Jan Böhmermann sizzles on ZDFneo, moderator Klaas Heufer-Umlauf is a guest. A surprise guest puts them both in the bag. The TV review.
Summer time is sizzling time. This not only applies to us viewers, who have fired up the grill for the third time this week, but also to Jan Böhmermann. While the “ZDF Magazin Royal” is on pause, the satirist is again cooking with prominent guests on his show “Böhmi brutzelt” on ZDFneo. After the brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz tried their hand at Grandma Kaulitz’s original Christmas duck last week, this time Late Night Host and Böhmermann buddy Klaas Heufer-Umlauf is a guest.
Right from the start, he openly describes cooking as a “challenge” and has therefore brought fish fingers (yes, the ones from the freezer) with him, which he wants to prepare. Heufer-Umlauf is nevertheless self-confident. “In theory, I assume, it says how it’s done on the back here, too,” he examines the back of the pack of fish fingers. Offensive non-cooking on a cooking show? That could be exhausting, but it isn’t, because Böhmermann and Heufer-Umlauf overwhelm each other with entertaining teasing and side-swipes right from the start.
“Boehmi sizzles”
Guest: TV presenter Klaas Heufer-umlauf. First broadcast on ZDFneo: Saturday, July 9, 7:45 p.m. Available on demand in the ZDF media library.
Jan Böhmermann: “So there’s mashed potatoes with fish fingers and vegetables from the freezer?” Heufer-Umlauf: “If you say it like that, it sounds a bit simple, of course.” As far as mashed potatoes are concerned, the Late Night Berlin moderator is in the situation that he did it well once and now has to do it again and again. He expertly describes the potatoes in front of him as “starch vegetables” and explains in detail how mashed potatoes are prepared. When asked about the vegetables that are next to the potatoes, Heufer-Umlauf explains: “These things are completely new to me.” It’s all very ironic and funny.
Jan Böhmermann and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf on ZDFneo: teasing and digging en masse
The passionate hobby cook Böhmermann cooks number 51 from his former favorite Chinese restaurant in his hometown of Bremen: strips of beef with celery, carrots and bamboo. As a teenager, Böhmermann often went there with his pocket money when his father was on night duty and his mother didn’t have time to cook anything. At this point, parallels between the two can be seen, because Heufer-Umlauf’s dish also comes from the night shifts of his mother, who worked as a nurse. His father, like him, couldn’t cook either, but still had to feed him and his sister when their mother was at work. “They just did what it says on the back of the pack how to do it.”
The friendly rivalry that binds the two permeates the entire conversation. While Heufer-Umlauf has to admit that in the past he was “slightly tapped” and therefore had to lose weight, he attests Böhmermann a “typical German alcoholic figure, thin legs, big belly.” And when Jan Böhmermann Night host asks if he doesn’t want to drink alcohol, Heufer-Umlauf explains that he already drinks alcohol, “but not necessarily in the morning”. But even the “pale thin boy” can put punchlines: “I have the feeling that the relationship between you and Kai Pflaume is like when you start to call yourself darling ironically in a relationship: First it started as a joke and now it’s one kind of a friendship.”
| Surname | Klaas Heufer circulation |
| profession | TV presenter, entertainer, musician and entrepreneur |
| age | 38 years (September 22, 1983) |
| TV show | Late Night Berlin |
| tape | glory |
| Place of birth | Oldenburg |
You can tell the two of them are obviously enjoying the episode. Böhmermann: “Wait a minute, I have to cut up some celery. Heufer-Umlauf: “I don’t mind if we just work for the next 20 minutes.”
Ms. Choi steals the show from Jan Böhmermann and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf
When Jan Böhmermann suggested that the vegetables from Heufer-Umlauf might be ready, he replies: “I want it to taste just like my father’s. Just half an hour too long.” While Heufer-Umlauf watches over his fish fingers and the pots of potatoes and vegetables, Böhmermann really cooks to himself. However, his dish does not seem to be entirely successful. He had the dish personally served by the former cook of the restaurant in Bremen, Ms. Choi. These have brought the big world of Chinese cuisine closer to half of Bremen-Nord. He also learned from Ms. Choi how to behave when eating together with other people. Then he looks off-screen for a moment, smiles and asks: “Is there enough starch in there, Ms. Choi?” And Ms. Choi actually comes into the cooking studio. This is of course a coup by Jan Böhmermann.
Heufer-Umlauf can only stand there and laugh, taken aback. “Would it be okay if I also get Captain Iglo?” he asks later, whether the now unfair conditions. And then Ms. Choi shows the two amateurs how real professionals cook. She expertly prepares the strips of beef and ensures that Böhmermann’s dish is a success in the end. Compared to Ms. Choi’s cooking skills, Heufer-Umlauf’s efforts in the kitchen actually look like an ostrich trying to fly. The moment when the Late Night Berlin presenter throws up his fish sticks in the pan and Böhmermann and Choi applaud the scene is all the more beautiful. Heufer-Umlauf does not lose his good mood: “Do you smell burned or mine?”
The late-night host knows his entertaining role as a non-chef on a cooking show. When he needed nutmeg for his meal towards the end, he explained to the show’s staff: “I don’t want to cause any trouble here, only if someone happens to have nutmeg, I would take it. But no one has to walk to the Rewe any more.”
“ZDF Magazin Royale”: Again and again interesting revelations
The only question that remains is why a cooking show? You shouldn’t make the mistake of expecting something from “Böhmi sizzles” that the show doesn’t want to be. Sure, Jan Böhmermann is always expected to make the big political revelation. In recent years, his “ZDF Magazin Royale” has developed into a serious investigative format that repeatedly comes up with interesting revelations. And there is so much that could be seriously talked about. The Ukraine war, the climate crisis or the social grievances in the country. Only Böhmermann and his team make new enemies practically every week with the “ZDF Magazin Royale”. Who can blame him for simply wanting to provide shallow entertainment with “Böhmi sizzle” in the summertime.
You don’t have to celebrate Böhmermann. You don’t have to find him funny. But maybe you have to thank him for this anachronistic cooking show that comes across as straight out of the 90s. At a time when politics is made by polls and Netflix designs new shows based solely on viewership data, a satirist’s cooking show, which I’m sure no one was asking about, is a pleasant change. A program that only exists because the passionate hobby cook Böhmermann simply enjoys it. (Niklas Hecht)
