Cover Located in Berlin, Coda serves a 14-course non-conventional "dessert" tasting menu that balances sweet and savoury flavour profiles
Located in Berlin, Coda serves a 14-course non-conventional "dessert" tasting menu that balances sweet and savoury flavour profiles
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Inside Rene Frank’s Coda, a Berlin-based dessert wonderland that uses no refined sugar
Walking past Coda, I nearly miss the entrance. The Neukölln-based restaurant is hidden behind a dark graffitied wall, not atypical for Berlin, but to the untrained eye, it is easy to overlook. Add that to the fact that I am 15 minutes early to my 7pm reservation and the curtains are still closed, and I don’t think I’d be blamed for needing a second glance. I take a seat on one of the wall-mounted chairs lining the same wall as the entrance, and soon after, other guests begin arriving. In true German style, many are early—10 minutes, 5 minutes, until the door opens, the curtains are drawn, and guests are welcomed in one at a time.
Above Rene Frank, the founder of Coda
Rene Frank, the founder of Coda
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The restaurant is laid out not unlike a Japanese bar, with a minimal, sleek wooden countertop facing the kitchen. What intrigued me the most about Coda is not that it serves a dessert-led tasting menu, but the fact that no refined sugar is used. This is a difficult feat for any restaurant, let alone one that uses pastry techniques. Natural sweetness is drawn from fruit and vegetables, in a few cases maple syrup or honey is used.
Above Coda's open kitchen is framed by a sleek wooden-top bar counter
Coda's open kitchen is framed by a sleek wooden-top bar counter
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What stands out initially is the sound of the kitchen, or more so, the lack of any. The familiar sizzle of oil or meat turning on the grill is absent. Instead, cold smoke silently billows across the countertop from dry ice, while a heating gun passes gently over desserts, thawing their frozen exteriors, bringing them to serving temperature. Chefs lean over immaculate plates, layering sheets, piping buttercream, quennelling bone marrow mousse.
Above A dessert of carrot and yoghurt mousse
A dessert of carrot and yoghurt mousse
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The only open-flame heating that is being done is minimal: juicy cooked tomatoes which are placed below a squiggle of tomato ice cream, finished with a pour of sobrasada and macadamia milk; a raclette-filled corn waffle is heated over coal, paired with yoghurt kombu and sprinkled with popcorn and sesame crumb.
See also: More than what’s in the glass, Penang Cocktail Week is about the people
Above Dishes often come with a drink pairing
Above Eggplant
Dishes often come with a drink pairing
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Sweetness is gently coaxed and manipulated from each ingredient, as only a pastry chef can—yellow beetroot for a gummy bear, bone marrow for a cake, shallots for an ice cream, root vegetables for the glaze of a donut.
Above Rene Frank and head chef Julia Anna Leitner
Rene Frank and head chef Julia Anna Leitner
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This expertise is one that has been built over two decades. “Coda wasn’t always what it is today,” Frank tells me as he pours a sea buckthorn drink pairing into individual tasting portions across the counter. In 2016, when it first opened, its concept was closer to that of a dessert bar, but the accomplished pastry chef soon realised guests weren’t keen to make a meal of conventional sweets alone. But with his background in pastry, how could he play to his strengths while conforming to public demand?
The answer was simple: swap the ingredients, not the techniques. Pastry principles are applied to savoury ingredients in a non-conformist menu that is neither savoury nor sweet, but instead strikes a delicate balance of both.
Above Grilled apple is complemented with shallot ice cream
Grilled apple is complemented with shallot ice cream
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Perhaps the best expression is in a dish, Coda’s signature caviar popsicle. Jerusalem artichoke ice cream encases pecan nut ganache, dotted with pecan chocolate-coated caviar. The luxurious popsicles are taken from the freezer and left to rest, their temperature monitored by a thermometer, and Frank’s gaze never straying far from the reading.
Once the precise temperature is reached, a quick swipe of the heat gun, and the popsicle is ready to serve. “No explanation needed,” my server winks when it comes to the time when he usually explains how to consume the dish.
Above Coda's signature caviar popsicle
Above Coda's exterior
Coda's signature caviar popsicle
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I understand why such painstaking attention to temperature is essential when I bite into the popsicle. The room-temperature caviar melts into buttery, savoury spheres against the cold Jerusalem artichoke ice cream, before yielding to the sweetness of the ganache, a deliberate calibration of textures and ingredients that are a true representation of the magic Frank creates at Coda.
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Images: Coda
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About
Katelyn is the dining and travel editor of Malaysia and Indonesia. Based in Kuala Lumpur, she offers readers an inside look at the movers and shakers in Asia’s growing food and beverage industry.
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