Jacobi

Regional product at the pass

The kohlrabi reaches the pass fermented, sealed in salt dough, then cut back to its tartare. Jacobi, in Freiburg im Breisgau, is built around that kind of decision: a familiar vegetable, held long enough to change, then served with bay leaf-apple stock, elderberry and caper vinaigrette, and apricot ragout. The restaurant sits at Herrenstraße 43 in the Altstadt of Freiburg im Breisgau, inside Hotel Schwarzwälder Hof, but the cooking looks outward to Southern Baden, its farms, freshwater fish, vegetables, game and small producers. Head chef Christoph Kaiser leads a small team assembled through 2022 from gastronomic and non-gastronomic backgrounds, with Cedrik, Dominique, Stephan and Yasmina in the kitchen and Lina and Sebastian handling welcome, service and wine. The house earned a Michelin star and a Green Star soon after opening, and its cooking keeps the question close to the bench: what can the region carry if the kitchen gives it time, acidity and restraint.

Fermentation before ornament

The program turns on seasonal tasting menus of seven to nine courses, with midweek à la carte and a Saturday bistro register that can run to schnitzel. Preservation, stocks, ragouts and vinaigrettes work as structure rather than decoration. Fermented kohlrabi in salt dough is the clearest statement, because it asks very little of distance and a great deal of method. The vegetable appears with kohlrabi tartare beneath it, a bay leaf-apple stock for lift, elderberry and caper for a sour edge, and apricot for sweetness. Venison, porcini with asparagus, caprafeta and freshwater fish sit in the same vocabulary: regional product, handled with enough classical discipline to make the plate legible. Sourcing runs through short supply chains and direct contact with producers, and that shows in the service rhythm as much as in the mise en place. Chefs bring courses to the table themselves and explain provenance, so the pass extends into the room without turning the meal into theatre. The wine program follows the same regional intelligence, with Germany and France present, young winemakers alongside more established names, and pairings shaped to meet acidity, fermentation and game.

Dark wood, lava stone, kitchen window

The room keeps its voice low. Dark wood paneling and accent light make the converted winery space feel close, while lava-stone tables and orange-velvet seating give each place setting a certain weight. Through the large kitchen window, diners see the team working at the pass, plating and moving between stove and counter before a course leaves in the hands of a cook. The quiet matters here, because the food often depends on small shifts: the bitter edge of caper against elderberry, the sweetness in apricot ragout, the texture of salt-dough kohlrabi against raw tartare. Formal service does not erase the makers. It gives their explanations room to land, especially when a course carries a named producer or a Southern Baden ingredient that would be easy to overlook elsewhere.

A Freiburg room with regional pressure

Jacobi opened at the end of 2022, and its rise has been tied to a clear refusal: no need to import status when the surrounding landscape can supply the work. That choice puts pressure on the kitchen in a useful way. Seasonal cooking has fewer hiding places, and the menu has to move when the farms, forests and growers move. The kohlrabi is fermented, baked in salt dough, cut against tartare, and held in the particular weather of Freiburg im Breisgau.