Friederun Kohnen

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Friederun Köhnen (born September 22, 1942 in Dresden ) is a German cook and entrepreneur .

In the 1960s she started her own business with an experimental kitchen, her company grew steadily and still exists today as “The Food Professionals Köhnen AG”. Köhnen created more than 100,000 recipes, which she published in numerous cookbooks and on product packaging. In doing so, she made foreign ingredients such as mozzarella and mascarpone known in Germany and also contributed to the spread of ready-made meals and frozen foods.

Life

In 1965, Köhnen went into business for himself at the age of 23 and with starting capital of 600 marks . She set up an experimental kitchen in her parents' basement. She soon made a name for herself in the food industry with innovative ideas. So she suggested to the owner of the Müller's Mühle company that his peas, beans and lentils should no longer be sold dry in bags, but instead sold in cans. The faster preparation was well received by customers, and the cans are considered one of the first ready-made meals in Germany.

The breakthrough in Köhnen's experimental kitchen came with the increased spread of frozen food , which earned her numerous orders. Another line of business was favored by the appearance of the first supermarkets . Many products that were previously sold fresh now required packaging, and Köhnen offered recipe ideas and pictures of the dishes, which were then printed on the packaging. With her recipe and product ideas, for example, on behalf of the Italian company Galbani, she made the previously almost unknown ingredients mozzarella, mascarpone or rocket and the dishes caprese and tiramisu known in Germany. She also advertised Asian products such as soy sauce and tofu , which were rather unknown at the time, in her recipes, which she also published in her own cookbooks.

When the private television broadcaster RTL was founded in 1984, she applied for a cooking program. Kohnen's idea of ​​having the program financed by the manufacturers of the products used in the show was accepted by RTL and Kohnen received her own program Come on in the kitchen , which she presented every day together with the presenter Horst Tempel . She shot for four years in her own TV kitchen for RTL. Back in the 1970s she presented a cooking column in the mission here and now of the WDR .

Over the years, the Köhnen experimental kitchen became The Food Professionals Köhnen AG with around 50 employees and an annual turnover of around 3.7 million euros. In 2010 Kohnen's son Volker, a trained photographer and ship mechanic, took over the management of the consulting company, which is based in Sprockhövel . Köhnen himself switched to the supervisory board. The business model still includes advertising campaigns, the development of new recipes and innovations as well as the publication of cookbooks and product photos that are created in the company's own photo studio. The company was also involved in the development of innovative ideas such as a currywurst for the microwave or a schnitzel for the toaster .

Works (selection)

  • Bake - fry - grill with aluminum foil , Heyne, 1971.
  • Slimming diet for working people , Heyne, 1972.
  • The correct stomach and intestinal diet , Heyne, 1972.
  • Proper nutrition for the expectant mother , Heyne, 1972.
  • Fight cancer with diet , Lübbe, 1976.
  • Friederun Köhnen's school cookbook , Lübbe, 1976.
  • Italian delicacies , Tomus, 1984.
  • Cooking & baking with delicious spices (with Dietmar Frege), Köhnen, 1985. ISBN 3-924822-42-5
  • Organic delicious cooking & baking (with Dietmar Frege), Köhnen, 1985. ISBN 3-924822-41-7
  • Hearty things from the oven (with Dietmar Frege), Köhnen, 1985. ISBN 3-924822-14-X
  • Cooking with imagination - a culinary guide for connoisseurs (with Dietmar Frege), Köhnen, 1986. ISBN 3-924822-04-2
  • Organic kitchen for the whole year , Martin Greil Verlag, 1990. ISBN 978-3572011230
  • Take a look - cook with us! (with Horst Tempel), Compact Verlag, 1991. ISBN 978-3817436408
  • Cooking creatively , Lingen, 1993.
  • An MDR Telethek book (5-part series with Horst Tempel), Buchverl. for the woman, 1995-1997.
  • The Great Japan Cookbook (with Haruyo Kataoka), Orbis, 2000. ISBN 978-3894302030

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b After over 100,000 recipes, mother hands over responsibility. In: WAZ Online from April 8, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c d A start-up from the economic miracle: The woman who brought us tomato and mozzarella. In: SpiegelOnline from August 14, 2015.
  3. ↑ The mother of all television chefs. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung from January 19, 2009.
  4. ↑ Company history ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of The Food Professionals Köhnen AG  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.food-professionals.de
  5. ↑ Product development - How innovations are created. In: cuisine.at .
  6. ↑ Friederun Köhnen - a visionary turns 70. In: dagusta.de of September 24, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Kohnen, Friederun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cook and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden