Chef Johannes Klapdohr

Executive Chef

The Culinary Vegetable Institute

Johannes Klapdohr was born in the town of Bad Kreuznach, Germany into a Family of four generations of Hoteliers, Restaurateurs and Chefs, in the beautiful wine region Nahe.

At an early age he discovered his love and passion for the culinary arts and helped in his father’s kitchen with exiting assignments such as picking faders of pheasants or preparing finely diced heirloom potatoes for the famous family recipe of Fülsel Kartoffel served with a whole roasted suckling pig during wine harvest season.

It was these experiences that would inspire him to begin his professional culinary career and to become a member of the German Chefs Association.

He started his apprenticeship, a combination of culinary school and full time job at a restaurant, under Rainer Knichel in a small hotel in the Hünsruck Mountains where he learned classical French cuisine combined with the regional products farmed, raised or hunted. The most popular seasonal items were wild game (delivered in the fur), forest mushrooms and berries in the fall and the preparation of charcuterie, cooked and smoked hams and blood and liver sausages all made in-house in the summertime.

With this valuable basic education Chef Klapdohr graduated as Chef and took his first position as commis de cuisine at the Haenish Schloβ & City Hotel Group, which owned five boutique hotels in the area surrounding Stuttgart.

Under Executive/Corporate Chef Alois Neises, he enjoyed the classic, uncomplicated, regional but very flavorful swabian cuisine and made his way up quickly through the kitchen brigade.

One of the hotels “Schloβ Hotel Monrepos” housed one of Germany’s first Italian fine dining restaurants “Bugatti.” This venue introduced Chef Klapdohr to the Mediterranean and the northern Italian style of cuisine. No pizzas! Everything was made from scratch and all pastas were homemade.

By the age of 21 after working as executive chef for one season he recognized his passion for fine dining and the desire to work in Michelin star restaurants and prompted his decision to “start all over” in some of the finest establishments in the country.

He began studying at the Relais&Chateau “Hotel Bareiss” in the black forest which has been in the top five of German hotels for decades, went to Franz Raneburger’s famous restaurant “Bamberger Reiter” in Berlin, and to Karl Ederer’s “Gasthaus Glockenbach” in Munich.

Munich was especially attractive for a young chef at the time, because of the intact infrastructure of small farms, the traditional markets and, of course, the great restaurants.

And Karl Ederer’s cuisine was different from any one at the time and matched perfectly the philosophy of Chef Klapdohr, who has studied nutrition and was very interested in sustainable food preparations combined with regional, healthy ingredients served in fine dining restaurants with an over-riding respect to nature and environment.

The mise en place was basically defined as: whole, sustainable grown vegetables in containers, on your station and wait for the orders to come in! Everything a la minute: proteins and vegetables prepared together in one pan to merge the flavors (a complicated process considering the different cooking times of the variety of ingredients used) and then plated with simple elegance.

The respect for animals meant to use all the parts and recipes often included tripe, heart, liver and tongue. The animals were always delivered whole and only after the last part of the leg or shoulder was sold, another cow arrived at the kitchen door, cut in 4 and carried by 2 chefs down to the walk in cooler for aging, together with lambs, goose, pigs and of course in the fall season venison and pheasants, dozens by the week.   

In 1992 Karl Ederer was collaborating with Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth to open the Restaurant “Schweinsbräu” of the “Hermansdorfer Landwerkstätten” a project to create a fully self sustainable business operation surrounded by farms that would grow and raise products ecologically and in harmony with nature to be produced, prepared and sold in its own restaurant and retail shop.

It was a perfect microcosm of chef and farmer working/living close together in a responsible and sustainable environment and a real-life example as to how things should be.

After Karl Ederer’s recommendation, Chef Klapdohr started working for Eckard Witzigman, one of only four chefs in the world to be named “Chef of the Century” by Gault Millau, in his world renown, “Restaurant Aubergine”.

This was a very different style of cooking: novel cuisine to perfection in a brigade made of great chefs, classically divided in “parties de cuisine” with an abundance of culinary knowledge and the best products the world can provide.

Compared to the styles above, although the philosophy of using the freshest ingredients was the same, it was the extreme attention to detail, no compromise of the flavor and presentational concepts, combined with the incorporation of many traditional cooking techniques such as braising, confit and newer ones like sous vide, that made the difference and guaranteed ultimate consistency.

With this “final” accomplishment for a Chef, he left Munich and rejoined with Franz Raneburger at his newly opened high volume “Restaurant Schloβ Glineke” in Berlin as Executive Chef. There he combined fine dining and the usage of regional products with the challenge to serve large audiences of up to 350 guests at the restaurant, which was rewarded 15/20 points in the Gault Millau only 8 months after opening.

In 1996, three month before the Olympic Games, it was the Atlanta Hilton & Towers looking for international talent and Chef Klapdohr with little, or better, no English knowledge accepted the position of Sous Chef with the plan to return to Germany after one year.   

Shortly after his arrival, he recognized and appreciated the great opportunities that Atlanta had to offer. At the time when its restaurant scene developed faster than anywhere else in the country, Atlanta presented many eclectic and new restaurant concepts opening on a monthly basis. 

In 1998 he was assigned the position of Chef de Cuisine at the prestigious and famous Restaurant “Nikolai’s Roof” – Atlanta’s finest award winning restaurant at the time.

It was here where he created a style of cooking that combines southern regional cuisine with the best ingredients to be found in the world, which quickly earned him a place in the best 100 Restaurants in 1999 by Zagat and the Mobil four-star award, making it the only four-star restaurant in downtown Atlanta in 2000.

1998 was also the year Chef Klapdohr discovered The Chef’s Garden in Huron, Ohio, with its traditional as well as unusual products that were sustainably grown with a great commitment to quality. The vegetables, herbs and micros soon became a staple on his menus and created an excitement for his chefs as well as guests, with creations such as:

“Vitello Tomato” an Ida Gold Tomato filled with braised Veal Cheeks in Gremolata Demi-Glaze or The “Pea-riffic” Lobster and Toro Custard with Ginger Shoots: featuring 4 different stages of the pea plant, starting from the sprouts to snow peas, peas and flowers closing the pea’s life cycle.

This was a perfect illustration of the symbiosis of Mediterranean, Classic French, Global and Regional Cuisine while using sustainably grown and raised products. 

In 2001, Chef Klapdohr started participating in The Chef’s Garden Food & Wine Festival, an “Annual Celebration of Vegetables” hosted at The Culinary Vegetable Institute.

It was there where he heard the first time about a great resort on the coast of Georgia that has started to rebuild an icon of American Hospitality: The prestigious Sea Island Resorts.

3 years later in 2004, Todd Rogers, the Executive Chef of Sea Island Resorts brought him on board as the Executive Chef of “The Lodge at Sea Island” their Mobil five star,

AAA five diamond Hotel, which it has received since its opening in 2001.

A small exclusive Luxury Hotel with beautiful restaurants, including the fine dining steak house Colt & Alison, private wine cellar dinners with customized menus, special amenities and 24 hours a la carte room service that could provide both: culinary creativity in a simply elegant but refined ambience and personalized attentive service above and beyond any other establishments.

The Jones Family, under its CEO Bill Jones III, Owner of the Sea Island Company had the vision that was the perfect setting and inspiration for a Chef to become a part of – a Company that loved the commitment to quality and the dedication to creating the most memorable experience for their guests as much as he did.

This support and professional environment accounts for the many rewards and accolades the Lodge has received, during his tenure including:

Mobil Five Star Award

AAA Five Diamond Award

# 1 Top Small Hotel in North America, Zagat Award

# 1 Top dining in North America, Zagat Award

# 1 "75 Best Golf Resorts in North America" Golf Digest, December 2006

# 1 "Global 10 ranking" in Gary Gaylean’s Golf Letter, September 2007

The constant research of selecting the finest products in the region, as well as globally, has become Chef Klapdohr’s ultimate passion. To nurture, develop and create sustainable, healthy cuisine that is environmentally responsible continues to be the essence of his culinary philosophy.

He joined The Chef’s Garden Company on December 2007 as Executive Chef of The Culinary Vegetable Institute to further support the dedication of the Chef and Farmer Concept™ in order to provide the best available sustainable products to our guests and families.

In a time where nutritional science has proven that sustainable agriculture and management of natural resources is the only reliable future for preserving and guaranteeing a healthy human society and global environment, it is the educational responsibility of the Chefs & Farmers to engage Companies, Guests, Parents and Children to change – and therefore sustain – the achievements of humankind.