Birthday bash
Joanna Pruess reports.
| More 'Front Burner' articles in this issue |
| Bonbons in Brittany |
| Brain food |
| The insider's Paris |
| Nonna knows best |
| Gemütlich and gourmet |
Berlin—A recent trip to Berlin for a friend's birthday coincided with the centennial celebration of KaDeWe, or Kaufhaus des Westens, the tony department store (pronounced kah-day-vay) in Wittenberg Platz. Like many foodies, I was eager to visit the store's legendary sixth floor food halls, where 33,000 gourmet products are displayed in the 75,000 square foot space. According to Norbert Könnecke, the floor's manager, these are the largest food halls in Europe and, globally, second only to Tokyo's Takashimaya in size. Harrods, with whom it is frequently compared, is about 6,000 square feet smaller and sells fewer items, he adds.
Kaufhaus des Westens (Department Store of the West) was opened by Adolf Jandorf on March 27, 1907. From the beginning, the store sold only high quality merchandise to a clientele that still includes kings and commoners with discriminating taste. Although virtually leveled during World War II, the store reopened in 1950. In 1956, the entire sixth floor was given over to food. The space was again remodeled and expanded between 1991 and 1996 to include the seventh floor kitchens. Today, the multinational staff of 500 includes 150 chefs and confectioners.
The enormous range of foods includes farm-raised chickens from Maine, Ben & Jerry's ice creams, and a slew of regional salsas and chips. Well-known French food companies like Fauchon, Hediard, and Rougié are also some of KaDeWe's gastronomic partners; and each week a 20 ton truck delivers fresh and exotic products directly from Rungis, the enormous market near Paris. It might bear chanterelles from Morocco; beans from Senegal; exotic fish from Hawaii, the Seychelles, or Mozambique; oysters from Brittany; cheese from Normandy; or the famous poulets de Bresse.
There are 1,300 cheeses; 1,200 varieties of sausages, bacon, and ham; 100 different types of mustard; and some 120 vinegars. Game fanciers can buy recently shot deer, stag, wild boar, rabbit, elk or reindeer, wild duck, pheasant, quail, and partridge in season.
KaDeWe's extensive seafood department includes colorful exotic fish such as bourgeois, croissant, and parrot fish from the Seychelles; fresh sea urchins; spider crabs; oysters; mussels; crayfish; langoustines; lobster tails; crabs; and shrimps.
In the voluminous greengrocer's section, it was the season for spargel, or fresh asparagus, and an entire showcase was given over to the prized white spears favored by Europeans, with a narrow border of green asparagus framing the sides.
The bread counters offer over 400 different loaves, many from large bakeries but also some from small ones that supply KaDeWe almost exclusively. One counter is signed "Lenôtre," where, in 1978, the famed Parisian baker set up his first shop outside of Paris. For this venture, all the production techniques were imported to Berlin. French bakers and confectioners gave lessons to German colleagues, and flour and other ingredients are still being imported from France.
The first time Gaston Lenôtre tried one of the Berlin-made baguettes, he said, "Dammit, this is better than the ones in my own shops in Paris."
Customer shopping trips average two and a half to three hours, with a large percent of shoppers returning several times a week, often stopping at one of 33 eating stands and bars with over 1,000 seats.
These nooks include the Paul Bocuse gourmet bar—where dishes are prepared à la minute from the chef's recipes—a sushi bar, and an oyster bar. Shoppers can also buy several beers or sip one of the 120,000 glasses of Champagne or 200,000 glasses of sparkling wine consumed here each year. Of the store's total food sales last year, the on-site eating program accounts for at least 20 percent. The food halls generate between 20 and 25 percent of the store's revenue.
