Cuisine Characteristics

Definitions of traditional Bavarian cuisine are likely to focus on the notion of heavy hearty fare, predominantly drawing upon the use of potatoes, meat, more meat, cheese, cabbage and wheat. And to some extent, such preconceptions are well founded. Bavarian food is food to nourish the soul, to sustain hefty farmers and provide warmth throughout the frozen winter months. It is most definitely not health orientated, quite literally the antithesis of vegetarianism, but wonderfully delicious.

Perhaps the most important ingredient in Bavarian cooking is pork, followed closely by potatoes. Beef, veal and chicken also feature heavily as does the use of eggs as a composite, particularly in deserts.

Often considered the sixth basic food group amongst Germanys, beer is also particularly important to the appreciation of the Bavarian dining experience. Even to those not particularly enamored to the taste of beer, the quality and variety is truly exceptional, the flavors delightfully unique and the experience pleasantly refreshing. Indeed, even to non beer drinkers, partaking in a beer with ones meal seems so completely natural in Southern Germany, a necessity even to assist and facilitate immersion into the culture of the region.

In recent years, there has been somewhat of a reinvention of Bavarian cuisine, much attributable to ---- Brenner