Cheese Knife in Plum Wood

Some people who are passionate about food become chefs. Some become culinary designers. Others, politicians. Sarah Wiener is one of the few to do all three of those things.

Born in 1962 and raised in Vienna, Wiener worked her way up restaurants’ back-of-house before opening her own in Berlin in 1999. Ten years later, countless spots across the city bore her imprint, including the restaurants for the German Museum of Technology, the Academy of the Arts, the Museum for Communication, and Futurim—not to mention Stuttgart’s Mercedes-Benz Museum. Her celebrity status skyrocketed when, in 2007, she launched cooking shows on the European tv network Arte and Austria public broadcaster ORF.

That same year, she initiated a non-profit foundation dedicated to encouraging healthy eating, a principal she brought with her upon winning election in 2019 to the European Parliament, where she serves as a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. In 2013, she was awarded a membership in the Chevalier of the Order national du Mérite. Recognizing the tools one uses is as important as the ingredients, Wiener has partnered with Germany’s iconic Pott for a collection of handmade knives, manufactured by Mono.