OBLIVIOUS to the Saturday evening clatter in his kitchen, Jörg Sackmann furrows his brow in concentration. "Foam!" he commands, teasing strands of onion into a loop and spooning a warm egg yolk into the centre. A young saucier pours a pan of bubbles around the edge of this "onion carbonara". Peering intensely through half-moon glasses, Mr Sackmann sprinkles on black pepper: "not too much and not too little".
In 2014 such dishes won Mr Sackmann his second star in the Michelin Guide, the gastronome's bible. Along with two three-star restaurants at the neighbouring hotels Bareiss and Traube Tonbach, this took his south-west German village of Baiersbronn to a total of eight stars. London has about one star for every 100,000 people; Paris one for every 16,000. This quiet corner of the Black Forest has one for every 2,000.
The secret is balance. Baiersbronn is just provincial enough. Poor soil and...
The Economist: Europe
