For Thomas Henkelmann, it has been a long journey from his native Germany to Connecticut. Raised in the Black Forest, he first learned about cooking from his uncle, a local chef. His mother, recognizing his talent and wanting to nurture his passion, urged him to cross the border into France to learn la haute cuisine with Paul Haeberlin, a Michelin three-star chef in Alsace. "My time at the Auberge de l'Ill completely changed me," he says. "The Haeberlin brothers not only passed on to me their passion and the basics of the profession, but they also followed every step of my travels. They were the ones who sent me to continue my training with the great German chefs and who got me to cross the Atlantic. From them I learned true cooking: the correct degree of doneness, the amount of seasoning, the choice of garnishes, the lightness of sauces: an authentic and deeply-felt cuisine in which taste comes before the architecture of the plate! At this level there is something magical in simplicity. For all of this knowledge and for their unfailing support, they hold an important place in my heart."

In 1997, nine years after his arrival on American soil, Henkelmann and his wife Theresa acquired a 1799 colonial-style house in Greenwich, Connecticut. At Homestead Inn he can give free rein to his creativity, astonishing his east coast peers with bold pairings such as meat or fowl with seafood. He offers classic cuisine in which butter and cream are transformed in a kind of modern alchemy. He has retained from his Black Forest youth a taste for game, and his autumn menu often features partridge and pheasant. There are also some obvious nods to Alsace: traditional ones like the bacon, onion and fresh cheese pie, as well as more unexpected ones like the choucroute with champagne that accompanies a seafood mousseline! Here at the inn, Henkelmann achieves a delicate balance between past and present, a hybrid of New York City sophistication and New England understatement.

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