Steffen Henssler is one of the most popular TV chefs in Germany. The professional behind the stove, who celebrates his 50th birthday on September 27, completed two important positions as a chef before he discovered working in front of the camera.
Henssler was born in Neuenbürg in the Black Forest in 1972, but grew up in Pinneberg. When he was still a child, after the death of his mother, he moved to Hamburg to live with his father, who worked as a restaurateur there. His mother’s cancer showed him “how quickly life can be over,” he told “Stern” in 2017. “Maybe that’s why I live so much according to the motto: Carpe diem, seize the day. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I have this greed for life.”
After high school, he completed a cookery course in North Friesland, which he named in the “Stern” interview as the basis for his later success. “I developed a certain toughness back then. Also because of my private experiences. Not much could frighten me anymore.”
On a trip to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Henssler discovered his passion for sushi and subsequently attended a sushi academy there. He financed his training with Japanese masters by winning the lottery (around 43,000 Deutschmarks) and, after graduating as a sushi master, brought his experience of Japanese and Californian cuisine back home with him.
In 2001 he opened the restaurant “Henssler” together with his father
From 2013, Henssler showed his skills again on VOX: In the popular show “Grill den Henssler”, a revised version of “Die Kocharena”, Henssler competed against a number of celebrities who received support from professional chefs by acclamation. As a restaurateur and long-established “Hamburger Jung” he remained just as active and opened his second restaurant “Ono by Steffen Henssler” in Hamburg. A cooking school followed in 2015, his third restaurant “Ahoi” in 2017 and his fourth Hamburg restaurant “Henssler Go” in 2018.
Henssler left “Grill den Henssler” in 2017, but returned in 2019 to the delight of fans after he used the break to compete against candidates in various challenges on ProSieben in “Schlag den Henssler”. In February 2020, Henssler took on a moderation job again: he led through the RTL cooking quiz show “Henssler’s Countdown – Cooking at the Limit”. In 2022, the “Family Cooking Duel” followed on ARD and later on NDR, in which families compete in a cooking competition for a week.
Henssler also creates special TV moments with his Hamburg “rival” Tim Mälzer. “It always gives the impression that we don’t like each other because we never miss an opportunity to talk badly about each other, but we do it out of friendly respect,” explained Mälzer 2020 in an interview with spot on news. On the one hand, the two fought a cooking duel in Mälzer’s “Kitchen Impossible” in 2020, on the other hand they have had the joint show “Mälzer and Henssler deliver!” since 2021.
In the format, they have to prove themselves independently in a pop-up delivery service and collect star ratings for their creations from customers. In an interview with the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”, Henssler, who is known for his ambition, explained the special duels with Mälzer: “The bad thing is: if you lose against Mälzer, he never forgets. You have something of that for years because he always tells you back onto your bread. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve won in between.”
Viewers can look forward to five new episodes of “Grill den Henssler” this fall. Does the TV chef still have dreams? Henssler, who is also successful as a cookbook author and with his own tour programs, explained to “Stern”: “The thing is: if I dream of something, then I usually just do it.”
