Herbaria: What role do spices play in your cooking?

Konrad Geiger: For me spices are a means of making foodstuffs come alive.

Herbaria: How do you develop your unusual blends?

Konrad Geiger: My compositions take shape in my head, not in the saucepan. Similar to a musician discovering an interesting note, perhaps. I think about what it is that I want to season, and then I devise a new flavour and the necessary ingredients. Sometimes I also take my inspiration from coincidences, for example, from the aroma of horseradish drifting into my office from the kitchen.

Herbaria: Is the invention of seasonings an aesthetic process?

Konrad Geiger: Yes, but a recipe is not determined by the composition of flavours alone. I also play around with the stimulatory effects of the ingredients, such as essential oils. They can increase the appetite or stimulate the metabolism. Some spices are also reputed to be genuine stimulants.

Herbaria: Could you give us a few examples?

Konrad Geiger: Nineteenth-century cookery books used to recommend that servants’ food not be too heavily spiced so as to avoid stimulating their sexual appetite, while in the Arab world men today still believe cardamom to be a sexual stimulant. Here in the West, vanilla, on the other hand, is said to raise the spirits.

Herbaria: Is there a spice harmony which you nevertheless need to adhere to?

Konrad Geiger: The greatest challenge when blending the individual ingredients is to prevent them from dominating one another or the flavour of the food in the final blend.

Herbaria: How would you characterise the style of your spice blends?

Konrad Geiger: My spices should be full of flavour and satisfy the palate in every respect. That is why I have rounded off the classic Chinese Five-Spice seasoning comprising long pepper, cinnamon, star anise, fennel and cloves with the warm, comforting flavour of vanilla

Herbaria: Which spice is your particular favourite?

Herbaria: I love chilli. There are so many different varieties and degrees of piquancy that you can season a dish with a range of chillies alone. Chilli is the soul of seasoning in my eyes.