About us
Our team currently comprises of around 77 members of staff led by Uschi and Gerhard Kohlfürst. Besides our restaurant, beer garden and gastronomy, our portfolio was enhanced by the 4-star Fürstenfelder hotel in 2008. It all began in 2001 when the Fürstenfelder restaurant was established in the former cowshed of the monastery. The Veranstaltungsforum Fürstenfeld (Civic Event Forum) had just opened its doors in the monastery’s old service buildings. Right from the very start, Fürstenfelder Gastronomie provided the catering for everything from family celebrations and small conferences through to large-scale fairs and congresses. Our gastronomy segment was awarded organic certification in 2003. 17 years later, our solidly established company is still growing steadily. As good a time as any to give a little more thought to how and why we do what we do. Our first step in 2018 was to redesign and refurbish the restaurant and thanks to our new concept, we’re already on the way towards (even) more sustainability.
Sustainability
Fürstenfelder is committed to sustainability in all four divisions. Since our foundation in 2001, we have been accompanied by the question: how can we do our guests good, without harming the world?
Sustainability means a responsible use of resources such as food, energy, but also our team. We act environmentally friendly, economically and socially. For this we try again and again new things and question the old.
Hotel and restaurant are certified organic and partners of Naturland. Additionally, the Fürstenfelder Hotel has been certified as climate-neutral by ClimatePartner.
Kitchen and restaurant
Organic cuisine to us means knowing about the origins of the ingredients and products we use. We strive to purchase animal products from animals that have been responsibly raised, fed and slaughtered as well as organic fruit, vegetables and grains. When it comes to sourcing foods that are not grown in Germany such as cacao or coffee, we work with fair trade suppliers. The decision whether or not to consume meat is naturally left to our guests: since our cuisine has strong Bavarian roots, we offer a variety of meat, poultry and fish dishes. However, in order to promote sustainable consumption of meat and animal products, we also provide a number of vegetarian and vegan options.
As a certified organic restaurant and catering business we use organic, seasonal and regional products wherever possible. We select our suppliers with the utmost of care and have built strong, collaborative partnerships with many of them over the years. We prepare our food carefully and responsibly and try to avoid waste. This includes making a lot of our own products in house: fresh homemade pasta on our à la carte evening menu; home-baked bread, homemade sausage and breakfast jam for our hotel guests. Our wild game is hunted by the proprietor Gerhard Kohlfürst. While these things may be time consuming, they’re extremely important to us and represent a further area where we’re striving to create a culture of continuous improvement.
Since our company has now reached a certain size and we’re dealing with very diverse groups of guests and requirements, especially in the catering segment, it’s not always possible to achieve all our goals and aspirations right away. But we continue to work on it.
We like to think about sustainability when it comes to dining, too. We use energy from renewable sources, avoid the use of disposable crockery and cutlery, and conserve natural resources by dispensing with table linen in order to reduce water consumption.
Hotel
Even before the hotel opened in 2008, we thought hard about how we could work together with local companies towards sustainable hospitality. We have groundwater pumps providing cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. This means that over half of the energy we require is produced from the environment in a regenerative manner. The doors and windows in our hotel rooms are fitted with energy-saving devices which control the heating and cooling systems and reduce wasted power consumption. Some of the energy required to heat our water is supplied by waste heat recovered from cooling units for small appliances. The rest of the heat is provided by a mini CHP plant which also generates electricity for the hotel. In 2011, the entire roof was fitted with a photovoltaic system. We predominantly use energy efficient lighting and purchase all of our hotel linen from a company which has been awarded ISO certification for its environmental management. Careful and cost-efficient energy management is a priority for our entire team. And it goes without saying that our breakfast buffet is certified organic, like the cuisine at the Fürstenfelder restaurant.
Social responsibility
As a family-owned company, we like to support family-oriented people. We offer part-time working models and flexible working hours and try to keep overtime to a minimum. We see ourselves as a team where everyone works together as equals. Team members who want to bring in their own ideas or take on extra responsibilities are encouraged to do so. Our people are our most valuable resource. As well as conventional opportunities for further training, we like to invite our staff to broaden their horizons by organising regular familiarisation trips and excursions – everything from asparagus harvesting to culinary tours of London. As the winner of multiple awards for our apprenticeship programme, we are committed to nurturing and supporting young talent in the hospitality industry. 14 members of staff including managing director Uschi Kohlfürst provide mentoring support to each apprentice as they pursue their individual journey.
