Michelin star under her belt, chef Julia Komp is on a global quest to seek the extraordinary for her next culinary project

Julia Komp won her first Michelin star at the age of 28, within just six months of taking over as head chef at Schloss Loersfeld in Kerpen. This made Komp, in 2016, the youngest female chef in Germany to helm a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Having recently quit her job, Komp has travelled through 19 countries in seven months, on a food cultural exchange of sorts. Currently in India as part of the Global Tastes initiative by ITC Hotels, Komp is hosting pop-ups in their Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and New Delhi properties. In each city, she serves a six course meal, personally curated from her learnings as a chef over the years.

“This opportunity to come to India happened by chance and I am excited beyond words. Indian kitchens are known for their spices and flavours and that is exactly what fascinates me,” she says.

Known for her mastery over avant-garde cuisine, Komp believes in the harmony between taste and visual details, elevating these to a perfectly balanced sensory dining experience. She is fond of modern cooking techniques but only uses these when they uplift a dish. Every ingredient on the plate is present for a reason — be it carrot sharks, spherified baba ghanoush, or passion fruit. Seafood is a favourite, and while she is known for her Bavarian prawns (with a spicy Thai twist!), kingfish is another ingredient she enjoys creating with, pairing it with Oriental and Indian flavours. Her Hiramasa Kingfish — served with lentils, masala and rambutan — is tailor-made for the Indian palate.

“Food has to be fruity, hearty and real. No unnecessary gimmicks,” she declares, adding, “Garlic and passion fruit are my favourite ingredients, but in each dish, one base ingredient has to be the hero. Others plays an important but supporting role. Ingredients matter to me and I want the whole journey from sourcing to consumption to be perfect.”

Although she trained in some of Germany’s top kitchens, Komp stayed true to her childhood love for Arabic aromas and ingredients owing to frequent visits to her grandmother’s home in Tunisia) as she made her culinary journey to the top echelons.

As a child, Julia Komp baked cakes with her grandmother and watched her prepare food; gradually, cooking became a passion for Julia.  At 10, she was already trying out family recipes in the kitchen. By 14, she had signed up for her first internship at the local one-starred eatery Zur Tant.

“I observed that food makes people happy and I wanted to cook to see that smile on people’s faces,” she says. “Even today, that is what keeps me going when I am exhausted.”

As for her current travels, Komp explains: “I want to open my own restaurant so I thought I needed to discover the world and learn something new before I go back and start something. I wanted to get a taste of the original cuisine.”

A small 30-seater restaurant in Cologne, possibly with a summer 2020 launch, is what Komp is working towards. “It will have Oriental and Indian flavours, but of course I will put to use my Arabic influences too,” she says. “It has to be something extraordinary, something Germany has not seen, so I have to work very hard.”

She laments that long hours in the kitchen and the inclement weather have not allowed her to step out and see much of India so far, but she hopes to remedy that soon. And when she gets home, Komp will be ready to put everything she’s seen and learnt here to stellar use.