News  /  13. April 2022

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Tothe restaurant alto by Janes Gerdes

Look forward to the new chef at alto. With his modern brasserie cuisine, Janes Gerdes demonstrates real star qualities. But he does not want to be a star chef. Much more important to him than his ego are a team with passion and guests with a thirst for experience. He has found both at the alto. 

Janes Gerdes is no stranger to Bremen chefs and gourmets. Even as a schoolboy, he always sought out Grashoff, the city's finest delicatessen and bistro, for his internships. For more than three decades, the culinary gem bore a Michelin star and was as famous as its regular guest Loriot. From 1872 to 2021, everything here was homemade, from the oils to the pasta to the champagne. Young Janes eagerly joined in and immediately followed up with a first-class chef's training. After that, he didn't have to write a single application; he was simply passed on. First to a two-star restaurant in southern Germany, then to the Grand Hotel Kempinski in Heiligendamm, where heads of state like George W. Bush and Angela Merkel were his guests. At Apicius in Bad Zwischenahn, Janes Gerdes slowly developed his own culinary signature - by learning to modernize classic French cuisine. He put the finishing touches to his cooking on Sylt at the two-star restaurant Fährhaus Munkmarsch.

"I found it exciting to make the delicate subtleties accessible to a wide audience," he says. "I didn't want to create elitist amuse-gueules, but rather to excite very different tastes." He was pretty spot on with that ambition in Bremen. Michelin-glamorous restaurants like L'Orchidée in the Ratskeller were happy to see him return. And Grashoff, of course. Even before they went out of business last summer, a good acquaintance knocked on the door: alto kitchen director Daniel Otto. He was looking for a creative head for his team. A top chef with ambition and new ideas. And preferably one he had trusted for a long time. "Janes is perfect," Daniel Otto says of his discovery. "He understands the alto and the Bremer, his craft, yes, and me too."

Everything that has made the restaurant so popular for years will therefore remain: the quality, the atmosphere and even the classics on the menu. At the same time, Janes Gerdes offers surprises à la carte. He calls the concept behind this brasserie cuisine: traditional top dishes with modern touches. "No one should ask themselves 'what did the chef want to tell us with that?" after the meal," laughs the new chef. "With us, upscale doesn't taste out of touch; it tastes good to everyone." His signature dish, as it's known among star chefs, is the small salmon fillet, served
served as an appetizer with two kinds of quinoa, apple Riesling sauce and birchwood flavoring. Perhaps just as typical of Janes Gerdes is the Bentheimer pork loin. He spent months fine-tuning the menu. Nevertheless, he remains Bremishly modest: "A special kitchen always needs a special team. At the alto, I felt at home from the very first moment. I think that's exactly what the guests taste."

Opening hours

Restaurant alto: Monday - Sunday from 12.00 to 09.00 p.m.

Reservation: +49 (0) 421 620 62-599 or info@restaurant-alto.de

Click here for the menu