AURA & ANIMA : Alexander Herrmann & Tobias Batz 英語併記

In the small town of Wirsberg in Franconia, southern Germany, lies the two-Michelin-starred restaurant AURA.

Led by Alexander Herrmann and Tobias Bätz, the restaurant follows the philosophy of “#grenzenloseHEIMAT” (“Limitless Home”), connecting regional ingredients and traditional preservation and processing techniques with contemporary gastronomy.

At the heart of AURA is ANIMA, an adjoining facility conceived as the restaurant’s Future Lab.

AURA works with more than 80 farmers and producers from the surrounding region. Rather than simply using many of these ingredients as they arrive, they are first processed at ANIMA through techniques such as fermentation, pickling, and drying. This not only preserves seasonal ingredients but also allows time to develop new flavours and aromas before they are incorporated back into AURA’s cuisine beyond their original season.

Around 80 percent of the ingredients served to guests have already undergone some form of processing.

Approximately 150 different ingredients are stored at ANIMA, and the restaurant’s menus are developed over several weeks using this collection of preserved and transformed ingredients as their starting point.

This book explores the distinctive gastronomy created through the close relationship between AURA and ANIMA, presenting more than 50 recipes.

It follows the journey of ingredients from local farms to ANIMA, examining how they are transformed and how those products are then developed through ideas and techniques into finished dishes. Alongside the final compositions, the book also looks in detail at the processes that precede them, including fermentation, preservation, drying, and other methods of transformation.

Rather than simply focusing on the use of local ingredients, AURA seeks to preserve, transform, and give new value to what the region provides, creating flavours that could only emerge from the landscape of Franconia.

Going beyond the conventional idea of Farm to Table, this 512-page volume explores the cuisine and philosophy of AURA & ANIMA, where ingredients, producers, preservation techniques, time, and the restaurant itself form part of a single interconnected cycle.