Review: Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler weaves together gastronomy and craftsmanship with an elegance that Italians know so well.
“You ring the bell, and we invite you into our house”, explains Norbert Niederkofler, Head Chef at the eponymous Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler.
‘Atelier’ is judiciously deployed. It is a nod to this building’s former occupants, the Moessmer family, who resided here and supplied fine fabrics to the good and great since the late 1800s. Now it is home to another master, Norbert Niederkofler, and his latest foray. This old villa remains prodigious and exacting in its afterlife. Glimmers of artisanal sensibilities find daylight throughout our 12-course lunch that runs for nearly five hours.
Its walls are shades of mocha with mounted tweed panels, Norbert chaperones us through the compassionately restored villa. The original dark sturdy wooden floors remain throughout. We are told they will shortly build guest accommodation with a library for Nobert’s 2500 cookbooks. Innovation overcame the restraints where the architects could not move interior walls. The University of Graz designed a sound system to avoid mounting speakers on historically protected walls, beams and ceilings. In some ways, this house is an extension of Norbert’s broader habit of keeping a hand on the past to rudder through the future.
Norbert Niederkofler is one of Italy’s most accomplished chefs. Multiple three Michelin-starred restaurants, the Green stars, the World’s 50 Best listings, five toques in Gault & Millau — I could go on. Still, Atelier Moessmer feels personal. In some ways, it is the most audacious of Norbert’s accomplishments.
Within a year of breaking ground, Norbert and his team renovated the entire building, launched Atelier Moessmer, and reclaimed three Michelin stars (plus a Green Michelin Star). Accomplishing such a large-scale renovation with such ambitious timings is eye-widening (and in Italy, no less). Earning three Michelin stars within three months of opening is unprecedented.
He tells us, “This is not a restaurant anymore. It is a think tank. What is important for me is that the future of cuisine is here. The average age [of the team] here is 26 years old. We have very young people where we do a lot of training and evolving of new talents. This is all for the future.”
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler’s Cooking the Mountain philosophy
Norbert’s Cook The Mountain philosophy is simple but betrays those crutches and tropes attached to Italian cuisine. Lukas Gerges, restaurant manager and head sommelier, explains the three legs of Cook the Mountain while pouring a Dolomiti Silvaner. (As an aside, you should absolutely plum for the wine pairing not only as a sojourn through the Trentino-Alto Adige region, but Lukas also offers horizontal tastings of the same grape between regions.)
First, Cook the Mountain is hyper-local. In frosty Austria-hugging South Tyrol, this means there are no tomatoes or lemons. No basil nor olive oil in sight. The food is seasonal and, therefore, the menu changes four times a year. Second, executive chef Mauro Siega and his team use traditional cooking methods. There are no bubbling sous vides here. No spherifications or liquid nitrogen. We watch chefs truss joints and work them over a woodfire grill. (BTW, there is nothing quite like watching woodfire cooking while sitting warmly inside a glass-paneled kitchen, surrounded by the villa’s snow-drift lawns.) Lastly, Mauro and Atelier Moessmer’s kitchen uses the whole animal instead of leaning on prime cuts. A gutsy parcel of goat heart and lungs reaffirms this philosophy ten courses later.
My cardiologist reads my reviews. Our next meeting will be awkward.
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler’s food
My long weekend on the outskirts of Brunico re-confirms that South Tyrolean cuisine is, uncompromisingly, food for fuel. The stuff to which ploughs were pushed. Hearty stuffed schlutzkrapfen, polenta fortified with mountain cheese and sweetened kaiserschmarrn pancakes. I drag my finger across a meaty sticky goulash at one dinner. Lardaceous speck slivers are served from sunup to sundown. As it should be. You may not live long, but at least you will eat well.
This is all to underscore the context of Norbert’s cuisine as not only impressive in its own right but it stands alone in the context of what surrounds it. This wonderful weekend told me that there is a lot of heart in South Tyrolean food, but not a lot of refinement.
Atelier Moessmer’s winter menu deftly elevates regional dishes dense with flavour. The flow remains light, knowing when to dig deep but also pull back. One or two indulgent forays channel South Tyrolean comfort sentiments. The menu’s zenith, a wild garlic Spatzlan, does just that. It’s a hearty bowl of supple Spatzlan under a thick koji zabaglione dotted with chive flowers and crispy pork scraps, all liberally spooned with ochre pork fat, smokey and rendered from the pig’s neck. It is prestigious comfort food, like a mac and cheese that went to Harvard and made partner in ten years. It is scrap-the-bowl good. (Yes, I licked the bowl.)
A rasher of unctuous goat belly is crisped magnificently over the grill and served with the pinkest radicchio painted with a sauce of red berries and rose petals that make easy work of the belly fat. A bread and butter course’s largesse challenges my cynicism about such things as a course in its own right. My cardiologist reads my reviews. Our next meeting will be awkward.
Atelier Moessmer’s menu is not all club you over-the-head eating. There’s enough daintiness throughout in both the presentation and style as the hallmarks of three Michelin stars.
A winter salad is our prettiest dish. A rose of smoked and fermented root vegetables sits amidst a coleslaw-style yoghurt the colour of palest pistachio. Each vegetable is fermented, stained and cooked in vinegar, leaving a mellow acidic bite all sweetened by a green apple that tempers the smokiness of woodfire grilling. There are one-bite snacks of crispy potato tortel layered with lamb ham. Another of chicken liver macerated in local black rice vinegar and finished with black garlic comes after a Grigio Alpina bone marrow in thyme, a local soy sauce and egg yolk. There’s a smørrebrød of local fish cured in salt and studded with pickled elderflowers. Who thinks of pickling elderflowers?
A pumpkin sorbet with persimmon and yoghurt mousse ushers us towards dessert, where mouth-puckering sea buckthorn and the tang of natural yoghurt play well together. A generous slab of syrupy apple tart tatin is paired with glasses of rich Le Petit Manicor.
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, Would I Return?
Mrs EatGoSee spoke for an hour over Zoom after lunch, where we sketched out rudimentary plans to visit, traipse in the snow and allow us both to enjoy Atelier Moessmer together. Atelier Moessmer is a shade more approachable than my dinner at Piazza Duomo, also with three stars. It is precise, but does not lose its warm touch.
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, Who Should Come Here?
Diners who enjoy fine dining, three Michelin star chasers, Italian food lovers or anyone looking for a special occasion and memorable dining space.
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, How Much Is It?
Tasting Menu: €290
Tart Tatin, optional extra: €30
With wine pairing: €180
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler’s wine pairing
Comitissa Gold Brut Gran Riserva 2002, Südtirol – Alto Adige, Italy
Daniel Sigmund, Silvaner 2021, Vigneti delle Dolomiti, Italy
Tement, Ried Zieregg Sauvignon Blanc 2019, Südsteiermark, Austria
Markus Prackwieser Gump Hof Renaissance Sauvignon Blanc 2018, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Champagne Alexandre Chaillon Vitrail, Champagne, France
Benevelli Piero Barolo Mosconi 2019, Barolo, Italy
Montevertine, Le Pergole Torte 2019, Toscana, Italy
Manincor, Le Petit 2019, Südtirol, Alto Adige, Italy
Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, Via Walther von der Vogelweide, 17, 39031 Brunico BZ, Italy.+390474646629. Check outAtelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler’s websiteor emailinfo@ateliernorbertniederkofler.comfor the latest information.
Written by Liam Collens // Read more reviews here. Follow Liam on Substack, Instagram, Threads or Facebook. Liam was invited to Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler.
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"My cardiologist reads my reviews. Our next meeting will be awkward." The duality of man. :)