Ösch Noir

Back to the first kitchen

Imperial pigeon goes to the pan first, then the oven; Manuel Ulrich, chef at Ösch Noir in Donaueschingen, keeps the sequence plain. He names the garnish with the same economy: kimchi, plum, sesame. The dish sits inside a longer return. Ulrich began at Öschberghof as a culinary trainee and stayed until 2012, learning the property from the inside before the flagship restaurant carried his hand. A winter season at Burg Hotel Oberlech in Lech in 2012 added alpine pace. Restaurant Haerlin at the Fairmont Four Seasons in Hamburg, where he worked in 2016-2017, tightened structure and timing. He later worked under Torsten Michel at Schwarzwaldstube, a room where composure is part of the method. Since 2018, Ulrich has led Ösch Noir on the ground where his apprenticeship began. Michelin recognition arrived in 2020 and again in 2021, attached here to this restaurant, not borrowed from another pass. The line is clean: a Heidenhofen cook returned to Donaueschingen, took the station, and built modern French cooking with enough restraint to let each finish show.

Noir and Vert at the pass

The program works through set menus, chiefly Noir and the vegetarian Vert, with a smaller Petit Noir drawn from both. The cooking keeps a French frame, then lets a second register enter when the product asks for it. Gillardeau oysters meet glazed black salsify, nasturtium and Imperial Oscietra caviar; the point is not ornament, but temperature, salinity and bite held in one course. Ulrich’s own language for Imperial pigeon is procedural rather than theatrical: “We sear it off. And then it comes in the oven to get cooked. That's how we present it.” That sequence explains much of the house style. There is searing, glazing, tempering, sauce work and a steady concern for finish. The vegetarian menu is not treated as an aside; Vert carries the same set-menu discipline as Noir. The wine program is part of that architecture, with the room built for formal service and an open view toward the kitchen, so the pass stays in the guest’s field of vision without becoming a performance.

Glass, quiet and the open kitchen

The room sits within Der Öschberghof at Golfplatz in Donaueschingen, a hotel setting shaped with modern glass, clean lighting and a quiet register. Guests pass the open kitchen on the way in, close enough to catch pots, pans and the first movements of service before the table takes over. The effect is transparent rather than casual. The counter and pass remain visible, but the room keeps its formality: measured pacing, low noise, the kind of service that leaves space around a course. Ösch Noir’s design leans into black and clarity, matching the menu names without turning them into theme. It is an intimate room, not a loud one. The work at the bench carries through to the plate, especially when Gillardeau oysters arrive with black salsify, nasturtium and Oscietra caviar.