Pleasure on the river

In 2019, not only the Rhineland will be celebrating the composer Jacques Offenbach, born 200 years ago in Cologne, with numerous concerts, presentations and exhibitions. As part of its dinner trips in his home town, the KD is dedicating a very special event to him: a culinary-musical evening. On the 15th of October, on-board its elegant event ship MS RheinFantasie, the KD will welcome Jean-Marie Dumaine, one of the most well-known and most distinguished French chefs in Germany, who has turned his restaurant “Vieux Sinzig” into a popular meeting point for gourmets with his wild herbinspired culinary skills. The musical part of this extraordinary evening will be provided by the Rheinische Solisten Köln. Four instrumentalists and a singer present well-known Offenbach melodies such as “Barcarole” from “Hoffmanns Erzählungen” or the “Can Can” from “Orpheus in der Unterwelt”, but also invite guests to enjoy new discoveries. An additional highlight: the musicians’ authentic historical robes.

A series of top chefs

Jean-Marie Dumaine is not the only new addition to the ranks of top chefs who will be presenting themselves and their culinary skills on KD ships throughout the season. Jaspreet Dhaliwal-Wilmes, one of the shooting stars of the Cologne gastronomic scene, will also be on-board for the first time. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger celebrated his restaurant “Der vierte König” as the new opening of the year in 2017 and gourmet magazine Falstaff also attested to the Indian chef ’s unusual and very special signature. By the way, he learned the art of cooking from Jean-Marie Dumaine, among others, and much of what Dhaliwal-Wilmes saw in “Vieux Sinzig” can be found today in his own interpretation of French cuisine. With a great sense for detail, he combines this with the aromas of his Indian homeland, thus creating a unique culinary experience.

On the 3rd of December, he will be cooking on-board the MS RheinFantasie for the first time, thus joining an illustrious group of “temporary ship chefs”, some of whom have already participated in the dinner cruises multiple times. The group is led by Hans Stefan Steinheuer, a two Michelin star chef from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. He has been a dinner trip chef from the very beginning and retains his role as the darling of the public with his classically straightforward, regionally and seasonally finely tuned creations. He will be on-board twice in 2019. Dates, further information and tickets at www.k-d.com.

Following his sold-out premiere in the 2018 season, star chef Daniel Gottschlich from Cologne’s “Ox & Klee” is returning to the ship, and his Michelin star colleagues Jan Cornelius Maier and Tobias Becker, whose restaurant “maiBeck” in Cologne’s Old Town is within sight of the KD jetty, are also familiar faces again in 2019. The Cologne dinner cruise ensemble will be roun-ded off with Philipp Wolter and Olaf Baumeister, also no strangers to the Cologne gourmet public. Philipp Wolter, with one Michelin star, has been chef at the Phoenix Restaurant in Düsseldorf for almost three years and will be cooking on the ship for the third time − just like Olaf Baumeister, a busy top-class TV chef with his own restaurant and hotel in Sundern in the Sauerland region.

Even more pleasure in Düsseldorf

And there’s more! Since last year, the dinner trips have also been held in Düsseldorf, where they were a resounding success right from the start. So, it comes as no surprise that the gourmet format is returning in 2019, and that the KD is expanding its range for connoisseurs from Düsseldorf and the surrounding area. Like Philipp Wolter, Holger Berens, head of “Berens am Kai”, is playing a home game in Düsseldorf, and the home kitchen of star chef Erika Bergheim in Essen’s Schlosshotel Hugenpoet is not too far away either. But this proximity is not the reason why the three top chefs are happy to be on-board again for the 2019 edition of the Düsseldorf dinner trips. Rather, they are convinced by the concept and the opportunity to cook for a different audience on-board than in their own restaurant. The Düsseldorf dinner cruise line-up was not yet complete as of the editorial deadline. More dates in 2019 with more chefs and more tickets than in the premiere season 2018 are set. Updates on who will be cooking what and when can be read daily at www.k-d.com, where the coveted tickets are also available for Düsseldorf and Cologne.