He rumbles. He grumbles. He swears. This is Tim Mälzer, it’s part of his image at Kitchen Impossible. Recently, however, the chef has shown a different, more gentle side. After his trip to the birthplace of his foster father Gennaro Contaldo in the previous episode, this time it’s top chef Thomas Bühner who softens the maltster’s heart. Both of the tasks that he sets for the master of the cooking show are – if you look more closely – gifts. Mälzer has rarely been seen as happy as in this issue, but he has cooked better before.
After several attempts to get Thomas Bühner to join Kitchen Impossible, it finally worked out in Season 8. A competitor for maltsters who has washed up. He describes Bühner as the “foundation of top German cuisine”. As head chef at La Table in Dortmund, Bühner earned two Michelin stars, and later he managed the La vie restaurant in Osnabrück, which was decorated with three Michelin stars. The chef now works as a speaker and concept consultant around the world. In spring 2023, the restaurant La vie by Thomas Bühner is also scheduled to open in Taipei, Taiwan.
In Zurich, Switzerland, Thomas Bühner visits Elif Oskan at Restaurant Gül. There he can try his hand at modern interpretations of Turkish cuisine: Marküs Bayildi, egg salad and cigköfte
Tim Mälzer is allowed to go to the territory of the rich and beautiful – the Spanish Marbella. There he can cook the favorite dish of the German national soccer team: Sucuk Pasta and Protein Power Cake by Anton Schmaus.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Thomas Bühner has to try his hand at Vietnamese street food and at Nguyen thi bích lien, bring the dish Bánh canh ghe into the bowls.
In Italy in Gardone Riviera, Tim Mälzer goes into the kitchen of Riccardo Camanini and cooks Cacio e pepe in the bubble.
Tim Mälzer knows Thomas Bühner well and knows about his Achilles heel. Bühner has traveled almost all of Asia, but he hasn’t been to Vietnam yet. That’s exactly where Mälzer lets the top chef cook street food, but not in a restaurant kitchen. The original chef prepares the one-pot dish low to the ground and crouching. Bühner is stunned when he understands this. “When disappointment turns into horror,” comments the chef, Mälzer laughs up his sleeve. But even far away from his comfort zone, Bühner knows how to help himself and in the end even cooks his way into the hearts of the hosts.
Tim Mälzer is a huge soccer fan. When he understands the gift Thomas Bühner gave him with the task he was given, he is visibly touched. In Marbella he meets the German national team. There he completes a training session and then, with his swimming trunks draped in a camera-friendly thong-like manner, does an ass bomb in the water pool – unfortunately into the ice pool, as Mälzer painfully finds out. When he cooks for some of the national players like Serge Gnabry and Julian Brandt, the man from Hamburg doesn’t let his good mood spoil and he doesn’t work driven by ambition. “Today I was in the inner circle of the German national team. That was my golden Bravo Otto today,” a honey cake horse named Mälzer summarized the task afterwards. With this edition they wrote television history, says Mälzer. Rarely has the chef at Kitchen Impossible been so happy
Bühner sends maltsters to Italy and he is surprised, because the Hamburgers can and understand Italian cuisine. Especially since he is supposed to cook pasta cacio e pepe, a very simple dish. However, when he meets original chef Riccardo Camanini and learns that the restaurant he’s in, Lido 84, is currently ranked 8th in the top 50 restaurants in the world, even the vape chatter loses his tongue. “And I’m a dick, ignorant, arrogant, full asshole post, think I’m here in such a small pizza booth. Well, and then I shit myself,” says Mälzer. The dress rehearsal of preparing the pasta in the bladder is a success right away. When things get serious, the Hamburger doesn’t burst his collar, but unfortunately bubble after bubble and he starts to skid. At the end, an impressed maltster states: “Chapeau, Thomas Bühner. You understood Kitchen Impossible even better than I did.”
Love is when Tim Mälzer meets Thomas Bühner. While Mälzer usually bombards his competition with trash talk before things really get going, he almost practices minnesang with Bühner. “Bühner really isn’t an air pump. It rams me straight into the ground, no question about it,” says Mälzer. Bühner is not only a virtuoso at the stove, but also convinces with his humanity. The respect for the top chef is palpable. In this episode there is unusually little blustering and scolding, Mälzer seems almost inspired. A side you rarely see of him at Kitchen Impossible.
Mister Kitchen Impossible won the first two cooking matches of the new season. But he didn’t get to number three. Bühner wins at his premiere in the cooking show. The top chef was once even given 10 points by the jury – more is not possible. Then even a maltster turns from a big mouth to a small mouth.
The eighth season of Kitchen Impossible started on February 12th and will be shown on Vox every Sunday from 8:15 p.m. This and later all other episodes of “Kitchen Impossible” can be streamed on RTL.
