking encyclopaedia in the field of cuisine and inspired everyone with his passion for cooking and his incredible knowledge," Nelson Müller is quoted as saying in the post.

Henri Bach also influenced top chefs such as Erik Arnecke (now Philipp Soldan, Frankenberg), Denis Feix (Marburger Esszimmer) Christoph Rüffer (Haerlin, Hamburg) and Eric Werner from Astrein in Cologne: "Henri Bach was a trendsetter among top chefs who was already inspired by Asian cuisine in the early 1990s," Werner told the WAZ.