Gastronomy on the EUREF campus at the Gasometer in Berlin
The love of good food brings many people to new locations.
Often culinary insider tips can be found in hidden streets or special places like the Gasometer.
Between the building and emerging office buildings around the Gasometer Schöneberg, however, only a few food-seekers get lost by chance.
Who likes office canteens? No, one.
In fact, Reinhard Müller, CEO of EUREF AG doesn’t like them either.
His vision included not only a mature sustainability strategy for the campus and a hand-picked tenant structure.
It also includes establishing a colourful variety of restaurants instead of company-owned canteens.
After all, he brought a great foodcourt to the Campus.
When around 5,000 people from innovative industries – including 1,200 employees of the GASAG Group – meet for lunch and dinner, the idea for an sustainable food future was established.
In addition to the GASAG Group, the ideas are provided by the Renewable Energy Agency, the Climate-KIC initiative, ubitricity, TU Berlin, Schneider Electric, the Fraunhofer Institute and Deutsche Bahn.
They all working on societal problems on campus.
Thomas Kammeier is responsible for F&B. Since 2015 as gastronomic director of the EUREF campus.
In his career, the Westphalian not only collected a Michelin star, but also numerous titles (including three times “Berliner Meisterkoch”), hoods and cooking spoons.
The step out of the star kitchen and into the eureF-Campus think tank was a big one, although Kammeier has remained true to his own quality standards without compromise.
He has proved this so far in his lunch restaurants on campus: from vegan and vegetarian in the “green” to classic burgers from the Spreewald Angus in the “workshop” – by the way, in the same building as the energy workshop powered by GASAG Solution Plus (link: www.energiewende-erleben.de) – to the original Wiener Schnitzel, the “showcase dish” of the café in the water tower.
A dinner restaurant will be follow, to be added to the lunch restaurant, which in the evening attracts not only the employees from the offices, but also guests from all over Berlin and foreign destinations.
This is how Kammeier developed modern cuisine, his concept for the grill restaurant “the CORD” will be realized soon.
The Corona pandemy slowed down the opening. Behind the doors, however, everything is ready for the guests: an ambience of dark wood and lots of brass with cosy fabric-covered chairs and windlights on the tables – and right in the middle of the restaurant’s namesake: the Cord 810/812, a brilliant piece of automotive history. With the Cord in 1937, it was possible to reduce the air resistance and thus the fuel consumption by means of technical details.
How fitting that, directly above the former sustainability miracle, employees of the GASAG Group will be working on future solutions for greater sustainability from spring 2021 – because the “the CORD” is located on the ground floor of the energy quarter – the new corporate headquarter of GASAG.
Sustainability and regional affinity as a common thread
As diverse as the gastronomic offer on the EUREF campus is – besides the Kammeier restaurants, you can find Italian and Asian cuisine with the “Schmiede” and the “Bamboo Bay” – the basic idea of the campus, sustainability, is also implemented here.
However, the preference given to regional suppliers and seasonal products is not solely due to their improved carbon footprint. “We chefs can contribute a lot to the topic of the environment, because we decide what ends up on the plates,” Kammeier summarizes his philosophy. “But it’s also a question of taste: you just notice whether a food is produced and cooked with respect.”
Respect is also a motivation in the selection of suppliers. Kammeier is as important as GASAG to strengthen the region.
While the energy service provider has been supporting numerous Berlin cultural projects for many years, details such as the coffee from the Tempelhofer Manufaktur “Andraschko” testify to Kammeier’s growing connection with Berlin. Not the only thing in common: GASAG also has a passion for good food – because heat and electricity are not the only energies that are indispensable for the quality of life in Berlin. Only consistently that the energy service provider has the eat! Berlin sponsors, the gourmet festival in the capital, which is now a fixture in every gourmet’s annual calendar.
It remains exciting on the EUREF campus
On the Campus, ideas never go out, either in the offices or in the kitchens.
To Kammeier’s luck, the EUREF campus is still not finished 13 years after its opening. The future use of the historic gasometer is currently being planned. One thing is certain: gastronomy will also be located there, and Thomas Kammeier will also lead this. The master chef is already tinkering with the concept.
For the quick supply of the breakfast croissant or the sweet particle for the afternoon there will also be a sustainable bakery on the premises. It moves into the striking building, which is currently growing out of the ground at the western tip of the site: the future headquarters of the NBB Netzgesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg. And the entire area is still under development.
Visiting the EUREF campus is therefore not only worthwhile for those who are enthusiastic about sustainability and innovative ideas for the future and who want to pay a visit to GASAG.
Total: The location is worth a visit for everybody who likes food and especially fine food.
https://www.gasag.de/unternehmen/nachhaltigkeit/berlinpartner/kultur/eat-berlin-2019
Contributed by Kay Szantyr
Photos: Andreas Schwarz
