Meraki #4 EN - Horcher

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Hotels & Fine Dining HORCHER

German surname for gastronomic excellence in Spain

Visual Stories by Carla Branco | Story

HORCHER

German surname for gastronomic excellence in Spain

Since 1904, the Horcher family has run one of the restaurants most valued by international gastronomic critics in terms of hunting, product quality and dining room service. Today, after the restaurant opened its doors in Madrid 75 years ago, Elisabeth Horcher fourth generation in the saga leads the family business where everything is excellence, history and tradition.

It was in 1904 when Gustav Horcher opened his first restaurant in Berlin at number 21 on the Martin Luther Strasse, one of the most exclusive areas in the German capital. Post war Spain received Otto, son of Gustav, in 1943, who together with his family, fleeing the conflict, settled in a post war Madrid dressed in dirty smuggling clothes and ration cards.

When Gustav died in 1931, it was his son Otto who took over the reins of a company that served high class customers at their desks. It opened branches in Vienna, Oslo, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with the aim of reminding Germans around the world that the best Germany would soon recover its former imperial seal. During World War II, the restaurant was closed by the Nazi high command. Otto runs away from his country, arriving first in Paris, and then to Spain. He brought the material from the restaurant he had managed to retrieve on the train and it is in this way that on November 18, 1943, Horcher Madrid opened its doors at number 6 on Rua Alfonso XII. Gradually, veteran German employees from Berlin joined the restaurant.

Otto's son, who incidentally, has the same name, was the leader of this company until a few years ago. However, Elisabeth Horcher is the current soul of this embassy of good food.

A gift with a woman's soul

The trajectory of a unique business has for the first time a woman in its direction. Trained at the Laussanne School of Hospitality, Elisabeth, the fourth generation of this dynasty, is an exemplary executive for many. Its elegance and distinction are in harmony with its determined character and its great professionalism; her discretion and her irrevocable commitment to the past and the future seem to have put her in the right direction a few years ago.

For her, the fact that the restaurant has gone through so many times throughout history and has humbly assimilated triumph and overcome bumps, is synonymous with having done things well, or at least having done them in a way that allowed to reach customers, keep them and expand the horizon. Aware that generational change is something to value, she is convinced that people continue to value what Horcher traditionally was and continues to be; and little by little she found a way to seduce the new generations. Elisabeth knows better than anyone that prudence and stoically digesting the anxieties of fate have allowed this family to endure what no one in the gastronomic world of Madrid has endured.

International haute cuisine

There is no doubt that we are facing a classic among the classics. Horcher is synonymous with high international standards at the gastronomic level, it is the essence of the tradition of good food and good service and, somehow, at least for me, it is one of the few remaining strongholds in Europe where the savoir faire of others times, the refinement of yesteryear and the most successful work in what is understood in the world of distinction as “discreet hospitality”.

Horcher's dishes follow the essence of the Central European cookbook, working accurately in the room and are magically and masterfully adapted to the client.

The hot months

Its menu fascinates in the hottest months of the year with starters that are difficult to choose. Two examples such as the classic creamy herring with Kartoffelpuffer or the spectacular gazpacho with lobster and salmon roe are enough to attest to this.

In turn, the fish claim absolute prominence at the time with the turbot weighing more than 15 kilos that melts in the mouth, where what is really raw is the ‘product’, a raw material that arouses applause and admiration from the public.

The cold months

During the autumn winter months, hunting reigns supreme in the menu, with a more than famous pressed partridge as the biggest claim, cooked the old fashioned way, without thermostats or corsets. The same treat in the kitchen is given to the woodcock ( the hunting queen ) , the roast loin and the goose ( spectacular and elegant when fi nished, leafy and served at the table).

The fi nal apotheosis comes with Baumkuchen, the tree cake, an artisan dessert made layer by layer in a special oven of approximately two and a half pounds and made with more than 70 eggs. Cut into slices of marble as if it were a carpaccio, it is served covered with hot chocolate, vanilla ice cream and cream, being one of the biggest claims in decades.

The extensive Horcher cellar is a true Madrid oenological treasure, and is the place where the wines from historic vintages rest, enriched with the explanation and wisdom of the sommelier Blas Benito, who is also responsible for the coordination between the dining room and the kitchen, thus being accurately spectacular.

A reference from yesterday, today and tomorrow

Thus, with the honesty of its emblematic stoves and devoted to a tradition unrelated to passing fashions, Horcher continues to be a timeless reference open to all who appreciate good food and simply want to feel special for a few hours. All of this with the guarantee that sitting at one of its tables is an authentic sensory pleasure where the diner is the protagonist of a beautiful work of art.

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Hotels & Fine Dining

CEO/Editor CARLA BRANCO Photos HORCHER Story #4 August 2020 www.restaurantehorcher.com