When I spoke with Sven Elverfeld, he was the chef of Aqua at The Ritz-Carlton, Wolfsburg, in Germany. The book’s roll call records that Aqua served its final service in March 2026 and that Elverfeld continues with S.E.A. by Sven Elverfeld aboard The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection.
Elverfeld speaks in the book to the beginning of a career rather than to a single moment of decision. He told me he had always wanted a profession that combined craftsmanship with creativity, and his first apprenticeship, as a confectioner in a small German bakery in the early 1980s, was the natural first expression of what he already was. He was the only apprentice the bakery took that year, and he spent three years there. His superior, who was quite young himself, encouraged him onward and then gave him a piece of advice that changed the course of his working life: that craftsmanship in the confectionery sector would contract and be viable for only a few companies, and that he ought to broaden his horizons. Elverfeld listened and began a second apprenticeship as a chef. What stayed with me is the gratitude. Decades later, he still credits the advice.
“I was fortunate to be the only apprentice in training for all three years” Sven Elverfeld, Aqua at The Ritz-Carlton, Wolfsburg
In the book, Sven Elverfeld appears in Chapter 1, The Calling, and Chapter 2, The Apprenticeship. In The Calling, he is the example of a chef who points to a permanent orientation rather than a moment, and whose first apprenticeship simply gave form to it. In The Apprenticeship, his three years in the bakery and the advice that sent him into the kitchen illustrate what a good superior does for an apprentice, and his own counsel to stay humble and to treat every member of the team with respect paraphrases the wisdom of every master in the book.
“I heeded his advice and, for me to continue working creatively and artfully, as well as broaden my horizons, I started my second apprenticeship as a chef. I am still very grateful for his advice.” Sven Elverfeld, Aqua at The Ritz-Carlton, Wolfsburg