Restaurant for anorexics
May 05, 2005
Sehnsucht, (means longing in German) is the name of a Berlin restaurant for anorexics. Owner Katja Eichbaum, formely anorexic, started this project with private funding (only her father would lend her money) as a therapy for her own condition. The chef is anorexic as are several members of staff. Sehnsucht's menu items have names that don't include words for food to avoid confronting anorexics with the fact that they are about to eat. 'Hallo' (lobster bisque), 'Pirate's Eye' (2 fishfingers and a fried egg), and 'Heissehunger' (ravenous hunger = rack of lamb) are all dishes that non-anorexics might order in 'normal' restaurants. But one item on the menu consists simply of a fork, knife, and an empty plate. It is titled 'Thieves Platter' and facilitates the anorexic diner to steal (or share) from those dining with her.
As expected the restaurant has received a huge amount of international publicity. And although I have not yet eaten at there, relying solely on restaurant reviews to inform myself, if Sehnsucht is an attempt to create a location for anorexia patients in the guise of a regular restaurant for the people that love them, it is also a wasted opportunity.
Why not revel in anorexia? Why not serve food items so refined and 'stretched' like anorexics themselves create on the spot each night at the family dinner table? Anorexics are master chefs and food stylists when placed in the harsh context of the family; hardboiled eggs with the yolks surgically removed, crackers deconstructed so that their total surface area has been increased twenty-fold, slices of bread with each visible grain extracted and displayed on the edge of the plate, utterly dissected broccoli. I say this without having seen Sehnsucht's menu but hope sincerely that it is not just another do-gooder resto in which the real food on the menu functions only to lure the paying and eating guests.
debra at 08:38 AM May 5, 2005 | post to del.icio.us
Comments
Hi,
I found your information on this restaurant very interesting and wondered if you had an address for it?
Thanks a lot,
Xav
posted by Xav at December 16, 2005 05:08 PM
Dear Xav,
Thank you for your email. ALthough I have never eaten at SehnSucht, I hope to in February 2006. I looked up an address for it that seems a likely address to work.
Sehnsucht
Stadtteil: Tiergarten
Adresse: Dortmunder Straße 12, 10555 Berlin
Telefon: 030 / 39 95 266
Öffnungszeiten: tägl. 9-23 Uhr
Hopefully this will get you there. I just tried calling but couldn't get through, this can mean everything and nothing.
If you're calling internationally, dial:
00 49 then 30 3995 266
Good luck - let me know how it is!
Funny, because of you comment/mail, I realise that a lot of 'reviews' don't have addresses and telephone numbers. I'll start adding these essential forthwith.
Thanks once again,
Debra Solomon
posted by Debra at December 16, 2005 07:02 PM
I was also wondering if you had the adress to this place? I would really apreciate it if you could send me the adress.
-Thank-you
posted by Anna at January 25, 2006 05:56 PM
And by Anna, do you mean Ana?
posted by Debra at April 17, 2006 12:33 PM
