Parmesan chips, polenta and ricotta, cider butter and trout caviar - all this will soon no longer be available at "Le Moissonnier" in Cologne. After 36 years, Vincent and Liliane Moissonnier are closing their two-star restaurant in the Agnesviertel this summer.

"It was supposed to be a small French bistro. But then he came on board: a young chef from the south of France," the owners write. With the help of their chef de cuisine, Eric Monchon, "Le Moissonnier" became what it is today: one of the two most highly decorated restaurants in the city. In a "Lettre du Cœur," a letter to their customers, the Moissonniers confirm the closure of the restaurant, reminisce and review their personal history, along with that of their restaurant.

On June 30, together with their long-time chef, they will receive customers for the last time. The restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in 1997 and the second in 2007, the owners write in their letter.

After so many years "full of dedication and gastronomic high performance, after 630 missed home games of the 1. FC Cologne, countless unseen movie premieres and canceled milestone birthdays among relatives and friends, after four James Bonds, one German Chancellor and three German Chancellors, it is time," writes Moissonnier. The couple plans to keep their “Weinlanden” wine shop on Sudermanstrasse in Cologne, but their restaurant on Krefelderstrasse will no longer exist as of this July.

All other professional plans which their longtime chef Monchon has firmly scheduled, will not be announced until August. Starting in September, Vincent and Liliane Moissonnier want to open a new chapter in their lives, they write: "We will change. And yet remain with you.”

(Orig. text: ga; Translation: ck)