The greeting from the kitchen should not be an act of desperation, but of enjoyment. But a sorbet in between cleanses and inspires as a counterpoint.

Cleanses the palate: lemon sorbet Photo: imago

Sometimes this gets out of hand with the greeting from the kitchen. You know, those little dishes with a fun gueule. Recently, in a very good restaurant in Nuremberg (one star in the Michelin guide) we were given four of these intermediate courses in addition to a six-course meal. You shouldn't really complain if they give you something for free, but if a meal lasts an hour and a half longer because of such excessive courtesy, so be it.

I experience something like this more often now. Or it is evidence of strong feelings of inferiority because the kitchen assumes that the food is not worth the price on the menu. So I wonder: Why don't you go down with that? Or it shows excessive overestimation of oneself because someone thinks they can't send ten dishes to me or you instead of six. All courses have to differentiate themselves from each other and at the same time create a certain dramaturgy, and then the middle courses simply become too much.

Enough complaining! Such a small kitchen greeting is of course a wonderful invention that will allow you, as a chef, to greet your guests. For me, it's often the result of an afternoon experiment that was so successful that I wanted to present it right away. It would be a shame to throw all that stuff in the trash or freeze it. Although, frozen… now I'll reveal a little secret: the middle dish on my menu lately is usually a scoop of sorbet bathed in a little alcohol.

Sorbet, actually water ice, usually made exclusively from fruits or vegetables, is now considered part of the dessert. In the past, however, it was served as an intermediate dish before the main course. It is inexplicable to me how sorbet as such could go out of fashion. Because it's so icy and a little sweet, it's a nice counterpoint to the starter.

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You've probably heard the saying that a scoop of sorbet cleanses the palate. I think it's actually true. And if there are children in the restaurant, the kitchen will almost certainly have them on their side with something sweet (always non-alcoholic). What I haven't made sorbet from before: pears, quince and light apples, watermelon, plums and pumpkin. Right now, since it's in season, there's blood orange sorbet from the Sicilian tarrocco: a bittersweet poem. The sorbet is served in frozen, hollowed out blood orange, and anyone who grew up in the 1980s gets a little slice of nostalgia for free.

I wouldn't mind ordering a full menu just for this little dish.