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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Hungry planet | The ‘rösti’ man
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Hungry planet | The ‘rösti’ man

The executive chef at the Gstaad Palace takes us through some Swiss icons

Peter Wyss at the Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai.Premium
Peter Wyss at the Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai.

At 64, Peter Wyss, executive head chef at the Gstaad Palace in Switzerland, is a lot like Alp-Öhi or Alm-Uncle, Heidi’s grandfather from the famous Alpine folk tale. Soft-spoken and adorable, Wyss has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Swiss food and drink. Originally from Lucerne, he has been making his own cheese and baking his own bread up in the mountains for the luxury ski resort’s five signature restaurants since 1984.

Wyss was recently in India for a four-city tour called “Gourmet Diaries" by Four Seasons Wines, organized in association with the consulate of Switzerland and ITC Hotels. We met him over lunch at the ITC Maratha in Mumbai to talk about Switzerland’s most iconic dishes, regional specialities and of course, chocolate and cheese. Edited excerpts from an interview:

Tell us about some of the most iconic Swiss dishes.

Just like the curry here in India, you can have everything with rösti in Switzerland. There are thousands of different styles of making this hash potatoes dish. The most popular variations are vegetarian, mushroom or sausage rösti. Then we have the spätzle, a type of soft pasta made from egg noodles. I like to cook the spätzle with olive oil or pesto with Alpine herbs like wild garlic, also known as bear’s garlic (or ramsons) from the forest.

One meat dish from Switzerland that’s popular all over the world is Zürcher geschnetzeltes, sliced veal with mushroom and cream sauce served with rösti.

We are also known for inventing the fondue and muesli. We like to eat dried Birchermüesli with milk or yogurt, different types of seasonal fruits, honey and home-made oats. Like you drink lassi here, we have Ovomaltine, a very heavy malt and chocolate drink, back home. In the winter time, we like to eat a lot of soups made with green peas or lentils. Typically, in the colder months we eat a heavy barley soup with lots of vegetables and red beans, topped with little bits of pork, prosciutto, bacon or beef. In the summertime, Swiss people are crazy about barbecues.

Of course, you will also see French, Italian, Austrian and German influence in our food, our wine and our schnapps and spirits.

What are some of the most popular varieties of Swiss cheese?

Switzerland is very well known for Gruyère cheese; it comes from the town of Gruyères, in the French part of the country, very close to Gstaad. Another very popular cheese is Emmental from the Bern canton. We also have mountain cheese made from cow’s milk; we shave it just like Parmesan cheese.

We also have fresh cheese like ricotta and every part of the country makes its own type of fresh cheese. Suppose if the farmer cannot sell the fresh cheese, it’s sold as raclette when it’s six months old; if it gets a bit older than that, we use it as fondue cheese, and if it is very old, like three-four years old, we just shave it. The oldest cheese I’ve ever tasted was 43 years old, it was bit salty but still good.

What do the Swiss like to eat for dessert?

For sweets, we are famous for chocolate, then meringue and double cream. I saw some of the cream you use here and it’s all got 25% fat, but double cream at home has 45% milk fat. The double cream is very popular in the mountains and we like to dip cookies and pretzels in it. Our carrot cake is also very famous. Then we have kirsch, it is a very famous cherry brandy used to make a layered cake called Zuger kirschtorte.

What is the street-food culture of Switzerland?

Just like street food the world over, we have hamburgers, chicken nuggets and curries as well as doner kebab or shawarma stalls. But the local street food is always sausages with mustard. It’s very popular at ice-hockey games. There are lots of stalls for sausages that you can eat with bread, similar to the hot dog, outside the stadiums.

Is there one city in Switzerland that can be termed the country’s food capital?

The food capitals for Switzerland are Lausanne and Geneva. These cities get the best produce from neighbouring countries; there are a lot of international tourists who visit; and there are many Michelin-starred restaurants. One of the best-known chefs from Switzerland is Fredy Girardet, who is now retired, but he used to own a restaurant in Lausanne. He is not a modern cook, he does not like molecular techniques like espuma but he was one of the first chefs to emphasize the use of local produce and wine pairing.

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Published: 26 Jul 2014, 12:04 AM IST
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