Favorite and popular recipe for traditional lobster soup from the Kempinski Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg. The best lobster soup recipe and fish soup recipe for special occasions with lobster.
🇩🇪🇺🇸One recipe, two kitchens — grams ⇄ cups, switch right in the card.
Best lobster soup recipe of the best soup in Hamburg. To get a recipe for a soup with a tradition of almost 150 years is of course special. Which chef allows himself to look over his shoulder and reveal the secrets for which his restaurant and hotel is world famous. Stars from all over the world travel to Hamburg just to eat the famous “lobster soup” at noon at the Kempinski Atlantic Hotel Hamburg. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but the recipe was created before 1900 and is still used that way today and served accordingly.
Lobster soup is a Hamburg specialty, and it is a reminder that German cooking is not only pork and potatoes. The northern port cities have their own kitchen, built on the North Sea, and this creamy shellfish soup is one of its best pieces.
The flavor lives in the shells, not the meat. Roasting the shells before simmering them draws out a depth that no store-bought stock will give you, and it is the single step that separates this from an ordinary cream soup. In the US, lobster is easiest on the East Coast, but frozen tails work — save every shell. A splash of brandy or dry sherry at the end sharpens the whole thing.
400 mllobster stock alternatively fish stock or water
Instructions
Cook lobster in boiling salted water for 4 minutes, then rinse in ice water and let the claws steep individually in the cooking water for another 7 minutes. Start 4 minutes timer here // Start 7 minutes timer here
Break out the lobster parts, clean them and remove the intestines. Wash and chop the lobster carcasses.
Fry carcasses in neutral vegetable oil, cut vegetables into 1x1cm cubes and fry with them. Add spices, deglaze with cognac and flambé.
Add tomatoes and fill up with 400ml lobster stock, 50ml white wine and cream.
Slowly bring to a boil and add herbs. Reduce heat and let steep for about 2 hours. Start 120 minutes timer here
Strain lobster stock through a fine hair sieve and season to taste. Warm the gutted lobster meat in the separate lobster stock and divide among four soup plates.
Froth the lobster soup with a hand blender and serve. The lobster soup is put on the lobster meat with lobster stock and visible sugar snap peas in front of the guest.
Nutrition per serving
223kcal
7 gFat
21 gCarbs
17 gProtein
12 gSugar
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Lobster soup recipe and ingredients for the “lobster soup” Franz Pfordte style
The Kempinski Atlantic Hotel Hamburg has kindly allowed me to give you the ingredients for the restaurant, so that you can cook your own lobster soup at home and get a feeling of the wide world and great tradition.
The lobster soup recipe is designed for four people, but you can believe me, I would only try the soup with your partner or best friend for now, because I’m not sure you would want to share it then.
You can find the lobster soup recipe notes and how to process the ingredients directly in my recipe at the bottom of the page.
After I already told you about the secret room in the first part of my report about the Kempinski Atlantic Hotel Hamburg on my lifestyle blog, it’s now time to reveal the secret why the soup is so famous that guests from all over the world, even if they don’t stay at the hotel (which is actually a shame), book a table – just to be able to eat this soup once.
I could hardly believe it either, but the dish is served over 2,500 times a year – always freshly prepared, always the special course. While in the past it was the passengers of the Hamburg-America Line who were preparing for the great voyage or ate the first dish in Europe upon arrival, today it is people like you and me, but also many celebrities from all over the world, who stop by there because of “this” soup.
Often, however, it does not remain with a lobster soup, but the evening ends at the well-stocked bar and in the cigar lounge and the next time they spend the night directly in the house – it makes life and the daily routine then also much easier. But how did the special soup come about and what is the lobster soup recipe…
Lobster soup recipe – according to original “Atlantic” tradition
According to tradition, the original lobster soup recipe comes from Franz Pfordte, who was born back in 1840 and was considered one of the greatest chefs of the time. Emperors and kings, dukes and artists went to his restaurants – it was the most famous restaurant in the area and everyone knew the lobster soup.
In 1909, the then hotel director of the Atlantic Hotel lured Franz Pfordte to the new hotel and together they opened the restaurant. A contact that benefited both sides – many guests no longer just visited the restaurant, but became interested in the hotel as well.
After many difficult years, it was the chefs of the modern age who revived the old tradition and so it happened one day in the 21st century that Rod Stewart again ordered lobster soup in the restaurant and asked for the lobster soup recipe until the chef softened and gave it to him personally – only for private use. Rod Steward is still a welcome guest today and told an American television program about the lobster soup recipe and the best “lobster soup worldwide”. The result is well known – everybody wants to try the lobster soup and also I did it and I have the secret lobster soup recipe for you today…
I can tell you, with me the lobster soup and lobster soup recipe will also become a tradition in Hamburg, it tasted exquisite and I will certainly try the lobster soup recipe of the lobster soup personally on an appropriate occasion. A really nice experience.
A special feature of the lobster soup in the restaurant at the Atlantic Kempinski Hotel is, of course, the way the soup is served. A plate with half the lobster is in front of you, the soup from a silver tureen is spread over the lobster. A truly beautiful experience…
More moments and great dishes
Of course, the lobster soup in the restaurant is a real highlight that you should try, but I also tried other dishes on the menu and it was really a wonderful culinary journey through the different cuisines of the world – always with a touch of “wanderlust” and thoughts of the great voyage across the Atlantic….
So you should definitely try the fillet of beef “Rossini” or the wild fish “turbot” – I could try all day, the different dishes on the menu – just much too tempting.
A sweet conclusion must of course not be missing from the dishes and so I opted for the “Red fruit jelly with vanilla sauce”, as well as variations of Valrhona chocolate… a perfect ending of the great day or not…?
The special art at the Kempinski Atlantic Hotel Hamburg
Of course, you know the famous guests who stay at the hotel, the stars and celebrities who walk the red carpet to events in Hamburg, the stars who have their events at the hotel or even the famous scenes from movies that were shot at the hotel.
However, the most famous guest of the hotel is a German artist who has already lived in the hotel for decades and only briefly looked for another hotel during the renovation. Udo Lindenberg and the Atlantic Hotel have a long friendship and also many great moments.
So it is not surprising that the paintings that Udo Lindenberg has painted over the years can be seen in a small exhibition in the hotel and I must admit, many really very beautiful paintings and drawings that you simply should have seen once.
Update: In the meantime, the hotel and restaurant is no longer part of the Kempinski Group, but belongs to Broermann Health & Heritage Hotels
So the hotel offers you so many possibilities that you just have to experience once – a real luxury hotel with a long history. If you’re ever thinking of starting a cruise from Hamburg, you should definitely stay at the Kempinski Atlantic Hotel Hamburg one night before to get in the perfect mood. I will certainly visit the hotel again when I’m in Hamburg… (even without a planned cruise) and maybe even just for the lobster soup.
At home, I like to recreate the lobster soup recipe as a reminder and make some delicious bread to go with it, fresh salmon and then my raspberry chocolate cupcakes for dessert.
Comments 3
12
★ Top comment
JJonathan2 years ago
Had a lobster soup some years ago in Boston and it was delicious. Always looking for a special recipe and I love this one. Really think about going to Hamburg in the future and might test the original one. Thank you for sharing!
7
MMyGermanBakeryTeam2 years ago
Thank you so much for sharing your impressions and you really have to visit Hamburg.
1
SStreich3 years ago
Great soup, great recipe. It just didn’t quite taste like it does on the Atlantic coast at first. I wondered whether I’d done something wrong or forgotten something. And yes, I had forgotten something – something that wasn’t even in the recipe: the magic touch for fish sauces and stocks, that tiny splash of Noilly Prat.
Originally posted on our German recipe blog EinfacheRezepte.tv and translated for our English-speaking readers.
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Comments 3
Had a lobster soup some years ago in Boston and it was delicious. Always looking for a special recipe and I love this one. Really think about going to Hamburg in the future and might test the original one. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing your impressions and you really have to visit Hamburg.
Great soup, great recipe. It just didn’t quite taste like it does on the Atlantic coast at first. I wondered whether I’d done something wrong or forgotten something. And yes, I had forgotten something – something that wasn’t even in the recipe: the magic touch for fish sauces and stocks, that tiny splash of Noilly Prat.