At the end of the 2024/2025 test season, the Gusto restaurant guide, which has become a reliable compass for expert restaurant recommendations in a changing market, publishes its special awards as it does every year. First and foremost the "Chef of the Year", which the guide's consistently unannounced and anonymous testers have recognised this year in Silio Del Fabro from the Esplanade restaurant in Saarbrücken. The rising star of the year is Nathalie Leblond from Les Deux in Munich, one of the few women in top gastronomy. The title of "Newcomer of the Year" is also held by a woman: Marita Rempel, head chef at Restaurant Gui in Bielefeld, was honoured with this award.

Supported by expertise, credibility and the trust of the country's best chefs, Gusto has been combining enjoyment with editorial depth for almost 20 years, making it the leading medium of a new gastronomic culture. With substance, clarity and authentic passion, the guide sets standards in the German restaurant landscape. In contrast to most other restaurant guides, it publishes its ratings and reviews of currently almost 1000 recommended restaurants not only on a specific date with the publication of a book, but permanently throughout the year in the Gusto online guide and in the Gusto app. These recommendations are also summarised in the new Gusto Deutschland 2026 "Genuss-Kompass", a handy paperback format which, as a contemporary cross-media companion with QR codes, in turn leads to the latest reviews and ratings in the digital Gusto media and is available exclusively in the restaurant trade or in the shop at gusto-online.de.

Chef of the Year is Silio Del Fabro from Restaurant Esplanade in Saarbrücken

"It sounds almost paradoxical, but with his moderately modernised, classically French cuisine, our former "Rising Star of the Year", whom we are delighted to award our "Chef of the Year" this year, has now set himself apart from the fine dining mainstream in a very pleasing way. Silio Del Fabro's particular strength is his ability to bring powerful, classic flavours to porcelain with extreme finesse and elegance, without adulterating them or adding a creative twist. This almost always leads to the conclusion that although these dishes can certainly be done differently, they can hardly be done better. With ever more precision, finesse, substance and product obsession, Del Fabro has gradually "cooked" his way to the top of German gastronomic cuisine.

"Nathalie Leblond has been the sole head chef at Restaurant Les Deux since 2023 and has been able to significantly sharpen the profile of the Kulinarium in this short time. We have always eaten very well in the gourmet restaurant in the wedge-shaped building in Munich's Schäfflerhof, but never before at such a consistently high level. Her vision of a smart, light, French-based cuisine with original flavour accents in a remarkably elegant, finely drawn execution now bears her own mature signature. On the plates of her sometimes very small, elaborate creations, the original ideas unfold their full effect in perfect balance and proportion. Everything fits together wonderfully harmoniously, every punch line is spot on. A strong development to which we would like to pay tribute with the well-deserved award for Newcomer of the Year".

Newcomer of the year: Marita Rempel from Restaurant Gui in Bielefeld

"Marita Rempel, who had already taken on the position of head chef at Restaurant Gui during our last test season, has now really taken off. We were impressed by her remarkably mature and surprisingly confident old-masterly rather than impetuously juvenile style and the enormous development that the cuisine in the casual restaurant in the centre of Bielefeld has undergone under her aegis in such a short space of time. Considering that the 26-year-old only just started her training in 2018, it is astonishing how precise and substantial her compositions, which at first glance appear unexciting but are all the more exciting behind the scenes, are, mostly with a Mediterranean flavour. Rempel's very classic cuisine, which is almost flawless in terms of quality and craftsmanship, is naturally flavoured and tastes more exciting than you might expect when reading the menu. And all of this in a very relaxed setting without a strictly choreographed sequence and without a standardised "forced menu".

New opening of the year: Restaurant Cølbo in Klingenberg

"With the reopening of cølbo, the romantic wine town of Klingenberg on the River Main, which was once known to gourmets nationwide thanks to Ingo Holland and his Altes Rentamt, has returned to the culinary map with an exclamation mark! Last year's Newcomer of the Year Moritz Techet, who was still cooking at the Upper Palatinate restaurant Hio at the time of the award, took the plunge into self-employment here in the premises of a former bakery together with his partner Jansý Frederiksberg. You could describe it as a living room restaurant - a living room furnished in a modern Scandinavian style with an open-plan kitchen. However, the name of the restaurant is only used to a limited extent on the plates, because although the basic style is a mix of classic French and new Nordic cuisine, regionality and sustainability are emphasised here, especially when it comes to the products.

Host of the year: Team Broeding from Restaurant Broeding in Munich

"There are many outstanding hosts in Germany's gastronomy scene - charismatic individuals who stand out, but also highly trained service ensembles where all processes are perfectly choreographed. However, it is very rare to have the wonderful feeling that you are not a guest in a restaurant, but visiting friends in private, as you do at Broeding in Munich. And that has nothing to do with the fact that the atmosphere here is particularly jovial or aloof. On the contrary. On the contrary, every Broeding employee gives the impression that they are not pursuing a job here, but a personal passion. In times of high staff turnover, it is also remarkable that we have been served by almost the same team here for years. And always cheerful, courteous, competent and without empty phrases".

Sommelier of the year: Sebastian Höpfner from Rutz in Berlin

"We had already noticed Sebastian Höpfner as a remarkable sommelier in the two Frankfurt restaurants Française and Chairs. He has now been working as Nancy Großmann's successor at Rutz in Berlin since the beginning of 2025 and has settled in very well there in a very short space of time, already noticeably setting his own accents, especially when accompanying the menu by the glass. He often looks to Austria, for example, where he worked as a sommelier for two years in the top restaurant "Taubenkobel" between his two stints in the Main metropolis and got to know the country's wine scene intensively. And he is increasingly focussing on natural wines - a topic for which he also has enormous expertise and enthusiasm. Under his aegis, the non-alcoholic accompaniment at Rutz continues to be a bank, as he is also responsible for inspired zero-percentage drinks such as dill kombucha with sumac or delicately moussing amazake with kohlrabi oil with an extraordinary flair for flavours and combinations."
All restaurants and current ratings from the past test season at a glance and sorted by rating: www.gusto-online.de/restaurant-ranking.html