Vadim Otto Ursus

The Climb

Training in Scandinavia, Portugal, and Mexico gave Vadim Otto Ursus a set of working references drawn from different culinary traditions. The value of that range shows in the structure of the cooking: disciplined, adaptable, and alert to how place shapes flavor. Rather than a single linear path, the record suggests a chef collecting techniques, habits, and instincts from several food cultures and letting them settle into a personal register. In 2019, he went on to work as chef at Otto in Berlin, Germany, where his career continues to unfold. The setting let the cooking sharpen into something identifiable: comfort handled with restraint, sincerity without softness, and a room and kitchen rhythm that pushed the work toward clarity. That environment appears to have defined the terms of the style more than any single gesture did.

Today

The work is clearest in the cooking he built there: simple, local, tactile, and direct. Simplicity here did not mean less attention; it meant the kind of care that shows up in hand-thrown ceramics, house-made ferments, and the measured use of unusual ingredients from a test kitchen. Built for sharing, the plates invited the table into the meal rather than standing apart from it.

In Their Words “That was probably the most intense time of my life. It was the restaurant I looked up to the most. I thought this is the best restaurant in the world.”