Viennese gastronomy "Tatort" in review Death of a chef - why is the pressure on Michelin-starred chefs so great?
A kitchen team under pressure: Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer, left) questions sous-chef Lars Eidmann (Simon Morzé) about the death of his boss.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Viennese detectives Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) investigate at the Chinese takeaway.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Ex-junkie "Rat" (Manuel Sefciuc, left) has been taken in by his half-brother Lars Eidmann (Simon Morzé).
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser, center) question the victim's wife. Alicia Brauer (Martina Ebm) is also the manager of her husband's restaurant.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
They worked in the victim's kitchen: Mohammed (Tamim Fattal, left), Bernd (Aleksander Srtschin) and Lisa (Lisa Schützenberger).
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer), Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser, center) and her assistant Meret Schande (Christina Scherrer) exchange ideas on the roof of their office.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
A visit to the prison: debt collector Heinzi (Simon Schwarz) is asked for advice by Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser).
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and his colleague Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) deploy heavy equipment to find her murderer.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
A kitchen team under pressure: Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer, left) questions sous-chef Lars Eidmann (Simon Morzé) about the death of his boss.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Viennese detectives Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) investigate at the Chinese takeaway.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Ex-junkie "Rat" (Manuel Sefciuc, left) has been taken in by his half-brother Lars Eidmann (Simon Morzé).
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser, center) question the victim's wife. Alicia Brauer (Martina Ebm) is also the manager of her husband's restaurant.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
They worked in the victim's kitchen: Mohammed (Tamim Fattal, left), Bernd (Aleksander Srtschin) and Lisa (Lisa Schützenberger).
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer), Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser, center) and her assistant Meret Schande (Christina Scherrer) exchange ideas on the roof of their office.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
A visit to the prison: debt collector Heinzi (Simon Schwarz) is asked for advice by Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser).
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and his colleague Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) deploy heavy equipment to find her murderer.
Image: ARD Degeto Film/ORF/Hubert Mican
The scene of "Tatort: Messer" is a Michelin-starred restaurant whose chef is stabbed to death. The kitchen brigade is in a state of frenzy. Is it really that tough behind the stove? And why is the pressure so high?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The Viennese investigators Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) were in fora real treat at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Vienna, where the chef was killed.
- There was no shortage of suspects, partly due to the chef's rigid management style. But is it really that tough in Michelin-starred restaurants?
- Guests usually don't notice much of the stress behind the scenes. You can also dine deliciously in Switzerland - in four three-star restaurants.
Michelin-starred cuisine is fascinating because of its intoxicating taste sensations and perfection, but it is also daunting. In "Tatort: Messer", a Viennese Michelin-starred restaurant proves to be hell on earth behind the scenes. The egomaniacal boss has been murdered. Subordinates and family members are basically all suspects.
Actor Harald Krassnitzer, who plays Viennese investigator Moritz Eisner, puts it in a nutshell: "There was a time when I was fascinated by Michelin-starred cuisine with its striving for perfection and its love of detail. Today I know the high performance madness behind it."
Is it really that tough in top gastronomy? Why is there so much pressure on star chefs? And which Viennese restaurants are the best?
What is it all about?
André Brauer (Daniel Keberle), head of the Viennese gastro temple Efeukron, was stabbed to death outside his apartment. In Vienna's "Tatort: Messer", it is the tragic end to a night of partying for Brauer's kitchen brigade.
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) investigate the victim's personal environment, whose life consisted of work and excess.
His wife Alicia Brauer (Martina Ebm) is the manager of the restaurant. The young, very talented sous-chef Lars Eidmann (Simon Morzé) also looks like someone who could be hiding something.
After all, Lars looks after his half-brother and ex-junkie "Rat" (Manuel Sefciuc), whom he has taken in and got him a job in the kitchen.
The kitchen brigade's hard party night apparently included drugs. Did someone from the team commit the murder of the boss at dawn?
What is it really about?
Tatort: Messer" shows top gastronomy as a closed world with high pressure, economic risks and self-exploitation. Characterized by strange codes in the kitchen, human humiliation and an elitist habitus that says: despite everything, we are the best.
But could the kitchen also be a metaphor for our modern lives, in which self-optimization and the optimization of others are at the top of the to-do list?
Actor Harald Krassnitzer reflects on the screenplay by Sarah Wassermair ("Tatort: Azra") when he says: "What do I like about this "Tatort"? The fact that the kitchen in our movie is one of those small cells where what we dream of crushes us at the same time."
He continues: "Because it's based on a scheme that no longer works and is clearly coming to an end. For me, top cuisine is symbolic of an overload and fatigue that I perceive in many areas of society."
Is it really that tough in top gastronomy?
Films and series that show the stress but also the high performance of top gastronomy are in vogue:
The US series "The Bear" (Disney+) collects TV trophies like a conveyor belt, and the British film "Yes, Chef" from the makers of "Adolescence" is also well worth watching.
But is the stress level really so high and the working environment so toxic?
The basic problem of top gastronomy, which has a high insolvency rate, is the very labor-intensive work, coupled with the pressure of constant evaluation (stars, toques, reviews, demanding guests).
Scriptwriter Sarah Wassermair says: "The high level of quality can only be achieved with a large number of staff. You need a lot of hard-working hands, but they shouldn't cost too much if a Michelin-starred restaurant is to be profitable in the end."
In this context, she speaks of an "ethic of self-exploitation", which she explains as follows: "If I, as a chef, put up with as many things as possible, then that makes me part of the whole."
Which Viennese restaurants are the best?
Connoisseurs of the Viennese gourmet scene will be familiar with the interior design of the fictional restaurant "Efeukron". The film was actually shot in Joji Hattori's fine-dining restaurant "Shiki" in the summer of 2024.
Josef Hader's cult film "Die wilde Maus" was also shot there. With the "Steirereck im Stadtpark" and the "Amador", Vienna has the only three-star restaurants in Austria.
How many Michelin-starred restaurants are there in Switzerland?
The Michelin Guide 2024 lists four 3-star restaurants in Switzerland: Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl (Basel), Memories (Bad Ragaz), Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville (Crissier) and Schloss Schauenstein (Fürstenau).
The following 5-toque restaurants have also achieved the highest score of 19 to 19.5 points in Gault&Millau 2025:
Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl (Basel), Memories (Bad Ragaz), Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville (Crissier), Schloss Schauenstein (Fürstenau), La Brezza (Ascona, Marco Campanella, Chef of the Year 2025) and "Stucki - Tanja Grandits" (Basel).
Six new restaurants were awarded a star in the Michelin Guide Switzerland 2024. This brings the total number of one-star restaurants in Switzerland to 107.
What's next for the Viennese "Tatort"?
Two more Vienna cases were filmed in 2024. Both could still be shown in 2025. The episode "Wir sind nicht zu fassen" (working title) was shot before the kitchen "Tatort: Messer", with the screenplay and direction coming from Rupert Henning ("Tatort: Krank").
In the film, the body of a young man is found in front of the Burgtheater after a demonstration. The evidence is scarce, the witnesses give contradictory testimony. Did a clash with counter-demonstrators escalate? Or did the perpetrator come from the ranks of the police who intervened in the demonstration?
The episode "Tatort: Der Elektriker" (screenplay: Roland Hablesreiter and Petra Ladinigg, director: Harald Sicheritz), which is set in a nursing home, was also filmed at the end of 2024.
The stressed staff there work to the limit every day. A pensioner with a walking disability has drowned in his bathtub. Outside influence cannot be ruled out.
