The cook show will be, like every year, the highlight of the festivities. Four candidates will be in the running, under the eyes of the public: Pierre-Philippe Buliard, from the restaurant Le 1617 in Rodern; Corentin Bouthemy, half chef de partie at La Verte Vallée in Munster; Olivier Lamard, chef of L’Olivier in Munster; Arthur Brendel, from La Table du Gourmet in Riquewihr.
This year, the Knepfelfacht jury will be chaired by oenologist and ambassador of Alsace wines Thierry Fritsch, who is also responsible for export missions at Civa (inter-professional council for Alsace wines). He will be surrounded among others by the mayor of Riquewihr Daniel Klack, Joseph Leiser, former chef of Zahnacker in Ribeauvillé, Mathieu Koenig, chef of L’Arbre Vert in Berrwiller, Yzabel Chalaye, host at France Blue Alsace.
Chefs must include flour or semolina, eggs, water or milk in their recipe. They are then free to incorporate the ingredients of their choice, whether caviar, foie gras or even truffle…
Knepflas with sweet potato or chestnut flour
Since the creation of the festival, around fifty different dishes have delighted the taste buds of gourmets. This year, restaurateurs are pairing, for example, knepflas with sweet potato and poultry with Khmer flavors, blood sausage with pinot noir sauce, candied spinach-pesto-lemon, chestnut flour and figatelli sauce, liver of veal flavored with fine herbs… Dessert version, we will find knepflas with vanilla cottage cheese and pineapple caramel, others with semolina and cherries or even fiadone style, the Corsican cake, with limoncello coulis. For each dish, Alsatian food and wine pairings are created by the chef-winegrower duos.
Other dishes will, of course, be offered to visitors, including sauerkraut, spit and other traditional dishes.
The sponsor of the event will be Nicolas Rieffel, former sommelier, culinary columnist on the channel BFM Alsace , who will host the competition. The godmother will be Adeline Vetter, Miss Alsace 2024.
The Knepfelfacht highlighting these typically Alsatian pasta was born from the imagination of four men: Jacky Mérius, from the restaurant Le Dolder, Didier Freguin, from the Médiéval, Jean-Luc Brendel, from La Table du Gourmet and Yves Haas, former wine merchant at Domaine Hugel and treasurer of the festival committee. “The Knepfelfacht is organized for Riquewihr residents and local visitors. The objective is to create links within the population,” underlines Yves Haas.
On the party program
Knepflas tasting, Saturday and Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. Cook-show (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.), musical entertainment by the Accordina group (Saturday, 4 p.m.). Concert by the group Elsass Power (Saturday, at 7:30 p.m.). Tasting of tarte flambées (Sunday, at 5 p.m.).
Knepfelfacht in Riquewihr, on the esplanade, Saturday June 8 and Sunday June 9, from 11:30 a.m.
