This document provides an overview of cuisine and dining experiences in Switzerland. It discusses traditional Swiss dishes like fondue and raclette but notes that local dining focuses more on fresh, seasonal ingredients and influences from surrounding countries like France, Germany, and Italy. Notable restaurants are highlighted in cities like Basel, Zurich, and Lausanne that showcase precision cooking using high-quality local products. Swiss chocolate and wine industries are also summarized as setting global standards for quality.

1. CAD/US $6.95
ISSUE 21 Spring 2016
SWITZERLANDFOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE TO read, LOVE TO eatAND LOVE TO travel
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2. CAN’T
MISS
SWISS
byELYSE GLICKMAN
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DESTINATIONS
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TASTE&TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL APRIL–JUNE 2016

3. WHERE ON EARTH
Switzerland
PHOTO THIS SPREAD
Geneva waterfront.
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DESTINATIONS
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APRIL–JUNE 2016 TASTE&TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL

4. THROUGHOUT SWITZERLAND, THERE ARE MANY
restaurants in storybook-cute tourist areas serving up
fondue, raclette and chocolate. Giant, piping hot pretzels,
with and without sandwich fixings, are ubiquitous
(especially from the chain Bretzelköenig). However, if you
come to Switzerland hoping to eat like a local, there's a
possibility you may never see a fondue fork or huge
amounts of melted Gruyère.
While those pots of liquid gold can be traced back to the
18th century, and enjoyed a North American heyday in the
1960s and 70s, to get a more comprehensive read on Swiss
cuisine, keep in mind Switzerland is surrounded by France,
Germany and Italy, along with their gastronomic influences.
The terrain that begets happy cows and outstanding dairy
products also turns out fragrant and flavourful summertime
fruits and vegetables as well as hearty cold weather root
vegetables and grains for bread products and pastas
enjoyed year round.
Although Switzerland is one of the most expensive
countries in Europe, restaurants and specialty food shops
take pains to ensure customers get their Swiss Francs’
worth. From quirky neighbourhood cafés to top-tier dining,
and from the French finesse of Geneva, Montreux and
Lausanne to the Germanic substance of Zurich and Basel,
one thing that remains constant is an emphasis on precision
and balance.
The best way to describe art-centric Basel's restaurants is
"tasteful but expressive" in keeping with the art housed in
the city's many museums, including the Kunstmuseum and
the Beyeler Institute (both with delightful cafés). However,
the award-winning chefs behind such restaurants as the
Brasserie at Les Trois Rois Hotel and Die Zunft zum Schlüssel
prove that traditional doesn’t have to mean stuffy or bland.
Chef Peter Knogl, honoured as Chef of the Year 2011 by
Gault Millau, anchors Les Trois Rois Brasserie as well as
destination restaurants Cheval Blanc and Chez Donati, with
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5. kitchens that, well, run like clockwork. The action going on in
the glass-enclosed kitchen adjoining the brasserie is
synchronized rather than chaotic. Although Knogl’s team
must be aware that they’re being watched, they proceed
with grace to finish dishes perfectly, down to garnishes and
condiment embellishments.
The only thing livelier than Les Trois Rois’ famous
panoramic Rhine sunset view is my seasonal summer salad.
It is emblematic of just how much the Swiss value their local
greens. The delicate leaves are graced with a poached egg
and lemongrass dressing that accents their sweet, earthy
notes. Knogl’s monkfish is smoky and earthy, and presents
an interesting paradox that something so subtle can be very
expressive. Less is also more with dessert, with just a touch
of cake streusel enhancing seasonal strawberries with lime
mousse and basil custard.
While Die Zunft zum Schlüssel, in the heart of Old Town,
initially appears a tourist draw, look more closely and you’ll
see the hallmarks of a hip gourmet destination. At the front
of the restaurant, you’ll find Gilde, a free magazine from the
Guild of Swiss Restaurateurs, with profiles and recipes from
Switzerland's culinary vanguard.
When I ask the waitress what dish on the menu best
represents the direction lead chef Anderas Uebersax
believes Swiss food is taking, she directs me to Chicken
Saltimbocca and Risotto (no doubt taking some cues from
Switzerland's Italian side), made with a local Belper-Knollen
cheese and seasonal vegetables. Instead of a big platter of
heavy, bland food, I find perfectly portioned chicken filets
topped with shaved bacon and a risotto with a herbaceous
flavour profile. The house-made sorbets and ice creams are
also a revelation. Inspired flavours include basil, Aperol and
the seductive apricot-thyme.
While traditional restaurants and fantastic open-air food
markets abound in Switzerland’s largest city, Zurich, the
most exciting things food-wise are unfolding in Zurich West,
PHOTOS THIS SPREAD CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT The
restaurant at Hotel Stochen; Beef tartare at Hotel Richemond;
Celebrating jazz in Montreux; Hotel Beau Rivage suite; Cafe
Viadukt; Sunset in Basel; Coffee break at Les Trois Rois; Frau
Gerolds Garten.
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6. SERVES 4
Züri Geschnetzeltes
ACCORDING TO CHEF Rolf Hiltl, this tofu
geschnetzeltes, served with rösti or pasta, is as good as
the meat version of this classic Zurich dish.
Button Mushrooms 400 g
Sunflower Oil 2 Tbs
Firm Tofu 500 g, sliced
Butter 25 g
Onion 1 medium, finely
chopped
Tomato Purée 1 Tbs
White Wine 200 ml
Cognac a dash
Double Cream 400 ml
Vegetable Stock 150 ml
Fresh Lemon Juice 1 Tbs
Sea Salt and Freshly
Ground Black Pepper
to taste
1 CLEAN the mushrooms
and slice thinly.
2 HEAT the oil, gently fry
the tofu over low heat
and set aside.
3 IN the same pan, heat
the butter and gently fry
the onion until golden
brown, taking care not
to burn it.
4 ADD the mushrooms
and tomato purée and
continue to fry. Add the
white wine and cognac,
stirring while the liquid
reduces.
5 ADD the cream and
vegetable stock, and
continue to cook until
the sauce has the
required consistency.
6 LASTLY, add the tofu
and season with lemon
juice, sea salt and
pepper.
PHOTOS THIS SPREAD
FROM TOP LEFT
Winemaker Patric
Fonallaz; Chef Rolf Hiltl;
Hotel 25 mixologist.
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DESTINATIONS
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CAN’T MISS SWISS
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Cook
it

7. where barren industrial space has been transformed within in a
decade into everything that’s right about modernism in interior
design and food. A perfect day in the new neighbourhood starts
with a retail fix at Im Viadukt shopping area (shops and
restaurants artfully built into the arches of the area’s old viaduct),
then moving on to the various art galleries.
Happy hour is best spent with the impressive cocktails and
nibbles at Frau Gerolds Garten and the 25h Hotel Zurich West.
Dinner at Restaurant Viadukt not only inspires because of its
contemporary ‘country’ cuisine with ingredients culled from the
nearby food market, but also its AIP (Work Integration Project)
vocational program whose manpower keeps the hip food-art-
and-music venue going full tilt. This makes my crisp apple-jicama
salad and veal sausage with couscous all the more delicious.
If there’s one spot that epitomizes Zurich’s reconciliation of
old and new, it’s fourth-generation Haus Hiltl, established in 1898
and credited as the first vegetarian restaurant in the world. From
the multi-storey open kitchen to a sleek dining room, convivial
‘coffee house’ area and a menu that covers all continents, there’s
literally something for everybody, including those who normally
would never go anywhere near a vegetarian café. Current owner
Rolf Hiltl, who has been expanding the enterprise’s colourful
SERVES 4
Pumpkin Risotto with
Honey and Rosemary
CHEF ROLF HILTL recommends Sauvignon Blanc for
cooking the risotto as well as to accompany the meal.
Diced Pumpkin 300 g
Cooking Oil 3 Tbs
Fresh Rosemary
2 sprigs, chopped
Olive Oil 2 Tbs
Onion 1 medium, finely
chopped
Garlic 1 clove, crushed
Arborio Rice 500 g
Bay Leaf 1
White Wine
200 ml, divided
Vegetable Stock 800 ml
Honey 1–2 Tbs
Pumpkin Seeds
20 g, toasted
Mascarpone 2 Tbs
Parmesan 15 g, grated
White Wine 50 ml
Sea Salt and Freshly
Ground Black Pepper
to taste
Fresh Rosemary Tips
to garnish
1 IN a non-stick frying
pan, brown the diced
pumpkin in a little oil.
Add salt, pepper and
rosemary, then set aside.
2 HEAT the olive oil and
sauté the onions and
garlic. Add the rice and
bay leaf and sauté a
little longer.
3 ADD 150 ml white
wine and then half of
the stock — the liquid
should be about 2 cm
over the rice; if not, add
a little water.
4 SIMMER for 45 minutes,
stirring continuously.
During this time keep
adding some of the
remaining stock.
5 ADD the honey,
pumpkin seeds and
browned pumpkin to the
risotto and simmer until
the rice is al dente.
6 FOLD in the
mascarpone, parmesan
and the remaining white
wine.
7 WHEN the rice is
creamy, season with salt
and pepper to taste and
serve garnished with the
rosemary.
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DESTINATIONS
SWITZERLAND
CAN’T MISS SWISS
APRIL–JUNE 2016 TASTE&TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL
CAN’T MISS SWISS
Cook
it…traditional doesn’t have to
mean stuffy or bland…

8. Haute Cocoa: Why
Swiss Chocolate is
the Gold Standard
THE FACT THAT TRIANGULAR
Toblerone bars are a familiar movie
theatre treat and Lindt truffles can
be found in major North American
supermarkets speaks volumes about
how the Swiss chocolate industry
literally set the bar for cacao-based
candy production worldwide. Although
Switzerland is not a cocoa-producing
country (Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Ghana,
and Nigeria lead the world in cocoa bean
production), and the Dutch are credited
with the invention of cocoa powder,
innovations in the 19th century show
how Swiss ingenuity brought something
good to the next level.
1819: Francois-Louis Cailler develops a
recipe to turn gritty cocoa beans
into a solid, smooth chocolate bar.
1819: Rudolph Lindt perfects the
smoothing process by adding
cocoa butter with a machine he
called the conche.
1830: Charles-Amédée Kohler adds
hazelnuts to chocolate.
1860s: Jean Tobler formulates the
Toblerone bar.
1875: In Montreux-Vevey, Daniel Peter
develops a recipe for combining
cocoa powder with local milk, and
voila! Swiss milk chocolate is born
and takes the world by storm.
approach to vegan and vegetarian beyond his grandparents'
ambitions, describes perfecting the restaurant’s offerings as a never-
ending work in progress.
A just-opened non-meat ‘butcher’ shop adjoining the restaurant
and its catering service has kept Rolf Hiltl and his team busy in recent
years. By day, the flagship restaurant offers cooking classes for
professional chefs and hobbyists. On certain nights, the space
becomes one of the city’s hottest nightclubs.
Anybody who likes Zurich will also enjoy Lausanne, which shares a
delightful convergence of old-world fairytale charm and modernism,
embodied by Flon, a revitalized industrial neighbourhood defined by
bold colours and shapes. Plan your visit to Lausanne on a Saturday,
when the Old Town is made all the more enchanting with its weekly
market. Stalls and vendors line steep cobblestone streets, piled high
with produce, artisanal cheese, chocolates and baked goods. After
scaling streets and pushing through throngs of shoppers, reward
yourself with a quiet half hour at Le Barbare, a hidden gem renowned
for its sinful, viscous hot chocolate.
Museums are another draw in Lausanne, and it should be noted
that TOM Café at the Olympic Museum serves crisp, clean sandwiches
and salads, while L’Esquisse (“The Sketch”), the fine-dining restaurant
adjoining the delightful Fondation de l’Hermitage, lives up to the
excellence of the museum, as well as the lush gardens and greenery
surrounding the quaint cottage it is housed in. Though L’Hotel’s
Friends Café in Flon is more a start-the-evening gathering place, my
friends and I appreciated the thought put into the appetizers,
including steak tartare (another Swiss staple) housed in tiny
terrariums. The crowded but inviting Le Comptoire, meanwhile, is a
fantastic late-night destination for craft cocktails.
Although the Swiss railway system is one of the most efficient
ways to travel from city to city, the most romantic way to travel from
Lausanne to Montreux is by boat along Lake Geneva, and by way of
Cully, the gateway to the Lavaux region, Switzerland’s wine-
CLOCKWISE FROM
CENTRE TOP Swiss
chocolate; L'Esquisse
Hermitage, Lausanne;
swiss cheese; Fine dining
at Hotel Richemond.
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9. Les Trois Rois and Brasserie les Trois Rois
www.lestroisrois.com
Restaurant Schlüsselzunft
www.schluesselzunft.ch
Haus Hiltl
www.hiltl.ch
Restaurant Viadukt
www.restaurant-viadukt.ch
Frau Gerolds Garten
www.fraugerold.ch
Hotel Storchen
www.storchen.ch
Its 650-year history, river views and breakfast
make it worth the splurge.
The 25h Hotel
www.25hours-hotels.com/en/zurich-west
L’Esquisse
www.lesquisse.ch
TOM Café at the Olympic Museum
www.olympic.org/museum/.../tom-cafe
Chocolaterie Le Barbare
www.le-barbare.com
Café Friends at L’Hotel
www.lhotel.ch
Au Clos de la République
www.patrick-fonjallaz.ch
Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic Montreux
www.suisse-majestic.com
Hôtel Beau-Rivage
www.beau-rivage.ch
Hôtel Richemond
www.lerichemond.com
Savoie/Philippe Chevrier Dinner Cruise
www.savoie-philippe-chevrier.ch/fr/
presentation/
producing heartland. Au Clos de la République, overseen by winemaker
Patric Fonallaz, not only produces exceptional wines (including
international award winners Sauvignon d'Epesses Lavaux AOC and
Viognier du Château du Châtelard Grand Cru Lavaux AOC) but presents
them against mountainous vistas that fit every fantasy you may have
had about a green, floral Swiss summer.
During festival times (especially during its world-renowned Jazz
Festival), Montreux buzzes with visitors and celebrities (Phil Collins, Tina
Turner, Freddie Mercury and Charlie Chaplin) who have made the city
their own. The lakeside is flanked with many grand hotels’ including
Hotel Swisse-Majestic, our Belle-Epoque lodging, and the Fairmont
Montreux Hotel, which catered the 2014 Montreux Jazz Festival's VIP
tents, and provides flavourful picnic fare that hits the right notes.
Our pre-concert feast overlooking Lake Geneva starts with a selection
of seasonal salads, followed by roasted quail breast rolled in Chasselas
raisins, zucchini au gratin baked with Gruyère and double-cream cheese,
and sausages roasted in a Pinot Gris marinade. These are washed down
with Tattinger champagne or a Merlot from local producer Domaine de
la Pierre Latine. Although I marvel that Swiss wine is not available on the
US market, considering all the accolades, my Swiss-born travel
companion, Maja, flashes me a knowing look and says, “We love it so
much we want to keep it for ourselves!” Point well taken.
It goes without saying that the five-star lakefront hotels in luxury-
and-history rich Geneva refute the assumption that hotel restaurants are
often an afterthought. Hôtel Beau Rivage’s Le Chat Botte is a Michelin
star establishment overseen by Chef Dominique Gauthier, and the Hôtel
Le Richemond’s Le Jardin has its own team of Gault et Millau award-
winning chefs. However, the ultimate splurge — and the perfect way to
wind up a visit to Switzerland — is a cruise on the 100-plus-year-old
Savoie around Lake Geneva, with a meal conceived by native chef
Philippe Chevrier.
Like a Rolex or a Patek-Philippe watch, the quality and engineering of
a Swiss culinary journey may not come cheap. However, a well-chosen
itinerary is positively timeless and decidedly worth the investment.
Los Angeles-based writer ELYSE GLICKMAN’s last story for
TASTE& TRAVEL was about Norway.
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SWITZERLAND
CAN’T MISS SWISS
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Restaurant Schlüsselzunft
www.schluesselzunft.ch
Visit
it