Der Fernsehkoch

Swiss pineapple cheese cream scarcely sounds like a dish designed to go with German Schinken und Kartoffel. But, forewarned by trade journals, wise West German grocers are busily stocking up on the ingredients. After Clemens Wilmenrod, Der Fernsehkoch (The Television Cook), tells the Hausfrauen how to make it, Swiss cream is sure to be a favorite dessert--and Clemens plans to pass the word soon. The balding, Menjou-mustached, ample-jowled Fernsehkoch last week was well into his seventh year on the air, with the oldest and most popular show on West German TV.

An actor by training, Wilmenrod, 52, owes his success to his lip-smacking, butter-and-ego personality. When he was an infant, says Clemens, his finely tuned palate rejected sour bottles that adults figured were perfectly sweet. All through his years of playing the provinces, he claims to have cultivated his "sixth sense for gourmandise" (a French girl friend was his most valuable assistant). Not until he had been on the air for two years did Wilmenrod ever bother with anything as stultifying as a professional cooking course.

Critics occasionally object to Clemens' odd recipes (he once prepared an omelet from an ostrich egg), and often accuse him of what they consider heinous culinary sins: he has been known to dip breaded cutlets in gravy (making a soggy crust), mix fresh cream with Madeira (which makes the cream run), and boil beef after searing it in a pan (making the meat tough). But Der Fernsehkoch has a ready answer: "As an actor, I know what goes over."

As a cook, he is also a fine salesman. Hausfrauen who have watched him operate in his gleaming white, gadget-spangled kitchen have developed statistically measurable yearnings for what West Germans know as an "American kitchen." Once, after he casually made use of a vegetable slicer called Schneidboy, sales of the gadget soared to 1,500,000. Author of three cookbooks, Wrilmenrod is swamped with offers for testimonials, but insists he is very choosy. "Not even for 100,000 marks would I endorse a recipe using margarine." That, Clemens feels, would destroy the glamour of his show for the audience, whom he addresses as "Verehrte Fein-schmeckergemeinde" (Honorable Community of Gourmets).

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