The Rolling Pin Convention returns to Germany at the end of September. Here is what it is, and who is speaking.
On 28 and 29 September, the Rolling Pin Convention Germany returns to Düsseldorf. It runs at Areal Böhler in Meerbusch, on the edge of the city. More than ten thousand people are expected across two days, and there will be four stages. They are cooks, restaurateurs, sommeliers and suppliers, not only chefs. More than a hundred speakers are on the programme. This is the fifth German edition.
If you don’t know Rolling Pin: It is an Austrian media company, founded by Jürgen Pichler in 2003. It runs a job portal for the industry, a magazine, and, since 2014, these conventions in Austria and Germany. The Düsseldorf edition is co-organised with METRO, the wholesaler. Rolling Pin calls it the second-largest food symposium in Europe after Madrid Fusión. Alongside the talks, there is a six-thousand-square-metre expo where suppliers show what they are working on.
Rolling Pin has chosen Jamie Oliver as its headliner this year. It is his first appearance at a trade congress in Germany. Oliver is the best-selling cookbook author in history, with more than fifty-five million books sold, and the patron of forty-eight restaurants with more than two thousand staff. As a campaigner, he has shaped the public conversation about food for two decades, from school dinners to the sugar tax. In Düsseldorf he is billed to talk about how he thinks as a businessman, the mistakes he has made and what he learned from them, and where he sees the industry heading.
The lineup goes well beyond one name. Rasmus Munk brings Alchemist from Copenhagen, two Michelin stars and one of the most ambitious restaurants working anywhere, a place that treats dinner as theatre, argument and art at the same time. Norbert Niederkofler comes from Atelier Moessmer in Brunico, three stars and his Cook the Mountain philosophy, cooking almost entirely from the Dolomites around him. Jan Hartwig brings three stars from JAN in Munich. Tim Raue is also among the speakers, one of the best-known chefs in Germany and a name well beyond it, with two Michelin stars at his restaurant in Berlin. Sebastian Frank brings two more, also from Berlin, at Horváth. Rosina Ostler is on the bill too, with two stars at Alois in Munich and named Best Female Chef in Germany.
There is plenty more. Giuliano Baldessari brings Aqua Crua from Barbarano in the Colli Berici, one Michelin star and a menu built strictly from wild food he forages himself in the Trentino mountains. Some know him as the latex chef. Tim Mälzer and Alexander Herrmann, with Tobias Bätz from the two-star Aura in Wirsberg. Dennis Kuckuck of the two-star Vendôme in Bergisch Gladbach. Elif Oskan and Markus Stöckle of Gül in Zürich. Sara Aqel of Dara Dining in Amman. Lucki Maurer of STOI in Rattenberg, Jens Madsen of The Cloud in Munich, Daniel Gottschlich of Ox & Klee in Cologne, and Gerhard Retter of Retter & Co in Munich. The Healthy Boy Band, the Austrian trio of Lukas Mraz, Philip Rachinger and Felix Schellhorn, cook somewhere between fine dining and performance art. A secret top speaker is still to be announced.
One more thing worth knowing. Düsseldorf turns into a food city for the whole week. Chefs in Town, a festival spread across the city’s restaurants and bars, runs from 25 to 27 September, just before the convention: two formats, one week, one city.
Tickets and the full programme are at rollingpinconvention.de. I am looking forward to attending.
Andreja Lajh is the founder of Haut de Gamme, a London-based agency working with chefs, restaurants and food producers worldwide. She writes about food, wine and the restaurant world at hautdegamme.net.
