My personal highlight: A delicate dish called “Pacman” made with a layer of corn catches all of my attention

We waited for so long and couldn’t be more excited to finally attend the 28th edition of St. Moritz Gourmet Festival in the upper Engadine! This year’s festival was dedicated to Swiss Chefs with the aim to specifically support the country’s top gastronomy and the producers as well as suppliers of fantastic regional products.

At the center of the program with different events as gourmet dinners and tastings were celebrity guest chefs, such as Tanja Grandits and top chefs Markus Arnold, Mitja Birlo, Stéphane Décotterd, Tobias Funke, Dominik Hartmann, Stefan Heilemann, Patrick Mahler, Heiko Nieder and Mattias Roock. Lovefoodish had the pleasure to attend the Gourmet Dinner of Chef Tobias Funke (Restaurant Incantare, Heiden)  and Chef Markus Arnold (Restaurant Steinhalle, Bern).

Gourmet Dinner Experience with Chef Tobias Funke -Restaurant Incantare (2 Michelin starred), Heiden at Saratz Hotel, Giodi Vegetarian and Co., Pontresina

Chef Tobias Funke -Executive Chef and Managing Director of Gasthaus zur Fernsicht Heiden and his staff took over the kitchen of the renewed vegetarian Restaurant Giodi located in the Hotel Saratz, Pontresina for a week to spoil all Festival guests with his culinary and complex cuisine. Funke’s passion consists in constantly creating new compositions using international, specifically selected or cultivated products with mainly local ingredients following a nose-to-tail philosophy. He likes cooking with cuts of meats that are not so well-known, this makes his signature dish is the “Challans Duck breast: A sandwich of heart with an onion stick. According to Funke the biggest challenge at the Festival was to adapt to a different kitchen setup – they brought all of their ingredients from their Restaurant in Heiden.
The menu represented a real piece of fresh and delicate art discovered bite by bite. Every dish came accompanied by beautiful illustration cards created by his friend Massimo Milano, The illustrations explain the ingredients used in every dish. What a great idea getting mentally prepared to read the story of each dish before the cutlery guides the bite into my mouth!

A dish inspired by a video game – and a plate to lick!

My first culinary highlight was the amuse-bouche representing broccoli in 4 different ways and the text: Läck Mii (lick me) that according to Tobias Funke should bring us back to the time as a kid when we used to lick up the plate when we liked something a lot. And yes, that’s the way I ate the amuse-bouche of course.

The second highlight was the “Pacman” dish – also this reminded me of my childhood and the videogames! I was impressed by how thin and elastic the shape of the Pacman, the taste was a little sweet and delicate. Tobias Funke used a corn base for the Pacman, the sides were bulgur and eggplant.

The dessert called “The Stone” was an absolute joy, too. Little tiny cut cubes of granny-smith apple with a base of roasted rye, yogurt, and parsley ice cream made me fly to heaven! The bit sour and sweet taste was a delight.

All dishes were served in beautiful hand-made pottery that is created exclusively for the restaurant by a local artist. The menu was accompanied by wines of course. Another very special experience was the paired non-alcoholic drink offer, which was put together by the sommelier of the Hotel Saratz! Absolutely fantastic idea to enjoy an elegant wild quince Juice or a Green Dragon Lung Ching Green Tea with the dishes.

The vision of a Swiss Chef and entrepreneur

Talking to Tobias Funke made me understand, that he is a full-time entrepreneur and Chef. He takes care of the social media accounts himself, has a webshop where you can buy several products, leads Cooking classes for team buildings at his restaurant, and always has ideas ready as a pop-up hotel or the cozy gondola village for an incomparable fondue experience  (open only in winter) at his Restaurant Fernsicht. We also talked about the image of Swiss Cuisine in the world and I can only support his view, that Switzerland has much more to offer than Chocolate and Cheese. There are many high-level gastronomes (as we could experience during the whole St. Moritz Gourmetfestival) that develop innovative, sophisticated, and holistic food concepts. Maybe we just need some more acknowledgment from national media to bring this Swiss culinary message out to the world.

About the complex Zur Fernsicht in Heiden:

Heiden is a village in the region of Appenzell. The Gasthaus zur Fernsicht lies at the Constance Lake. Find two restaurants in the old factory owner’s villa: the Incantare (two Michelin stars, 17 Gault Millau points) and the Swiss Alpine (Bib Gourmand). Tobias Funke is one of the first chefs to receive a green star, by the way, the restaurant Guide Michelin gives this green star to particularly sustainable restaurants.

Thank you St.Moritz Gourmetfestival, Tobias Funke, and the staff at Hotel Saratz for this unforgettable dinner!

Read here more about the experience at Nira Alpina Hotel/Silvaplana with Chef Markus Arnold (Steinhalle Bern), my second Gourmet Dinner night at St. Moritz Gourmetfestival 2022.

Presstrip – St. Moirtz Gourmetfestival

Why I had one of the best food blogger experiences enriching my view and knowledge about farm to table cuisine

St. Moritz Gourmet Festival has it all

Where to begin to summarize this unique experience in the Swiss Alps. My journey started in a cute village close to St. Moritz called Celerina. Here the Hotel Chesa Rosatsch is located with 3 different restaurants. A detailed review is available here. The rest of my time was dedicated to the St. Moritz Gourmet Festival.

What happens at the St. Moritz Gourmet Festival?

10 American Master Chefs are invited to St. Moritz for sharing culinary experiences with local Chefs of their partner hotels. Together they enthrall the festival guests with culinary delicacies one week long. Tickets are available online through the St. Moritz Gourmet Festival for everybody. Additional special events as the Kitchenparty or the Chocolate Cult at Badrutt’s Palace take place during the week. Due to my interest in the farm to table concept my choice fell for Chef Melissa Kelly located at the wonderful Nira Alpina Hotel in Silvaplana.

Sweet sensations at the Chocolate Cult, Badrutt’s Palace

My festival visit starts with a glamorous chocolate afternoon. The legendary Chocolate Cult at the Badrutt’s Palace. Can you imagine what chocolate lovers feel when entering the elegant corridor of this beautiful classy hotel? And that smell of real pure chocolate? You find chocolate art paired with lots of experience and passion. Delicious fresh made pralines, tarts, creams and pastries. Only tasting can explain!

Why Chef Melissa Kelly gathered all of my attention at NIRA Alpina in Silvaplana

The farm to table philosophy is something that surrounds me since my childhood. The idea of having an experienced Women Chef in Switzerland to share her life and cooking philosophy was reason enough for me to attend the St. Moritz Gourmet Festival. The fact that she has Italian roots was very exciting to me, too.

Melissa Kelly started cooking with the age of 5 in her grandmother’s kitchen. Her Italian roots are from the beautiful city of Bologna. It’s the one and only place where real good and traditional pasta comes from. This explains the exquisite homemade linguine she prepared for us. Her Signature dish is the Nonno Primo’s Pork Saltimbocca named by her grandfather Primo was the absolute highlight.

Chef Florian Mainzger, the home Chef at Hotel NIRA Alpina had a challenging task to gather all of the ordered ingredients to follow Chef Melissa’s farm to table “religion”.  He did a great job she compliments. There is a lot of planning and communication between the two Chefs beforehand, plus cooking on altitude is an additional challenge, confirms Chef Melissa. She brought some special herbs and even pork products all the way from the US to prepare the dishes as authentic as possible. The staff at NIRA Alpina made this unique event possible. The cozy and warm ambience in the Trattoria matched perfectly to the dinner setup. Hotel NIRA Alpina offers an outstanding service. I appreciated their help and kind availability for example by always offering me help for transfer when needed to St. Moritz.
Gioannis from Nira Alpina told me, that he drives every morning to get some fresh goat milk for one of his guests. Absolute lovely!

Diving into the 5 course dinner prepared by Chef Melissa and the team

The courses taste puristic and very fresh. Her creativity is very healthy! She integrates a variety of vegetables that make the courses light and colorful for the eyes. I love the Mediterranean flavors and Italian touch she combines in all courses.

The starter is a fig stuffed with Marcona almond and candled orange. It comes wrapped in pancetta with local chicories. The Gorgonzola filling of the fig is a real surprise.

The next plate is a perfectly spiced Brittany Scallop with a cauliflower panna cotta, caviar and a very light herb spuma.

Hand made Squid ink linguine with a spicy tomato sugo are served next with a Broccoli crema and calamari a la Plancha.

The last course is a pork saltimbocca with roasted garlic potato purée, spinach, prosciutto and a wild mushroom Madeira sauce.

My absolute preferred desert as of now is the Butterscotch budino with salted caramel and rosemary shortbread. This combination gave me such a happy belly feeling, really mouth-watering.

The micro gap still available in my belly got filled by a south Italian traditional sweet! What a surprise! Super soft and fluffy fried Zeppole. I love this fried dough turned in sugar and cinnamon. It reminds me home! In Italy you get them especially at Saint Joseph’s day that is celebrated in March.

Living farm to table as a life philosophy

“Eating and cooking healthy is not a lifestyle, it’s a life philosophy”, says Chef Melissa. This explains why she is running Restaurant Primo in Rockland, Maine since more than 18 years. Living on a farm is the way she grew up. Primo’s staff is involved in the whole gardening and farming activities. There is a lot to do on a 4 acre property. This involvement is necessary to make her life philosophy completely understandable. This is how 400 pounds of garlic come together for example. By not using chemicals and pesticides, their flowers and produce are helping to maintain rich soil without depletion and degrade for generations to come.
They frequently teach kids about farming and healthy food. I liked the story from Melissa about the kids asking if the plant is the place where the chicken come from.

Chef Melissa is as a very authentic and approachable personality. This explains the happy and relaxed faces enjoying their time in the kitchen. Chef Jenna reveals that they feel like a little family. Well done, I really like the group spirit!

Nose to tail for everybody in Rockland , Maine – Annual Pig Day extravaganza

I am happy to see how Melissa offers this tradition to her guests at Primo Restaurant. During the month of November the Pig Day extravaganza takes place at Primo restaurant. Last year more than 180 people spent their day with processing the just-slaughtered pigs raised on the Primo farm. After working everybody eats the food. 4,200 pounds of pork were processed into prosciutto or pates. It’s a unique way to feel Chef Melissa Kelly’s philosophy. Primo’s Pig Day is a focal point of the restaurant since 2009.  Special seven courses nose-to-tail tasting menu are available with exotic delicacies as pig’s ears, pig’s tails, trotters and headcheese.

Where to find Nose to tail in Switzerland

Luckily I discovered the Hotel Rosatsch and their food philosophy. They offer these delicacies, too. You do not need to travel that far! Visit the beautiful Engadine and make a stop at Restaurant Stüva Rosatsch. Try their Slowfood or Nose to tail menu!

Around Zurich you can get in touch with Slowfoodyouth. Their activities published online include interesting projects with special excursion to farms. Join their eat in every first Wednesday of the month to get in contact with local nutrition aware foodies. Or just check online and let me know by email if you find interesting places!