ILLUSTRATING
A THREE-MICHELIN STAR CHEF'S STORY
KEVIN FEHLING X SONJA CHRISTOPH
A Creative Collaboration with Kevin Fehling
My collaboration with three-Michelin-starred chef Kevin Fehling began in 2016, when I was commissioned to translate the stories behind his food into illustrations. Kevin’s cuisine has always been about more than what appears on the plate. Behind many of his dishes are memories, journeys, places and encounters, and my task was to take those stories and reinterpret them in my own visual language.
For the first edition of The Table magazine, I created eight original illustrations inspired by the stories behind some of Kevin’s signature dishes. Rather than illustrating the food itself, I wanted to capture the memories and experiences that had inspired it, creating small visual narratives somewhere between autobiography and fairy tale.
The collaboration continued in 2017 with six further illustrations for The Table Vol. 2. This time, Kevin shared some of his most memorable culinary experiences from around the world, from the simplicity of Singapore street food to meals in some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants.
Each story became an artwork, filled with the places, characters, flavours and details he remembered.Over the following years, our collaboration continued to grow. I created further illustrations and artwork for the magazine, including two magazine covers, eventually producing a collection of works that told an increasingly rich visual story of Kevin’s life, travels and culinary imagination.
From Page to Restaurant
In 2019, the project took on an entirely new scale.When Kevin created THE GLOBE aboard the luxury cruise ship EUROPA, I was commissioned to transform the stories we had been developing over the years into artwork for the restaurant itself.
The illustrations moved from the pages of a magazine onto the walls, becoming part of the environment in which guests experience Kevin’s food.
Stories of his travels, memories and culinary inspirations became a visual backdrop to a restaurant whose concept is itself deeply connected to travel and to Kevin’s own history aboard the EUROPA.
What began as eight illustrations had become something much larger: an ongoing conversation between two very different creative disciplines.
Kevin tells stories through food.
I tell them through pictures.
And somewhere between the two, those stories found another life.
Magazine Covers
The first cover I created for The Table Magazine was for Volume 5. Inspired by Kevin’s travels and the stories behind his dishes, I placed the restaurant’s distinctive, sculptural table at the centre of the illustration, surrounding it with symbols of the places, ingredients and experiences that had influenced his cooking. In July 2019, the cover was selected as one of Germany’s top ten magazine covers.
For the second cover, I turned to Hamburg, the city at the heart of Kevin’s culinary story. Against the city skyline, the Michelin Man emerges from a cloud of smoke, holding three stars in one hand and a miniature version of Kevin’s iconic table in the other.
The illustration celebrates both his connection to Hamburg and the three Michelin stars that have become synonymous with The Table.