>> euromaxx highlights. in today's show, feast for the eyes. german photographer frauke koops puts food in the spotlight. perfecting imperfection. dutch designer hella jongerius and her unique creations. >> beethoven backwards. italian pianist mauizio

mastrrini performs classic cal music in restrers. -- reverse. and here's karin helmstaedt. >> hello and a warm welcome to our highlights edition! and we start off by raising our glasses to a major event on the wine calendar because this past week saw the third thursday of november, which means the beaujolais nouveau has arrived. as soon as the clocks chime midnight barkeepers can begin serving the first wine of the year. according to reports this time it has notes of raspberry and strawberry. many critics wrinkle their nose at a wine they consider too young and too simple to be taken seriously, but the intense marketing of the launch does ensure it has quite a following. it's arrival is traditionally

celebrated in beaujeu. in the heart of the beaujol afmente s region in central france. >> it is that time of year again. on the dot of midnight, it is time to toast the arrival of the new beaujolais nouveau. >> it is very good! >> pascal dufraitre is a winemaker who nees knows his beaujol afmente s. -- beaujolais. >> dufaitre has been a vintner

for 28 years and runs the renown winery chateau de pizay. he produces 600,000 bottles of wine a year, of which 120,000 are buge yea -- beaujolais nouveau. >> we produce very fruity wine on sandy soil, on granite soil with gamay. >> the winemaking region of beaujolais lies just north of lyon. some 20,000 hectares here are dedicated to growing grapes. charles duboeuf came up with the idea. thanks to him, beaujolais

nouveau is now known around the globe. today it is sold in over 150 countries. >> it is important, because it is a big part of our production. it is 1/4 of our production. it is important because we sell it in three, four weeks. >> it is a guaranteed money-maker for the vintners because only wine from this area can call itself beaujolais. the competition has to find itself another name, like novello from italy. >> i drink novello three or four years ago. it was like beaujolais nouveau, but without gamay. i think italian wine makers try to make beaujolais nouveau, but they have no gama, no soil.

the aftertaste is more strong, more hard, not so sweet. >> no doubt about t. the french love their beaujolais nouveau. >> we have a saying, when you drink a glass, you need another glass. >> no wonder it is the perfect wine for almost every occasion. >> and no shortage of if for the moment. while some wines are food, it is time to make an -- meet an unusual cook. frauke koops is a professional food stylist who makes pictures of food like the ones we see in cookbooks or magazines eat. they are in fact edible, too, as koops steers clear of all nasty styling tricks involving

inedible things like anti--freeze or hair spray. we met up in hamburg. >> reharsals for a glossy promotional photo. >> it has a lot to do with cooking, but for me it is like cooking with wood, stone, or any other material. >> frauke uses a wide selection of kitchen tools, as well as the skills she's honed for 50 years. the coffee made of cold sugar syrup looks steaming hot only because of a hidden boiled potato. a pinch of salt in the sparkling wine makes it especially bubblely. and a layer of semolina in the

bowl of soup stops the vegetables from sinking out of sight. some food stylists have distinctly unappetizing solutions -- shaving foam for whipped cream and engine oil instead of chocolate. frauke koops uses no such tricks. >> i want it to look natural, and that takes more time. >> she has experienced many different trends in food styling. today's neat fish dish would have been drowned in sauce in the 1960's. >> the first photograph i was required to re-do was a bone of red cabbage which didn't tower over the bowl. it was filled quite normally, but then i had to redo it. they wanted to a a big pile, and

that's because of what the dishes looked like. >> in the 1960's food design involved tremendous amounts of material. the plates had to showoff what you had. they were overfull, almost baroque. the post--war generation was hungry and eager to enjoy the fruits of the recovery. >> i think it was important to be full, and that's how food was served. today it is different, with more focus on presentation. >> the artistic presentation of food emerged in the late 1970's. the trend at that time was more plate than food. food styling was influenced by the trends toward nouvelle cuisine. that meant less quantity, but more quality, and more expense. star chefs catering to a select clientele. then the phenomenon of fast food chains took off. the burge.

-- the burger was one of the toughest for koops. the ingredients were set on tiny plastic sheets to keep them looking fresh. sometimes whole crates of rolls were thrown away before a photo was taken. >> sometimes the huge amounts the agencies expected us to use were overwhelming. i tried to understand it. i don't think these people really knew how much work is needed to get a product like that on the table. >> frauke koops doesn't work on fast food campaigns anymore. she prefers to craft her pictures individually, paying attention to the most minute details. the fig is turned to the light, the salad leaf shifted slightly

to the left. the com position alone can take two hours. and she uses only natural ingredients. >> per fektfex is when you pull an onion out of the earth and some of it is missing, or its been nibbled at by a snail. that's what i need, honesty in life. i can't whether i'm always true to that. but i try to be that way in my work. >> frauke koops' foodstyling is staged, but honest. a cabbage leaf becomes a work of art, and a series of photographs an idealized portrayal of culinary delights. >> and now to another woman whose work is always impressive, often seemingly simple, and with

tiny detail that sets it apart from the rest. dutch designer hella jongerius' work is always impressive. she was the first woman to be awarded the german design prize in 2006. renown for the way she fuses industry and craft, the media-shy jongerius is now being honored with a solo exhibition in rotterdam. >> the munich porcelain company, nymphenburg is one of her clients as well as the swiss furniture maker, vitra. and she designed this 50,000 euro desk for the paris gallery,

kreo. one day before the opening the dutch designer had finishing tusms of her own to add. she's a rule-breaker who prefers to give her products character rather than to just make them slick. >> the bass basic theme in my work is to make individual pieces. so make a series, but that you still see the hand of the maker. >> she designed these vases when she finished studying in 1993. she attracted attention from all over the world. this lamp and chair are on display at the new york museum of modern art. in 2004 she designed these water bottles for a french company. and for the swedish furniture company, ikea, she made these faces. she traveled to china to instruct workers to make little

dents in them with their fingers in order to make them look hand-made. other designers have long been copying her work, but she doesn't mind. >> if you are an innovator, you are often too far ahead. so the copies of the big market change. so i think it is good that there are copies, then the world changes, and that is my intention. >> the designer moved from rotterdam to berlin two years ago. she has a studio in the prenzlauerberg district. her assistant was the only one of her 10-person team to come with her. the place is filled with her own creases because unlike other designers, she likes to surround herself with her own work. and because she only makes things she likes herself, some of her se -- ceramic and porcelain pieces have found

themselves have found their way into her kitchen. these partially-glazed plates are an example. her shelves also play host to the so-called "b-set" which was considered a design innovation 13 years ago. >> the molds are perfectly done, but the plates are put in the kiln on a too-high temperature. that means each plate comes out a wlill would beably, not really in shape. that means each plate is unique, although it is industrially made. and that i think is the difference between plates which are industrial done and all look the same. >> her latest project involves the development of color. industrially manufactured colors are not enough for her, so she has come up with 17 shades of

black which change according to the time of day. color plays a big role in hella jongerius' work. for her so-called polder sofa, she combines six different shades of a color, and quickly had a best-seller on her hands for the swiss furniture company vitra. the exhibition at rotterdam's bojiman museum runs until february, and it is like a fair we will to the city for the designer. but her fans and design critics are already waiting for her next creations. >> everybody is asking, why don't you start making a car? the car is the top of industrial designers. but if the time is right, then maybe. you never know. >> but that might take a while,

because hella jongerius is now planning to start working with plastics. >> now we move on to music. if we were to proceed like the italian pianist maurizio mastrini, we would be starting at the end of the next report and working backward. amazingly, that's his claim to fame with classic cal piano music. pieces that are challenging enough to play forward, he plays in reverse. the result is a whole new musical world. >> a classic cal hit played backwards. for three years maurizio mastrini has performed well-known piano pieces back to

front. here's a prelude by johann sebast. ian bach. >> two years ago bach appeared to me in a dream. he said take of paper, and you will find a piece hidden within it. i will play it for you. ♪ >> first he plays it forward. it took two weeks for maurizio mastrini to perfectly master the piece in reverse. >> now i'll play it backwards. ♪ >> one of maurizio mastrini's favorite pieces is ludwig van beethoven's bagatelle in a

minor. it is immediately recognizable, even when played in reverse. ♪ >> these are completely new pieces, new melodies. the harmonies and compositional f -- logic to which our ears are acustomed to are turned upside down, so something is created which has never been heard before. >> mastrini reads the notes from back to front. at a concert in a bar in milan, maurizio mastrini also plays his own com positions. his encounter with bach has also

changed mastrini's way of making his own music. he now writes it down from right to left. >> it is fascinating, but at the start, it was also very difficult. >> i played 15 hours a day and got stomach cramps, because reading and playing music backwards is like going down a highway at 140 kilometers per how in reverse gear. >> today maurizio mastrini feels right at home in his topsy-turvy world. it is almost as if everyone else is doing things backwards. >> every -- everything's changed -- my life, my music. here i'm going backwards for fun, but for me, it is serious business. >> in the video for his latest c.d., "il mio mondoo al

contrario" or "my opposite world" the whole city ever london is going in reverse. maurizio mastrini provides the musical accompaniment of "flight of the bumble bee aye played backwards of course. peek flock to see the backward player perform in bare feet. >> very original. you recognize fur elise from that famous motif -- you even recognize it backwards. >> different sound combinations i haven't expected. >> maurizio mastrini's backwards rep -- repertoire comprises more than 30 classic cal and modern pieces.

currently he's on tour through his homeland, italy. >> as we've seen already in the show, good wine and food has been taking on ever more importance here. consequently, sales of cookbooks have been on a steady rise as people try to live by the maxim "you are what you eat." particularly hip right now all over europe is idea of sticking to seasonal and regional produce and a new cookbook by munich-based chef karl ederer follows this trend. heimat-food means literally "homeland food." >> munich's famous food mask. -- munich's famous food market. he is a fan of local, sustainable, food.

traditional dishes with a local flare. >> that means typical german products used in season. it is not extreme ivert -- extremist or militant. this food movement is not about lecturing people. it is about advocacy and pleasure and enjoy many. cooking with independent ingredients fresh -- cooking with ingredients that are fresh and regional. >> his restaurant in the center of munich's historic district serves the chef's interpretations of traditional cuisine. his recipes are featured in a newly-published cookbook as well. ederer wants his food to be more than a simple re-enactment of time-tested fare. >> heimat food is a culinary

style, so it also has to do with preparation and techniques drawn from various international cuisines. so what we call german food is cooked with greater skill and given a more elegant presentation. but the flavors are still deeply reminiscent of the food we have known from home. >> the market for culinary books and magazines is booming, with sales increasing up to 40% over the past decade. regional ingredients and traditional recipes adapted for the home kitchen are especially popular. >> there has been a long phase of international zation and global zation -- of internationalization and globalization of cuisines. our traditional meal time rituals have fallen by the wayside and takeout food have become the name of the game.

in that context, the return of traditional and local seems almost exotic. what was once ordinary and mundane now seems almost a luxury. >> today he is dook cooking a wels catfish using a recipe from his book. this type of catfish features frequently in bavarian cuisine. instead, he wraps the slices of catfick fish in potato strips that resemble spaghetti. >> when i visited my mother, she'd cook classic dishes for me. it was great, but the richness always overwhelmed what i would immediately head to the couch. modern, contemporary cuisine has an element of lightness and

should always have a high nutritional value. >> the fish is done after three or four minutes. people used to boil it to death in 30 minutes, but his version is moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. >> this is modern german cuisine. >> traditional cooking but in a wholly unfamiliar guys -- guise. >> that's all for this edition of euromaxx. if you want to see them again, go to dw-world.de/english/euromaxx-hig hlights. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--