Berliner Meisterköche 2026 names Lode van Zuylen top chef

Berlin Partner named Lode van Zuylen of REMI as Berlin Master Chef 2026, the top award in a 30th-anniversary edition of the Berliner Meisterköche handed out at Tempelhof Airport.

The awards, run by the city's capital-marketing body Partner für Berlin, have tracked the restaurant scene since 1997. This year's seven categories went to chefs, a sommelier and one bar, chosen by an eleven-member jury co-chaired by Stefan Elfenbein and Tina Hüttl on criteria that include originality, service and overall experience.

Berliner Meisterköche 2026 winners

Rum Trader, open since 1976, is named Berlin's oldest privately run bar.

Van Zuylen takes Master Chef for REMI, his restaurant on Torstraße in the former Suhrkamp publishing building. The jury's citation points to a kitchen that runs ambitious cooking alongside simpler, everyday dishes, with van Zuylen doubling as host.

Rising Star of the Year goes to Tanadon "Don" Santanaviboon, 31, at Rram, also on Torstraße, for Thai royal and home-style cooking; the restaurant has run fully booked since it opened in late June, his fifth venture in the city.

Isabell Wendel, sommelier at the Michelin-starred Bricole in Prenzlauer Berg, takes the Berlin Host title. Saint Farah, run by Nadav Kundel and his cousin Gil Azrielan and named after Kundel's grandmother, wins Scene Restaurant for its mix of Levantine, Berlin and London references.

Rum Trader wins Bar Culture

Rum Trader takes Bar Culture. Run by Charlotte Fedtke and Sahand Zamani since 2019, the roughly 32-square-metre bar opened in 1976 and is listed by organisers as Berlin's oldest privately run bar still under private ownership.

Anja and Carsten Schmidt collect the Culinary Innovator award for three decades building the city's wine-shop and fine-dining network. Rutz, which they opened in 2001, is now Berlin's only three-Michelin-star restaurant, alongside Zollhaus and Schmidt Z&KO.

Governing Mayor Kai Wegner said innovation, creativity and sustainability stay central to the city's restaurants, and Senator Franziska Giffey said the awards have tracked who shapes Berlin's culinary diversity across three decades. Partner für Berlin chief executive Stefan Franzke called the list a record of "culinary excellence and entrepreneurial courage."

Past winners include Tim Raue, The Duc Ngo, Sebastian Frank and Sonja Frühsammer. Elsewhere in Germany's awards season, Martin Stopp was named the country's Chef of the Year 2026, and Berlin already holds three spots on Amuse's list of the city's best tables. Photos from the Tempelhof ceremony go up this week; nominations for 2027 open next year.