Happy cooks. Happy winemakers Happy guests! The GaultMillau party in Bad Ragaz is a success.
WOMEN ARE A MAJORITY AT TANJA.
Tanja Grandits, the 19-point chef at the Stucki in Basel, knows about the shortage of qualified staff only from hearsay: “Since the Covid, we have increased our team to 48 employees. And for the first time, women are in the majority in the kitchen! Tanja also had no trouble putting together a team for the GaultMillau Garden Party in Bad Ragaz: “Ideally, everyone would have come,” smiles the chef. And everyone had a great time. The atmosphere has never been as relaxed as it was this year. The guests also know that there is something for everyone at every food corner. Tanja and all the other chefs were showered with compliments, questions and even more requests for photos. The most photographed chef of all? Andreas Caminada. His dish for Bad Ragaz: cauliflower with miso. A bestseller at Schloss Schauenstein.
Two celebrities who like each other: Andreas Caminada and Tanja Grandits.
WELLINGTON NET AT DAWN.
All the chefs give their best for the 500 guests at the party. Stefan Heilemann (Widder, Zurich, 18/20) said goodbye to the Zurich Street Parade on time: “I got home at midnight on the last tram”. Christian Kuchler, his friend and partner at the Jelmoli stand, set his alarm clock for four o’clock. He prepared his thirty Wellington fillets at home in Wigoltingen (TG), generously stuffed with foie gras and garnished with truffles. Mattias Roock travelled from Castello del Sole (18/20) in Ascona with eight different varieties of tomatoes in his luggage, 50 litres of tomato essence and 3000 tomatoes! The result: a cold tomato water from his own garden, a dream dish for a hot summer Sunday.
Un CEO and two chefs! Stefan Heilemann (left) and Christian Kuchler with Nina Müller (Jelmoli).
500 RED MULLET, 2500 SHRIMP.
For the Garden Party, fishmonger Dario Bianchi procured 500 red mullet for Peter Knogl (Les Trois Rois, Bâle, 19/20). Knogl opted for a high-risk preparation: a red mullet with crispy grilled scales, saffron and fermented garlic! This earned him applause from both the guests and his colleagues. Fabio Toffolon (Zum Äusseren Stand, Bern, 16/20) and Dominik Sato (Seepark, Thun, 16/20) cooked some 2,500 hand-peeled (!) shrimp for Swiss Shrimps. They served them in two courses, one with a grand yellow wine sauce, the other as ceviche with a tomato vinaigrette. Two times in the bull’s eye.
Philippe Chevrier et Stephan Frei.
THE CEVICHE FESTIVAL.
Clearly, ceviche is in the air. Philippe Chevrier, owner of the Domaine de Châteauvieux in Satigny (19/20) has boldly combined mussels and a refreshing sorbet with his chef, Damien Coche: “We have been working together for 24 years. We are more loyal to each other than to our first wives. The “Chef of the Year”, Mitja Birlo (7132, Vals, 18/20), also relied on fish: king mackerel for his ceviche, with sweet potatoes from Graubünden and sea buckthorn from Graubünden. Heiko Nieder, like Peter Knogl, took a risk by combining char, rape and camomile. A summer hit !
A Mercedes-Benz concentrate: Maybach, Sven Wassmer, CEO Marc Langenbrinck, Guy Ravet.
THE CHEF CAME BY BIKE.
The “Presenting Partner” of the event, Mercedes-Benz, placed a Maybach in the park to celebrate the event, even though only 100 of them exist. With 612 hp it sells for 349,533 francs. And the CEO of the brand, Marc Langenbrinck, was at the party in Bad Ragaz: but he came by bike! “I’m training for the Zurich-Zermatt race,” he said. The two Mercedes chef ambassadors, Sven Wassmer and Guy Ravet, were also present. Sven at the Azado grill, where he prepared 600 portions of beef with his butcher Michael Vogt. And not just any meat: the oldest cow was 16 years old – and the entrecote in Alpine chimichurri sauce was fantastic. Guy prepared the veal tartare with espuma cauliflower and watercress.
Oscar de Matos, star of Maihöfli in Lucerne
NEW TO THE FESTIVAL!
Three chefs were in the line-up for the first time. Benoît Carcenat (Valrose, Rougemont, 17/20) – the future superstar of the French-speaking part of Switzerland – enthralled the audience with a suckling pig cheek croquette with pig’s feet. From his side, the Lucerne native Oscar de Matos interrupted his summer holidays to come to Bad Ragaz to prepare his famous “mushroom pâté”. Dominik Hartmann (Magdalena, Rickenbach, 16/20), a vegan chef by conviction and business sense, enthralled the audience with his creation based on peas, pistachio and mint.
Winemakers at their best!
Annatina Pelizzatti, Martha Gantenbein, Anna-Barbara Kopp von der Crone, Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, Lisa Schmidheiny, Emilienne Hutin, Annie Rossi, Laura Paccot (from left to right).
THE GREAT LADIES OF THE VINEYARD.
The host, Sven Epiney, had eight Swiss winegrowers on the podium by the swimming pool: Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, Martha Gantenbein, Laura Paccot, Emilienne Hutin, Annie Rossi, Barbara Kopp von der Crone, Annatina Pelizzatti and Lisa Schmidheiny, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. They brought their best wines – the best advertisement for Swiss wine! Mondovino and Casa del Vino also invited renowned winemakers to the Garden Party: Katrin Wind from the Palatinate, Klaus Gasser from South Tyrol (Terlan) and Michele Conceprio (Vinattieri). And of course, the champagne flowed: more than 250 bottles of Laurent-Perrier, headed by a Cuvée, 12 litres!
Garden Party regulars: Attila Castiglioni (V-Zug) and his wife Kristina
VIP GUESTS.
Jelmoli CEO Nina Müller likes to cook for 18 guests herself, sometimes solo! She brought two chefs to Bad Ragaz (Stefan Heilemann and Christian Kuchler) and an exclusive gin: Garden Party-Edition. The CEO of Coop was in a great mood, in shorts, and invited his friends from the cooking club to the event. And Hervé Bellin, the manager of Nespresso was especially interested in the party as his brother Olivier is one of the most prominent chefs in Normandy with 18 points and two Michelin stars at the Auberge des Glazicks in Plomodiern.
