Honest.
Characterful.
Acidity-driven.
01 — Biography
Between Asia, France
and Southern Baden.
Nicolai P. Wiedmer, born 1992 in Lörrach, is a Michelin-starred chef in the tri-border region where Germany, Switzerland and France meet. He apprenticed from 2011 to 2014 at Restaurant Stucki, Basel, became Head Chef at Eckert in 2014 and Managing Partner in 2018.
Awarded a Michelin Star in 2017 and three red toques from Gault & Millau. Member of the Jeunes Restaurateurs since 2022, Vice President of JRE International since 2024.
Alongside Eckert, he runs further concepts under the WIO — Hotels & Restaurants umbrella: Schlotzeria, Say Cheese and WIO-Catering. The same stance runs through all of them: rooted in the region, internationally minded, without fanfare.
Restaurant
Das Eckert.
Hotel and restaurant in Grenzach-Wyhlen on the High Rhine, on the Swiss border. Head Chef since 2014, Managing Partner since 2018. One Michelin Star since 2017, three red toques from Gault & Millau, 46 hotel rooms.
- Das Eckert · Baslerstrasse 20 · 79639 Grenzach-Wyhlen · Germany
- Wed–Fri & Sun · lunch & dinner · Sat dinner only
- Michelin Star since 2017 · Three Gault & Millau toques
Reservations are handled by OpenTable — you will leave this site.
By invitation.
Maldives.
Singapore.
Baden-Baden.
Guest Chef
By invitation — as guest chef.
Residencies, four-hands dinners, hotel and event formats: Nicolai P. Wiedmer cooks regularly by invitation — with his own team, tuned to the house and the occasion. A selection of past engagements.
Concept, F&B,
repositioning.
Consulting from a working kitchen — four houses, every day at the pass.
Consulting
Concept, F&B, repositioning.
Consulting grounded in daily practice: four houses under our own management, plus several brands. The concepts aren’t pitched here — they run every day.
Inquiry
Get in touch.
Personal reply, usually within two working days. For confidential matters, write directly to management@nicolai-wiedmer.de.
From eight
to a thousand.
Eight guests. A thousand guests.
One crew.
Catering
Catering.
From eight to a thousand.
From private dining for eight guests to receptions for over a thousand — all under WIO-Catering, the independent brand of Nicolai P. Wiedmer and his team. Michelin-starred cooking, scaled to the occasion — never off the shelf.
Concepts, references and inquiries directly through WIO-Catering.
External brand site — wio-catering.de · in German.
06 — JRE · Jeunes Restaurateurs
Vice President,
JRE International.
The Jeunes Restaurateurs are a European network of young leading chefs — united by a recognisable signature, a clear stance, and a contemporary idea of hospitality. Nicolai P. Wiedmer has been a member since 2022 and Vice President of JRE International since 2024. In that role he represents a generation that doesn’t preserve tradition but carries it forward — and that makes a point of championing young talent.
“ The future needs collaboration. Not something nice we do on the side.
Voice · JRE Voices of the Future
“We are not just chefs.
We are hosts and entrepreneurs.”
An honest question to start. Over the past week, who here has spent more hours at the stove — and who has spent more at the desk?
Purchasing. Staff. Rotas. Taxes. Emails. Pricing. Reviews. Social channels. A dozen messages about one missing invoice. And somewhere in the middle, almost as an afterthought: “oh yes — the service.”
I don’t say this to complain. I say it because there’s truth in it. We are not “just” chefs. We are hosts and entrepreneurs. And I’ve landed on a number that, for many of us, feels brutally accurate.
“As independent chefs, we’re probably cooking maybe 40 per cent of the time. The other 60 is leadership, management and marketing.”
Read the full speech Collapse
Some days it feels like running a restaurant, a small business, a training operation and a press agency — all at once.
This congress is about the future. About regeneration. About what we plant today. A seed doesn’t grow because we shout at it. It grows because the conditions are right.
In the kitchen, we know this. No single great idea makes the evening. It’s the fundamentals, day in, day out: timing, temperature, rhythm — and a team that moves as one.
Responsibility in the team.
This isn’t a soft topic. It’s performance. It’s consistency. It’s culture. And, in the end: the guests.
For me, responsibility comes down to three words: clarity. trust. tools.
Clarity: the team knows what “good” looks like, even when I’m not at the pass. Trust: people are allowed to decide, allowed to own the outcome, allowed to take pride in it. Tools: training, structure, feedback — so that quality doesn’t depend on the mood or the presence of any one person.
If we want a future, we need teams that are stronger than a single shift. Stronger than a single chef. Stronger than any one person.
Marketing.
I know — some of us hear the word and switch off. But marketing doesn’t mean being loud. It means being inviting. It’s hospitality, translated into the world of the guest.
If we don’t tell our story, someone else will — and sometimes that story gets written by an algorithm on a bad day. So we have to learn the numbers. Understand the message. Run the business — so we can protect the craft.
“The future needs collaboration.
Not something nice we do on the side. That’s how we survive — and how we grow.”
Because collaboration is a core ingredient of what JRE is. JRE isn’t a logo. Not a label. It’s a living network. Chefs and hosts who call each other, visit each other, share ideas, share mistakes, share solutions — and push each other forward.
We back each other up. We trade notes. We build each other up. Not because it’s fashionable — because it’s smart. And because it’s human.
And collaboration is bigger than “us”. It’s also partners who bring reach, platforms and opportunities. Suppliers who become allies. Local communities who become believers.
A small task.
Here’s my request — and it’s deliberately small. After this congress: pick a single collaboration. Just one.
- Hand one person on the team full responsibility for one thing.
- A guest-chef evening. A joint supplier project. A staff exchange. A shared training. A story told together.
- One that makes life easier — and quality stronger.
Independent gastronomy has always been this: turning raw ingredients into something bigger than ourselves. Moments. Memories. Meaning. We can do the same with collaboration.
“Let us water what we want to grow.”
From the JRE Voices of the Future interview (English original)
with Nicolai P. Wiedmer · JRE International Congress, Cologne · April 2026.
WIO — Hotels
& Restaurants.
Four houses, three brands — where three borders meet.
With Anna-Larissa, Nicolai P., and Rainer P. Wiedmer.
Family · WIO — Hotels & Restaurants
At home where
three borders meet.
WIO — Hotels & Restaurants is the Wiedmer family business in the tri-border region around Lörrach, Basel, and the Markgräflerland in southern Baden: four houses and three independent brands. Led by Anna-Larissa Wiedmer, Nicolai P. Wiedmer, and Rainer P. Wiedmer — grown since 1996 from the flagship Krone in Inzlingen.
09 — Press · Media
Materials & contact for media.
Press kit & downloads.
Most materials are published in German. For translated bios or tailored requests, please write to us directly.
Direct line.
presse@nicolai-wiedmer.de
Interview, image and material requests
Gallery
Images.
A selection from the Eckert kitchen.
Contact
In conversation.
Personal reply, usually within two business days.
Three ways to reach me.
- presse@nicolai-wiedmer.de
Interview, image and material requests
- management@nicolai-wiedmer.de
Guest chef, consulting, collaborations
- n.wiedmer@wio-group.de
wio-group, catering, Eckert & Schlotzeria
Das Eckert.
+49 7624 91720
Reservations & inquiries