Four Hundred Years Beside the Same Stream

Most houses tell their history because they need one. This one was already standing when Sasbachwalden had eighty-four citizens, and it survived everything: years of hunger, auctions, inflation and an authority that considered a café unnecessary.

When the Talmühle first appears in the records, Sasbachwalden has 84 citizens. Four hundred years later, it still stands beside the same stream.

The miller complains to the authorities that Joseph Fallert has the audacity to mill grain and bake bread for customers. The bailiff strictly forbids it. Two years later, Fallert buys the Talmühle himself at auction for 850 guilders, with the final bid. So begins the story of a family that started with forbidden bread and ended with a Michelin star.

Years of hunger ruin the mill, and two auctions fail to find a buyer. At the third, on 24 December 1850, the younger brother raises his hand. The Talmühle remains in the family and, over the next 170 years, leaves it only once and only briefly: in 1923, for 80 million inflation marks.

The Fallerts want to open a café alongside their bakery. The district authority refuses, declaring the local need for coffee and non-alcoholic drinks already adequately met. Permission finally comes in 1950, and the supposedly superfluous café becomes one of Baden’s first culinary destinations.

On Saturday, 3 May 1968, Gutbert Fallert cooks his first set menu: boiled beef brisket with horseradish. That same year, Café Fallert becomes Hotel ‘Talmühle’.

Michelin awards the kitchen a star, then does so again every year, forty-one times in succession without a single interruption. Hardly any other chef in Germany has achieved this. Gutbert Fallert’s only comment was: ‘You do not earn a star alone; you need a good team.’

After 71 years, the Talmühle closes. To say goodbye, the Fallerts invite former employees and long-time companions, with no grand speeches. The house is bought by a man who had been a guest for decades: a co-founder of the Fallert Fan Club.

The Talmühle becomes Maison Talmühle, with new hosts and a new chapter written with respect for the seven that came before. A corner beam from the old mill hangs by the entrance. It was already there when everything began.