With his grill workshop, Sven Schurig offers seminars for ambitious amateur grillers and chefs. The quality and sustainability of the products he uses are his top priority.
"Happy people produce, serve, and act together in respectfully sustainable harmony with flora, fauna & planet for a good present and a secure future for subsequent generations."
Sven
Schurig
Interview
Why did you become a grill master &
meat sommelier?
"The magic of fire and the great pleasure one experiences with it has been one of my strongest emotions since childhood. The profession of meat sommelier is a foundation for my creativity. You have to know your stuff to deliver exceptional performance. Moreover, people have been gathering around fire for thousands of years, enjoying themselves together. This creates a future of shared enjoyment and, for me, must also make qualitative and sustainable sense. So it was, so to speak, a logical consequence to develop a passion that delves deeper into these topics and reflects my personal sense of values."
What is the best part of your job?
"That people come together, all with one goal: delicious food and getting to know each other. It's incredibly exciting to quickly discover the human values of the person opposite me. If that's topped off with happiness in the eyes of my guests, who then become repeat offenders, I'm proud of my day's work."
How important is sustainability to you as a
meat sommelier?
"That is a basic condition, because without this demand, you disappear into the mass of those who don't care, and then we're back to those who just want cheap and end up throwing away what was too much. I can't deal with that at all and it makes my pulse race. Sustainability requires serious and goal-oriented planning right up to the finish. This includes resource conservation, seasonality and the mindful provenance of my ingredients."
What does respect for food mean to you?
"Food is a basis of my work. If I use inferior products, I automatically desecrate my own work, because the end result simply cannot be as good as with optimal products. Therefore, I ask those searching the internet who only want the cheapest price to please surf on. I'm not available for that kind of thing."
Which Nesmuk knife is your favorite and why?
I love them so much, that's why I have almost all of them.
Why are good tools so important in your profession?
"For me, it's about holism. If I have high standards for my ingredients, then everything else must also be perfect. From the food itself, to the grill, to the knife."
Where do you get your inspiration from?
"Firstly, my wife inspires me, and of course our children. My wife is an incredibly creative and multifaceted personality who constantly surprises me. That motivates me, and she also gives me the necessary peace to develop new things. Furthermore, nature itself inspires me, and being able to do what I've wanted to do since childhood. If I can't be at a grill somewhere, I get nervous, but my wife always calms me down then."
What makes Nesmuk knives different from others you've worked with before?
"I think it's the overall handling, because I come from Lusatia and there a word is a word. No fuss, just a clear statement, just like Nesmuk knives. What I want to cut is cut, no ifs, ands, or buts. It feels great! Moreover, working with these handcrafted masterpieces is a joy, because my mood instantly improves when I unroll my knife bag and my friends, transformed into steel, smile at me. Then I know, the day is my friend.
A quick story: I was once booked for BBQ catering in a wonderful outdoor kitchen and was told not to bring anything except myself and my chef's jacket. Awesome setup with an outdoor pool and a top grill brand, which I also represent. But the knives were a horror. That won't happen to me again! I only work with Nesmuk! So much for the difference."
Fire, Taste
Passion
Sven Schurig, CHEF-GRILLEUR of upscale NEW BBQ with a diploma as a meat sommelier, publishes his BBQ specialist book "FEUER – GESCHMACK- LEIDENSCHAFT" (FIRE - TASTE - PASSION) through Randomhouse - Südwest Verlag in Munich, a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann Group, known for specialist literature. In it, he sets standards for aspiring grill masters, provides advice, and reveals his delicious recipes across 176 pages, complete with appetizing pictures of concentrated Saxon power at an international level. The native of Lusatia always relies on indispensable quality, which was already vital for him in his learned profession as a power plant mechanic, and which he also expresses in his precious NESMUK knives.
These demands quickly become apparent when one discovers the variety of different recipes and perspectives for oneself. In it, he also reflects absolute respect for food and puts the appreciation of life enjoyably first. Even as an omnivore, this is not a contradiction for him, as this book profoundly demonstrates.
A MUST-HAVE for anyone who owns a grill, intends to give one of these steel species a home, and also wants to rely on the high quality of NESMUK.
Available at committed specialist retailers and at
www.grillwerkstatt-schurig.de