New Deli in Town

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MUNICH: Steffi Thatenhorst is the founder and owner of Occam Deli, a new restaurant hot spot in Munich. The Occam Deli is more a deli than a restaurant because one can also buy specially chosen food products like for example the homemade granola and jam and sea salt by Maldon. You could buy all this and take it home to prepare your own meal, even at midnight when all the supermarkets in the city are already closed. Not that you would like to do that once you have eaten at Occam Deli. The menu consists of different small dishes, which come with fresh spices, vegetables, nuts and the finest meat & daily fresh fish.

The atmosphere is cool and simple as Steffi is also responsible for the interior design of Occam Deli. Lots of light, grey-washed walls, fine details and of course shelves and a large table at the entrance packed with lovely products in beautiful packaging and homemade cakes.

I like the idea that Steffi mixes her talents as a food connoisseuse and restaurateur with her skill for designing interiors for shops and restaurants. Her sensitivity for design and restaurant concepts made me curious to talk to her.

What do you like about food?
That you can get any type of food from around the world in most places. I love exploring different tastes and find it very exciting.

In which environment do you feel most comfortable when eating a meal?

In any nice restaurant (the interior is very important!). Sadly not in ours, because I just can’t let go.

When is a good time to think about what to cook?
I only cook when I am alone with the boys. I think about it on the way home after I picked them up from kindergarten. The other days (especially weekends) my husband cooks, I can’t match his skills.

Your favorite smell of a dish?
Fried onions in oil. So simple, I love it!

What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Nothing, except a coffee! I know, that’s really bad but weekdays I can’t enjoy breakfast because with our two little boys we are always in a rush in the morning.

Desserts: Ice cream, cake or sweets?
Definitely sweets, especially chocolate, can’t survive without!!!

What do you cook for your children?
Pasta, what else. Quick, easy and yummy.

A place in the world you would like to dine?
Noma, Copenhagen. Still no chance that you get in.

Finally a handsome deli in Munich – how did you come up with the idea?
I’ve been dreaming about it for years. Every time we travelled to New York I said to my husband, “I would love to run one of those delis in Munich!”

Your favorite herbs and spices?

Cinnamon, coriander

Your most liked colour on the wall at the moment?
Grey in any shade

Where do you look for inspiration when thinking about composing an interior?
In the Italian “Elle Deco” and “Milk”. The best interior magazines you can get!

What is your favorite cook book?

“What Katie Ate” by Katie Quinn Davies

If you had to prepare a meal with only five ingredients, what would that be?
Pasta, tomato sugo (of course the fresh pappardelle and the sugo we sell at the deli), burrata, Maldon sea salt, fresh basil

How do you go about finding new food products for your deli?
It’s Very different. We tasted our Maldon Sea Salt for example in London and brought it home. Our olive oil is produced by a friend of ours. I fell in love with the beautiful black bottle straight away. Lucky that it also tastes delicious! Our teas are from an organic manufacture from Lake Chiemsee, where I was born. The owners are family friends. The tomato sugo we found on our last holiday in Italy, it’s almost one hundred percent made out of cherry tomatoes and it’s a great base for any sauce and again I love the bottle. There is a little story behind almost every product.

Where do you get your inspiration from when starting to think about an interior concept?
City trips! Recently to Copenhagen and London.

Is your husband a good cook?

The best!

Third picture from the top right shows Steffi working hard at the Occam Deli. A great mixture of dining and wining atmospheres with shelves showing the food products you can buy from the shop
Third picture from the top right shows Steffi working hard at the Occam Deli. A great mixture of dining and wining atmospheres with shelves showing the food products you can buy from the shop