Scent Stories Vol.2/Ch.03 - Chef's Table MiN New York 2015

With the onset of the cooking boom in the mid-90s, various chefs found their way into studio kitchens to surprise studio audiences and enthusiastic home cooks sitting in front of their TVs with countless cooking shows featuring ever-new culinary creations. The star-rated chefs Lafer & Schuhbeck or the more straightforwardly promoting Mälzer & Lichter competed in chopping, cooking week after week to bring out the best in every dish, never shy about offering a helpful tip for home cooks.

Cooking shows are by no means a newer phenomenon. Probably, hardly anyone in this forum will remember the actor Clemens Wilmenrod (affectionately calling himself "Karl May of the Kitchen"), who created relatively simple dishes in his 15-minute cooking show 185 times until 1964 without any formal training, including unforgettable classics like Toast Hawaii (toast, cooked ham & canned pineapple slice), and is even considered the actual founder of this genre.

Also without culinary training, but with a law degree in hand, Alfred Franz Maria Biolek, born in 1934 in Czechoslovakia, was awarded in 1994 as a ZDF legal advisor and hobby cook in his show "alfredissimo," where Biolek had previously proven to be a calm and entertaining host in various formats like "Boulevard Bio" or Bio's Bahnhof. The first episode was recorded in his own kitchen at home, later it was faithfully recreated in the WDR studio, and while the aroma wafted from the hot pan, a distinguished and diverse group of guests chatted with him in a relaxed atmosphere over one or two obligatory glasses of wine.

Chef's Table depicts exactly this workplace of (hard) working chefs. So, what ingredients wonderfully round off and refine every dish? Exactly, spices. And: herbs! Preferably in organic quality. On my skin, after spraying, a herbaceous-aromatic blend develops: dill, basil, sage, but also tomato leaf. Closing your eyes, you feel transported to a summery Italian garden. Countless tomatoes, bowls filled with delicious pesto or a tasty gazpacho, while a pleasant cool summer evening breeze wafts around your nose. Just how one likes it at the current temperatures.

Good one and a half hours later, a violet joins in, integrating wonderfully. The scent now becomes rounder, interestingly also a bit sweeter. And then, slowly and unnoticed, a rose grows, surprisingly integrating into the composition, but not becoming dominant. Everything smells very balanced. After over three hours, the herbs have retreated, with only the sage being more noticeable. Overall, not much happens now; in the last hours, the scent notes fade further until presumably only the sweetness of tonka remains, slowly fading on a supportive musk base.

In summary, I can't imagine that this unisex herb gourmand will be a mass-market hit (with today's view of the ownership list showing 19 owners), as it is a bit too special, but in my opinion, still very intriguing, even if perhaps not entirely new in the top note - the tomato leaf/basil combination was already found in Eau de Campagne in 1976. If one predominantly enjoys herbs in perfume, alternatively, Spezie might be an idea, just without the sweet element that comes in the dry down.

One more word about the bottle: black-lacquered clear glass with a cubic magnetic wooden cap, each bottle hand-sieved and polished, pleasant sprayer, embedded in an elegant box lined with fabric (which reminds me a bit of a coffin). Each box is hand-signed and numbered by the founder Chad Murawczyk.

Alfred Biolek passed away a year ago on July 23, 2021, at the age of 87 in his Cologne apartment, and yet too soon. A consistently great moment in his cooking show was the appreciation of the finished dish through his evaluative Mmmh (more like so-so) to an overflowing Mmmmmmmh…Mmmmmmmmmmmmh.

For this spice-herb pleaser, I give a clear Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmh.