Guest chef at AURA in Wirsberg: Quique Dacosta

Wirsberg, July 2026. Thanks to the two-Michelin-starred restaurant AURA by Alexander Herrmann & Tobias Bätz and its associated Future Lab ANIMA, the small Franconian town of Wirsberg has established itself as a top destination for food lovers from around the world. But it is not just numerous foodies who make the journey to the hometown of top chef Herrmann: in recent years, Herrmann, Bätz and their team have already welcomed various internationally renowned colleagues from some of the world’s finest restaurants. Following two successful six-hands dinners last year featuring Andreas Caminada, Marco Müller, Norbert Niederkofler and Sven Wassmer, a six-hands dinner with the Spanish Michelin-starred chef Quique Dacosta will now take place at AURA in October 2026. Dacosta is one of Spain’s most successful restaurateurs; in addition to his three-Michelin-starred Quique Dacosta Restaurant in Dénia, he is responsible, amongst other things, for the culinary direction of the Mandarin Oriental Ritz in Madrid and runs several other restaurants in Valencia, Morocco and London. Since the early 1990s, the Spanish master chef has consistently set new standards in regional Mediterranean haute cuisine, presenting his menus as dramatically structured, sensory and spatial experiences. Through their collaboration with Dacosta, Tobias Bätz and Alexander Herrmann are once again demonstrating their international standing and their culinary innovation, which is unrivalled in the D-A-CH region. The six-hands dinner will take place on Sunday, 4 October 2026 at 6 pm. Tickets for this highly sought-after dinner can only be purchased on request by emailing mail@herrmanns-posthotel.de. Places are strictly limited.

Quique Dacosta can look back on an impressive career spanning almost 40 years as a chef. In 1988, he joined ‘El Poblet’ in Dénia, in the province of Alicante, where he worked his way through every position and eventually rose to become head chef. Dacosta has owned the restaurant since 1999 and changed its name to Quique Dacosta Restaurant in 2009. Under his leadership, the regional restaurant has developed into one of the most renowned destinations for modern Mediterranean haute cuisine in Spain. It was awarded its first Michelin star in 2003, with the second following just three years later, and since 2012, the Quique Dacosta Restaurant has retained its three stars year after year. Dacosta has been playing a key role in shaping the restaurant’s culinary profile since the early 1990s. To this day, he draws particular inspiration from the region’s unique geography, especially the adjacent Montgó Nature Park and the Mediterranean Sea.
His creations and menus consistently and deliberately blur the boundaries between art and cuisine, and are presented to guests as sensory journeys that follow their own dramatic narrative. For the Spanish master chef, cooking is a language, a form of expression, an identity which, in his case, arises from the interplay between culture, territory, quality, innovation and tradition. In 2019, Dacosta was named Spain’s best restaurateur of the year by the “Real Academia de Gastronomía”; in 2020, the Spanish Ministry of Culture awarded him the prestigious “Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes” (Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts). His three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Quique Dacosta, currently ranks 65th on The World’s 50 Best list.

In addition to his restaurant in Dénia, Dacosta runs three further restaurants in Valencia, including the two-Michelin-starred Flores Raras. As culinary director of the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Dacosta is also in charge of the two-star restaurant Deessa. The 53-year-old chef is making his mark on the international gastronomic scene outside Spain too, with two projects at the Royal Mansour Collection in Tamuda Bay, Morocco, and Arros QD in London. What makes his career so special is that it began in the very restaurant that remains, to this day, the cradle of his culinary identity. Although the Spanish master chef travels the world, his work is profoundly shaped by the origins of his craft, by a region, by his homeland. This return to his roots is also inherent in the cuisine of the two Franconian chefs, Alexander Herrmann and Tobias Bätz. Herrmann returned to the family business in his home town of Wirsberg as early as 1995, and since 2009, Bätz – who also hails from the region – has been by his side as a permanent partner. In keeping with their self-chosen motto #grenzenloseHEIMAT, they present a cuisine at their two-Michelin-starred restaurant, AURA by Alexander Herrmann & Tobias Bätz, that draws inspiration from around the world yet always originates from the heart of Wirsberg. Working with regional produce is not a limitation here, but a source of boundless creativity. Just how boundless these possibilities really are is demonstrated by the work carried out at the specially created production facility, Future Lab ANIMA: food scout Joshi Osswald and his team work there alongside over 90 local producers to develop, process and refine food from scratch — partly using centuries-old techniques such as fermentation and pickling, which guarantee a variety of products that are used at AURA throughout the year.

On 4 October, as part of the 6-Hands Dinner, two regions and two culinary styles will therefore come together, united by one thing: a commitment to the ingredients as the starting point for contemporary regional cuisine and forward-looking gastronomy.

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