From the-berliner.com
Sophia Hoffmann on vegan comfort food, zero-waste cooking and celebrating her restaurant’s third birthday
In Marianne Vlachists’ ‘Schweinehimmel’ painting above HAPPA’s dining tables, pigs happily lounge on a cornucopia of vegetables. It mirrors the gentle warmth that pulls people in through the restaurant door. Warm woods, red and pink upholstery, an open kitchen and books on display: the interior invites you to take a seat and stay for a while.
Sophia Hoffmann, founder of the all-vegan, zero-waste restaurant, shares that “‘Happa’ in German is the first word a child uses for eating, similar to a phrase like ‘nom nom’. It works internationally because it’s fun, it has ‘happy’ in it and it’s easy to remember.’’
Hoffmann is a vegan chef and cookbook author with years of experience in zero-waste cuisine. Instead of regarding plant-based eating as a lifestyle, for Hoffmann, it’s knowledge to tap into. “Plant-based eating has been around for ages in food cultures and culinary traditions worldwide. Often, that knowledge is lost. Living in the Global North, considering how much we, with our consumption, exploit certain parts of the world, it’s a conscious decision to cut down on animal products – a choice that is inevitable.’’
Hoffmann and her co-founder, Nina Peterson, have made that inevitable choice and shared it with Berlin in their colourful, seasonal menu. HAPPA’s new starter – their sticky, umami, soy-glazed pumpkin – does an amazing job at showing just how comforting vegan comfort food can be. Served with peanut sauce, spring onions, micro greens and dusted with tomato, the dish makes you forget you ever wanted anything other than plant-based food. It also makes you wonder where tomato dust has been all your life. But that’s just one example of how creative and delicious the menu is at HAPPA. Hoffmann shares how the team comes up with ideas for their dishes: “It’s definitely teamwork. I love bouncing around ideas. We get started by asking, ‘What do we have in our storage? We still have peanuts! Can we do something with peanuts?’ We also have a small kitchen. It has to be easy, effective. We’d have to raise our prices for the menu if it got too complicated, and that would be against our philosophy. A combination of all these factors builds our menu.’’
Hoffmann and her team’s dishes are seasonal, warm and creative. The Alpine-Mediterranean cuisine is influenced by her childhood in southern Germany, as well as by her childhood upbringing, where she was taught not to let food go to waste. For Hoffmann, this was when the myriad of ways that you can use a vegetable became apparent. There’s a term for using as much of the vegetable as possible: ‘from leaf to root’. But what does that actually mean? Having worked on the topic of zero waste for years, Hoffmann is the person to ask. “Vegetable leaves – just bite into them. If it’s woody or not tasty, it goes into the compost. Almost every part of a vegetable is edible, with a few exceptions. It starts with knowing the value of food. To nourish that knowledge, you can start in kindergarten, or you can start with people who are 60 years old. As soon as you get that spark into people, the value of food will grow. We all have too much food at home. Have a look at your pantry before you go shopping.’’
The seed of starting a gastronomy business was embedded in Hoffmann when she was young, playing make-believe restaurant as a kid. She started working in hospitality when she was 16, but it took her a while to figure out that this could be a career path. “Looking back now, there was definitely a lack of female role models. Nobody told me in high school that I could be a chef. I only started working in kitchens professionally in my early 30s. Before that, I worked in music as a DJane and as a journalist. After working in nightlife for around 10 years, I needed a change and started doing internships and apprenticeships. I worked as a chef at Isla in Neukölln, a café known to have a circular, zero-waste concept. Then, I did a diploma programme in Cologne at a place called Bio-Gourmet Club. The woman who runs it, Mayoori Buchhalter, has definitely been a mentor for me. She had a vegan restaurant in Cologne long before people knew what vegan was.’’
Plant-based eating doesn’t mean limiting yourself. In Hoffmann’s world, the possibilities are so rich that she can’t pick just one favourite ingredient. “My team would probably say I really like tahini. I use it for everything, from sweet to savoury dishes. I also really like potatoes. If I had to choose one vegetable, it would probably be potatoes. And I love bread. One day I want to write another book just about bread! In every culture, there are recipes for what to do with stale bread, and there are a million ways to use it up, from cutting and freezing it so you can just put it in the toaster, to making croutons, bread crumbs or cheesecake crusts.’’
Even if the possibilities are limitless, there was and might always be pushback against vegan eating, but Hoffmann thinks, “It’s ridiculous to say veganism is just a trend. We have very limited resources. During our lifetime, we will probably experience a shortage of water, and animal farming uses a lot of water. Plant-based eating is a necessity.’’
Hoffmann and her team also believe that plant-based eating should be for everyone. They work hard to keep their menu affordable and accessible. HAPPA has kept the price for their seasonal three-course menu at €38, although they will have to raise it to €40 in 2026. Looking back on the past three years, Hoffmann shares some of the challenges the restaurant has encountered. “It has been quite a journey. We’re in the middle of a recession and hospitality is struggling. But we have amazing customers. We’ve been able to create a community here and we value that a lot. Berlin has always had this image that food has to be super cheap, but I can tell you that if food is super cheap, someone along the line is probably being exploited. It’s important for people to understand the work that goes into making food and running a place like this. We see so many restaurants closing these days. Don’t take it for granted.’’
HAPPA is on Schlesische Str. 35A, Kreuzberg. Book via happa-berlin.com and follow on IG @happa_restaurant.
https://www.the-berliner.com/food/three-years-of-happa-days/
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