Nobelhart & Schmutzig is considered Germany's most politically correct restaurant for its commitment to sustainability and employees' well-being, awarded by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. Here is their "handbook of conduct."
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If there's a trend-setting restaurant in Berlin, it's Nobelhart & Schmutzig: sommelier patron Billy Wagner and creative director Mica Schäfer, a former chef, do more than just delight the public with the barrage of fun inventions. For them, dining is about thinking of the planet's sake to the smallest detail, so much so that The World's 50 Best Restaurants honored them with the 2024 Sustainability Award.
"When we opened our doors in January 2015, we did so with the ambition of giving visibility to our suppliers," Wagner began in an interview. "And that remains true today. An evening at Nobelhart & Schmutzig is not about pomp and circumstances. Rather, it has to do with the people without whom our cuisine could not exist: people whose approach to cultivation we consider exemplary in terms of responsibility, sustainability and uncompromising quality."
It's not just about raw materials, 90 percent of which are plant-based and are sourced within a 250-kilometer radius anyway. For the two, the well-being of each and every employee, with fair wages and fair working conditions, is imperative. That is why they developed a "conduct manual" earlier this year, which is intended to contribute to a culture of primarily human growth. "My job as creative director is to create dishes," Schäfer explains. "And our team's job is to translate that into a great experience. But everything works best when no one is overworked and everyone is treated with respect, given guidance and support, being able to learn the things we were never told to start with."
Among other things, it involves investing in coaching of diversity and organizing workshops, with the possibility of also acting anonymously. "But it is not a human resources department aimed at defending the company." Among the measures taken is the abolition of the figure of the dishwasher, a job judged to be dead-end, which all cooks will take on in rotation. "As companies and employers, are we able to have a positive impact, or can we continue to burn people and resources, as our industry has done for a long time."
And again, "We cannot just say that people are at the center of what we do. We have to show in everything we do that it is everyone's business. And there are three sides to consider: we provide guests with a great time, we treat our products with respect, and we create a great place to work for our team and ourselves." There is the new figure of the product sous-chef, who is solely responsible for finding suppliers, monitoring ripening points and practicing foraging in nature. The development of artisans is encouraged through co-financing projects, in addition to the many charitable initiatives. The very limited use of meat involves zero waste on the whole animal, while fish has been banned for reasons of transparency in the supply chain.
Napkins are made from old tablecloths, uniforms from used clothes, damaged dishes and caps are creatively reused. After all, the name already says it: "Noble because we serve excellent products, and since we're not exactly known for compromise, it's a little hard(core). But we also want to make sure the glass doesn't stay empty. And that's where it gets a little dirty," Wagner jokes.
