🇩🇪 Germany · German cuisine · b. 1974
Berlin's most distinctive fine-dining chef — a former Kreuzberg gang member whose two-star Restaurant Tim Raue redefined Asian-inflected European cuisine.
Tim Raue is a German chef and the chef-patron of Restaurant Tim Raue, a two-Michelin-star establishment on Rudi-Dutschke-Straße in Berlin-Kreuzberg, ranked among The World's 50 Best Restaurants every year from 2014 to 2022 (peaking at No. 34 in 2019). His cooking — which he describes as 'Asian-inspired without being Asian' — draws principally on the spice palettes of Sichuan, Thailand and Japan, applied to European luxury ingredients with the precision of classical French haute cuisine, and served entirely without bread, butter, sugar or starch as side dishes.
Raue's biography is one of the most unusual in European fine dining. Born in West Berlin in 1974, he grew up in Kreuzberg in conditions he has repeatedly described as defined by his father's violence and the family's poverty; from the age of 13 he was a member of the 36 Boys, a Turkish-German street gang that dominated his neighbourhood in the late 1980s. He began a restaurant apprenticeship at age 16 at the Berlin hotel Inter-Continental, principally to escape his father, and worked through the kitchens of Rockendorf's Restaurant and Restaurant Bamberger Reiter — the latter under the demanding tutelage of Franz Raneburger — before being appointed head chef at the age of 24 at the E.T.A. Hoffmann restaurant in 1998.
His breakthrough came at Restaurant 44 in the Swissôtel on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm, where he was head chef from 2003, and especially at Ma Tim Raue in the Hotel Adlon Kempinski (2007–2010), where he developed the Asian-European style that would become his signature and won his first Michelin star. In July 2010, with his then-wife Marie-Anne Raue as restaurant manager, he opened Restaurant Tim Raue in the former Berlin Wall checkpoint area of Kreuzberg. It earned its first Michelin star in November 2011 — eleven months after opening — and its second in November 2012. It has held two stars uninterrupted since. The Tim Raue group now includes the casual Asian La Soupe Populaire (Prenzlauer Berg, until 2018), Studio Tim Raue (a Tokyo-inspired private dining room), and consulting work for hotels and the German national rail catering brand. Raue has appeared as a judge on the German seasons of The Taste, Kitchen Impossible (host since 2017) and MasterChef, and is widely considered the most publicly recognisable fine-dining chef in modern Germany.
No bread, no butter, no garnishes. Raue's menu has no side dishes and no bread basket. Each plate is composed of three or four elements organised on the principles of Cantonese 'spiciness, sourness, sweetness' — and built from the spice grammars of Sichuan, Thai and Japanese cuisine applied to French and German luxury produce. He often says the kitchen serves 'no comfort, only clarity.'
Two Michelin stars since 2012; chef-patron since opening in July 2010. Ranked among The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2014–2022.
Private dining room adjacent to the main restaurant, opened 2017; Tokyo-inflected omakase format.
Three classic French brasseries in partnership with the Maximilian Group; opened from 2016.
His Michelin-starred Asian-fusion restaurant inside the Adlon; the prototype for the current Tim Raue style.
Earned his first Michelin star here at the age of 32.
These recipes from our database reflect the german cooking tradition that Tim works in. They are not direct reproductions of Tim's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
“I cook the way I think — without compromise, without filler, without sugar.”
— Süddeutsche Zeitung interview (2015)
“I do not serve bread because bread is the laziness of the chef.”
— Restaurant Tim Raue menu introduction
At age 16, begins his cooking apprenticeship at the Hotel Inter-Continental Berlin.
Appointed head chef at E.T.A. Hoffmann in Berlin at the age of 24.
Becomes head chef at Restaurant 44 in the Swissôtel Berlin; earns his first Michelin star four years later.
Opens Ma Tim Raue at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski; named Gault Millau Chef of the Year.
Opens Restaurant Tim Raue in Berlin-Kreuzberg in July, with his then-wife Marie-Anne as restaurant manager.
Restaurant Tim Raue earns its first Michelin star, eleven months after opening.
Restaurant Tim Raue earns its second Michelin star.
Enters The World's 50 Best Restaurants for the first time.
Becomes host of the German version of Kitchen Impossible on VOX.
Awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (Federal Cross of Merit) of Germany.
Yes. Raue has spoken and written extensively about his teenage years in the 36 Boys, a Turkish-German street gang in West Berlin's Kreuzberg in the late 1980s. He has said his cooking apprenticeship at age 16 was principally a means of escape from both the gang and his violent father. His 2017 autobiography Ich weiß, was Hunger ist (I Know What Hunger Is) describes the period in detail.
Raue describes his cuisine as 'Asian-inspired without being Asian.' The kitchen draws principally on the spice palettes of Sichuan, Thailand and Japan, applied to European luxury ingredients (langoustine, foie gras, Wagyu, Imperial caviar) using classical French technique. Famously, the restaurant serves no bread, butter, sugar or starch side dishes.
Restaurant Tim Raue has held two Michelin stars continuously since the November 2012 Michelin Guide Deutschland, when it received its second star eighteen months after opening.
Beyond the flagship in Kreuzberg, the group includes the private dining room Studio Tim Raue, three Brasserie Colette Tim Raue locations in Berlin, Munich and Konstanz (a classic French brasserie partnership), and various consulting projects including a long-running collaboration with Deutsche Bahn on its first-class on-board catering.
Yes — as of 2026 he remains the principal host of Kitchen Impossible on VOX, a position he has held since 2017. The format pits two German fine-dining chefs against one another in unfamiliar kitchens around the world.
Read more on Wikipedia