SWISS Taste of Switzerland FOCUS ON
Keeping it regional
SWISS Airlines held a special event to mark the 10th anniversary of its ‘SWISS Taste of Switzerland’ culinary concept last November. Richard Williams gets a taste for rosti
S
ince 2002, SWISS has been inviting chefs from all over Switzerland to produce menus for First and Business,
highlighting the best of their regional produce. Every three months they promote a new region on board, and 21 of the 26 cantons of Switzerland have already been represented. The chefs produce a menu using their favourite ingredients, for example: air-dried meat from the Grisons, polenta from the Ticino, or saffron from the Valais. Then SWISS’s catering partner, Gate Gourmet, works together with the chef to ensure the dishes can be served at 30,000 feet. The menus are accompanied by regional wines, cheese and other local specialities.
Meals have to be prepared in such a way as to allow them to be heated through in an aircraft oven, though the dishes served in SWISS First
“Our aim is to be first for quality and then, hopefully, profitability. This means that either we do it properly or don’t do it at all.”
are all put together individually in the galley. In the Gate Gourmet kitchens, the 38th and most recent chef on the programme, Reto Lampart from Restaurant Lampart, Hägendorf, in the Solothurn canton, presented his appetiser of smoked trout for Business. Covered with a layer of mousse and topped
Gate Gourmet
Gate Gourmet is the world’s largest independent provider of catering and provisioning services for airlines and railways with more than six decades of experience in providing meals for travellers.
www.gategroup.com
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www.onboardhospitality.com SWISS chefs on the Taste of Switzerland gourmet programme
with fresh tarragon, this is prepared fresh every day in the GG kitchens and served with air-dried beef, barley salad and vinaigrette. At the reception, the first chef to be invited on the programme was Rudolf Wanninger of Restaurant Piz Umbrail, who presented his signature dish, a fried fillet of Zander with a Kapünze dumpling – typical of the Grisons canton. The rösti king, Alexander Kroll of Widder Hotel, Zurich presented a delicious veal and linguine, followed by a Gruyère double-cream crumble. Wines were from all of the six Swiss wine regions.
In his welcoming speech, the cco of SWISS, Holger Hätty, explained the main principles of the airline’s philosophy: “Our aim is to be first for quality and then, hopefully, profitability. This means that either we do it properly or don’t do it at all.” He thanked the assembled chefs for: “Showing our 15 million pax a year your inspiration, creativity and excellence”. Sarah Klatt-Walsh, head of inflight at SWISS, said: “We originally introduced the ‘SWISS Taste of Switzerland’ concept in First, Business
and Economy, but it was too hard to adjust the chefs’ concepts to the simplicity level of Economy. Then we nearly dropped the idea, but faced strong consumer resistance, so we expanded the concept instead.” “We faced a problem with our vegetarian offering until we invited Rolf Hiltl, from the internationally famous Haus Hiltl restaurant in Zurich, to partner with us in 2009. Now he designs all the meatless hot main dishes for our intercontinental flights over all classes. “Today we are celebrating 10 years of the concept, and have covered 21 of the cantons. We aim to have included the remaining five by the time we reach our 15th anniversary.”
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