Benjamin Maerz

The Path

Family kitchens, formal study, and management duties run in sequence through Benjamin Maerz’s record. The line begins on the floor of service: apprentice cook at Hotel und Restaurant Rose in Bietigheim-Bissingen (2008–2010), where the work would have meant repetition, timing, and the daily discipline of mise en place and service. It then moves into responsibility for the house itself, with Benjamin Maerz serving as managing director at Hotel und Restaurant Rose in Bietigheim-Bissingen (2011–2013), a step that placed operations and kitchen craft in the same frame. Training followed at Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Mosbach, Campus Bad Mergentheim (2013), adding formal study to experience already earned in service. Continuity is the other thread in Benjamin Maerz’s career. Since 2010, he has been head chef of Hotel und Restaurant Rose / Restaurant Maerz in Bietigheim-Bissingen, and since 2013 he has been co-owner and co-manager of Hotel und Restaurant Rose. In 2013, Benjamin Maerz and his brother took over and continued the family business in Bietigheim-Bissingen, keeping the enterprise in place while giving it a new chapter under their own direction.

The Work Today

At Maerz - Das Restaurant in Bietigheim-Bissingen, the cooking is shaped by a stated tension between memory and movement. Benjamin Maerz describes it as “an interplay of homesickness and wanderlust,” a formulation that sets tradition and exploration beside each other rather than treating them as opposites. The result is a kitchen language that stays close to the familiar while remaining open to what lies beyond it. Travel is part of that method. Benjamin Maerz says, “I am someone who likes to travel and picks up culinary inspiration everywhere in the world.” The point is not novelty for its own sake, but attentiveness: to what can be learned from other places, and how those impressions can be carried back into the work. He extends that same approach to the plate itself: “I devote myself to food with all my senses and try to discover something new all the time.” For Benjamin Maerz, the work starts before service. “The enjoyment for me begins at the market when shopping and continues all the way to the menu in the 3-star restaurant.” That view treats sourcing and composition as one chain of decisions, from selection to final writing. The market is not separate from the menu; it is where the menu begins.

Signature

Benjamin Maerz’s signature dishes include beef flank with cauliflower, samosa, and chakalaka. Read together, they point to a kitchen that works with contrast and balance: grounded components, layered assembly, and references that move across more than one culinary register.

In Their Words “The enjoyment for me begins at the market when shopping and continues all the way to the menu in the 3-star restaurant.” “I am someone who likes to travel and picks up culinary inspiration everywhere in the world.”

Acclaim

Benjamin Maerz's honors include Michelin star.