Thorsten Bender is a Karlsruhe "boy", as he himself says, and has been running the restaurant "Sein" since 2017. The start was modest: "We started out very small, with eight tables and 27 seats. My wife helped out with the service in the evenings after her full-time job and wrote the menus in the stairwell." The decision to open a small restaurant was a conscious one: "As a self-employed restaurateur without a lot of capital, you have to go to the bank and then, of course, you say, 'I'd like some money. ' The more money it is, the more the bank rolls its eyes at restaurateurs." Success came early: "By the time we got our first star, we were actually fully booked. We didn't need the star to be fully booked."

The dramaturgy of the menu: a journey of indulgence rather than a mere sequence

The focus of Thorsten Bender's cuisine at Sein is the dramaturgy of the menu. "On the one hand, our menu is called 'a journey of indulgence' and I think that's what it should be for the guest – a journey of indulgence – rather than a series of steps that get mixed up." The menu sequence is deliberately composed: "We build up the aromas from course to course until the main course, and then of course it winds down at the end, with dessert providing a lovely finale." Nature sets the pace: "Of course, nature and our suppliers set the pace for our menu. When Grischa says, 'I've got something really great, try this,' or 'Now is the season for this or that,' then we adapt to that."

The cuisine at "Sein" is characterised by lightness and a focus on the product. "We cook modern, we cook light, even with a bang, as you so nicely put it yesterday, but it still has a lightness to it and you can eat eight courses and you don't fall into bed thinking, I'm knocked out." Fish plays a central role: "There is a very fish-heavy menu because, for one thing, I find fish more pleasant to eat than meat in the large menu sequence. And I think you can see the qualities of fish even more clearly than with meat."

The dishes are crafted down to the last detail. "When we cook a course for the first time, we eat it at the original table, with the original cutlery. Then we decide what's missing. Is it too big, too small, is something wrong, does something need to be added, or can we perhaps even leave something out?" The balance of sweetness, acidity and spiciness is crucial: "I think it's the balance on the plate between sweetness, acidity, spiciness and also how you deal with it. And I also think that a certain acidity in the dish always adds a certain something. You feel like spooning up all the sauce."

Entrepreneurial spirit and innovation: three concepts, one aspiration

In addition to Sein, Thorsten Bender runs the Bistro Margarete and the Separée Sein. The bistro stands for regional home cooking: "We buy regionally within a 300-kilometre radius and make dishes that no one makes at home anymore." Separé Sein is an innovative zero-waste concept: "Here, we offer a six-course tasting menu made from the restaurant and bistro's second cuts, and we cook an ambitious six-course tasting menu without using a trolley."

All three concepts are spatially and culinarily distinct from one another, allowing guests to enjoy different culinary experiences: "Ideally, of course, you'll eat here three times and experience three different concepts. First, there's the Scandinavian-inspired Separé, then there's the Bistro with its local cuisine, and of course the cosmopolitan cuisine in the restaurant."

Thorsten Bender is not driven by fame, but by his passion for cooking and his responsibility towards his employees and the city: "I don't cook for fame, because for me there's nothing worse than when someone recognises me on the street and asks for a selfie. That's nonsense. I do this so that I can live well."

He wants to create something lasting: "I just want to leave something behind in this city, where I grew up as a boy in Karlsruhe. To say, even if I'm no longer here, I don't have any children, then maybe somewhere it will be written that in 2023 someone cooked a second star here, and that was me. That's nice."