Tim Raue: Star chef was rarely given warm food as a child

TV chef Tim Raue (50) did it. Growing up in the problem district of Berlin-Kreuzberg, he managed to climb the social ladder thanks to his passion for cooking and has been considered one of the best chefs in Germany for many years. But his path there was quite rocky; His membership in a notorious Berlin street gang could have almost put him on the wrong track. “I come from a very simple background in the district of Berlin that is still a social hotspot today,” explains Tim Raue.

On the sidelines of the presentation of the Neudorff company’s new self-sufficiency kit with seasonal seeds and tools for growing in the garden or on the balcony, Raue spoke about how he wasn’t at all up to speed with his culinary skills as a child. Quite the opposite: “As a child, I actually wasn’t lucky enough to get food on a regular basis. I also rarely got warm food.” If there had been something for him in the after-school care center, it wouldn’t have been sensible nutrition, but at best “cheap general food.”

Tim Raue calls for more focus on healthy eating

This is something that we as a society should improve in his eyes. You have to understand that the length of your life is absolutely linked to what you eat, explains the award-winning star chef. It couldn’t be good to “give our children food for 1.70 euros a day.” You have to invest there. It wasn’t until much later in his life that he realized: “The latest Nike sneakers don’t make me eat any better. But if I eat healthily, I feel much better.”

For Tim Raue, an ideal and healthy diet primarily includes seasonal and regional vegetables and of course his beloved herbs, as he emphasizes – but little meat: “For me, vegetables are more than equal.” He has also had a vegan menu in his restaurants for five years – and it’s a lot of fun to work with it. “The difficulty with vegetables and especially with vegan and vegetarian cuisine is that we grew up in a society in which meat was held in the highest regard because it was the most expensive thing.” He himself tries to eat a vegan diet at least two to three days a week, “because I notice that I am more productive on the days after.”

And he demonstrated to the influencers present at the Neudorff event that a plant-based diet doesn’t have to be boring with a tasting in which he created some dishes using the vegetables from the self-catering kit. For example tomatoes with passion fruit and black pepper or fennel with Japanese rice vinegar, pear and Parmesan.

Tim Raue doesn’t want to eat 100 percent vegan

However, Raue rejects a complete change: “We shouldn’t eat a 100 percent vegan diet, our human bodies aren’t made for that either.” He is also sometimes annoyed by the professorial nature of many vegans: “It’s always a blessing and a curse when you live in a big city, because every trend is tweaked up and down.” Berlin-Mitte is the epicenter: “The overall attitude, the language, the raised finger, that gets on my nerves extremely. I don’t think it’s cool.” You should approach the matter in a more “normal” way and it should also be taught at school that many things in the supermarket are “industrial dirt”: “You don’t have to eat that!” You have to get a feeling for good nutrition.

Incidentally, his wife, the journalist Katharina Wolschner, doesn’t surprise Tim Raue when it comes to culinary delights: “The only thing we will definitely never do together is cook.” He is not a socially compatible creature in the kitchen: “I immediately stand up and say: ‘Frying pan, butter, come on! Plate up, bang, bang, bang! Prepare the fish! Have you set the steamer to 80 degrees?’ And then she stands there and says, ‘No’.” That’s why it’s much more relaxing for him and his wife to go out to eat together and spend time together: “We really, really like to drink very good wine. We really, really like to eat very good food.”