Sternekoch René Frank trägt ein graues Hemd und zeigt sich im Halbprofil

Michelin-starred
pastry chef

René Frank is one of the most renowned pastry chefs internationally. His impressive CV speaks for itself: after working in kitchens in Spain, France, Japan, the USA, and Switzerland, René became head pastry chef at the Osnabrück restaurant, la vie, which received its third Michelin star during his time there. He has held the title of “Pastry Chef of the Year” four times (2013, 2016, 2019, 2020), awarded by Gault & Millau and Rolling Pin, among others. In 2022, he was named “World's Best Pastry Chef 2022” from “The World's 50 Best Restaurants”.

RENE-FRANK.DE

Throughout his career, René always remained true to himself and his passions. He has always aimed to work progressively, experiment, and think outside the box with his desserts. René is always on the lookout for the best possible natural flavours, a reminder of his childhood. In his family, there was always a lot of cooking and baking, especially with his grandmother. In the family gardens, he remembers carrots and blackberries with intense, aromatic flavour. It is his mission to bring unforgettable moments of pleasure and emotion to his dishes.

As chef and co-owner, René opened CODA in Berlin in 2016 together with his business partner Oliver Bischoff, entering completely new territory: CODA's dessert fine dining concept is unique and the team's outstanding culinary skills were awarded with a first Michelin star in 2019 and two Michelin stars in 2020.

Patisserie
rethought

René Frank demonstrates with every single dessert that modern pastry deserves more presence in the culinary world than just a final menu course. The conventional fine-dining finale is given a new raison d'être at CODA where it takes centre stage.

This trend-setting understanding of dessert is made possible by the greatly reduced use of sugar. The amounts of milk, cream and butter used in traditional desserts are also avoided. CODA rethinks pastry: different ingredients, unusual flavours, exciting textures, and light and digestible combinations that are pleasantly sweet but never too sugary.

Koch hält eine silberne Schüssel und Kochlöffel mit flüssiger Schokolade

verarbeitete Reisekörner liegen in einem Block ausgebreitet auf einem gestreiftem Küchenhandtuch

Refinement
without refined sugar

While refined sugar is common in classic pastry, star chef René Frank relies exclusively on all-natural sweetness. This means that instead of adding artificial sugar to the dishes, he only uses products that already have a certain natural sweetness which can be finetuned and emphasised. And there are more of them than you might think: corn, beetroot, carrots, fermented rice – the list goes on. At CODA, products are worked with using modern techniques that extract the natural sugar content for optimal use.

The result is progressive desserts: light, aromatically complex and significantly lower in calories than their traditional relatives, and made from high-quality, organic and sustainable products. Each course captivates with a balanced interplay of complex flavour accents and the surprising coexistence of all five flavour profiles - umami, salty, sour, bitter, and balanced with sweet.

Fine dining
for the future

CODA aims to keep growing and evolving its philosophy. There are still endless possibilities to be discovered in the world of pastry and dessert. CODA hopes to keep discovering new complexity and further sustainably developing its menu which is already mostly vegetarian. With an eye to the future, there may be new ways to inspire sustainable creativity within fine dining.

An example is CODA’s “bean to plate” philosophy in which only cocoa beans grown under sustainable, fair-trade conditions are used. A stone roller is used to make chocolate from scratch inspired by the “bean-to-bar” concept. Let’s see what new ideas follow next …