"I want to encourage the guests to think further".
Michael Wehrli runs the Kulturareal Mühle Tiefenbrunnen in district 8, and prefers to work with small producers from the region in the two restaurants on the premises. That's not always easy, but for him, inspiration and environmental protection more than make up for the extra effort.
Michael Wehrli, how do you find good food producers?
You need a good network, a feeling for good quality and time to respond to the producers. Many good local producers only produce small quantities. So we also need their trust in our company to build a good and sustainable relationship.
Please tell us one, two or three producers you like to work with and why.
One of them is the Seebueb brewery. At first glance, it's one of many local breweries. But at second glance, it's probably one of the only ones that sources both the hops and the barley for our open beer from its immediate neighbourhood. Or 'Pura Verdura', a solidarity-based farming project in our neighbourhood, which delivers what the organic fields have to offer on a weekly basis. This is always a welcome creative impulse for our kitchen crew.
What other advantages does the Farm to Table concept offer restaurant owners?
It's fun to know the people behind the products. Accompanying their work inspires us again and again. There are challenges, of course: planning is more difficult, which is not always easy in the banquet business, for example. The quantities available can also be stumbling blocks. For example, the quantity of Zurich wine plummeted last year due to the weather.
This leads to the question: Is it even possible to run a profitable restaurant business and at the same time look after sustainable food?
To be honest, this is not always easy. The positive drivers are: less meat on the menu and on the plate, utilising more of every vegetable and every animal (leaf to root, nose to tail), practically no industrial processing steps, short distances and fewer (intermediate) traders involved. But of course there are also challenges: This way of trading requires better qualified staff and much more manual labour. In some cases, logistics are also a challenge.
How do you convey your appreciation for environmentally friendly food to the guest? Or also: Is it important to you that your guest knows where the food on his plate comes from?
Enjoyment must always be in the foreground in gastronomy. We want to convey to the sensitised guest the certainty that we care for good and honest products and always take care of the necessary resources. For all other guests, the quality and the experience is right - even without any background knowledge. We do not want to be dogmatic or lecturing. Ideally, both target groups will be pleasantly surprised by our culinary diversity.
Regional, seasonal, organic - you can read this on almost every restaurant menu or website today. Few of them stick to it consistently. Why do you go the extra mile with the "Blue Duck" and invest so much time in sourcing sustainable food?
In my entrepreneurial activities, the benefit for society is always part of my return. In both my involvement in the cultural and gastronomic sectors, I want to make a difference. In both areas, it is an incentive for me not only to inspire guests in terms of quality, but also to encourage them to think about themselves and their environment. As an environmental scientist, I have always been sensitive to these issues. As a board member of the Ernährungsforum Zürich, I am also committed to more sustainability in nutrition.
What makes you happy about the way you run your business?
As a natural scientist, as a father of two sons and ultimately as a political person, I am very concerned about the current changes (climate change, social injustice, soil consumption, loss of biodiversity, groundwater quality, etc.). We will have to change our behaviour dramatically in the future if we still want to pull our heads out of the noose. It means a lot to me to find fun answers for the future challenges already today. At Mühle Tiefenbrunnen we are very open and curious in this respect, which gives me and the whole team a lot of pleasure.
Keyword short distances: You offer around 100 wines from Lake Zurich in the Blaue Ente. Among them are grape varieties that most people have never heard of. Can you tell us your favourite wines?
The wines from the Lake Zurich region are of high quality and enormously diverse. The terroir is very suitable for demanding wines. Pinot Noir and Räuschling are just the beginning. Unfortunately, the region is still underestimated and the heads of many people in Zurich are full of prejudices about their own wine production. We would like to counteract this.
You have even founded a festival for this, the 'Terroir Zürisee'.
Yes, we offer a good opportunity to get to know the wines of the region. Personally, I like to drink a variety of wines: from traditional Pinot Noir to the fungus-resistant variety Souvignier Gris to the rediscovered original variety Elbling - I can only do without barrique wines.
Zu den Personen:
Michael Wehrli is the managing director of Mühle Tiefenbrunnen. The meeting place in the Riesbach district is like an urban island: a traffic-free, vibrant meeting place where you can enjoy a fine meal (once upscale in the 'Blaue Ente' and once uncomplicated in the 'Café Kornsilo'), linger, work out, shop or attend a cultural event. With friends, business partners and with pleasure with the whole family.
https://www.muehle-tiefenbrunn...
https://www.muehle-tiefenbrunn...
