Simmentaler beef: superb
Gstaad – The cattle in this idyllic mountain region enjoy plenty of space to roam, as well as lush grass and healthy mountain air. You can tell from the superb quality of the meat. Beef from the neighbouring Simmental is the best far and wide, with fillet steaks and entrecôtes featuring on the menus of top restaurants. Gstaad also offers plenty of other meaty treats, from kid in spring to Alpschwein (pork from pigs fattened on the alp) in the autumn, accompanied by fresh garden vegetables. And to crown it all: mouth-watering cheeses, including truffle-flavoured Brie.
Hobelkäse: cheese champion
Gstaad – Every spring, Gstaad is filled with the sound of ringing cowbells as farmers lead their stock up to alpine pastures as high as 2,000 metres: to lush meadows strewn with aromatic herbs, and into the healthy mountain air. There they make Hobelkäse "plane cheese", which after maturing for two to three years is so hard that it can only be sliced with a tool like a carpenter's plane. Add a glass of white wine, some crispy bread fresh from the wood-fired oven, a sunny terrace – and the holidays can begin!
Gerstensuppe: full of goodness
Engadin St. Moritz – Graubünden's celebrated barley soup evolved here hundreds of years ago; it also contains many other ingredients including bacon and beans. Now regarded as a delicacy, it is even served at gourmet restaurants such as Jöhri's Talvo.
Plain in pigna: "oven rösti"
Engadin St. Moritz – This dish belongs to the Engadine just like the sunshine and the snow. Made with chopped potato and meat, it is baked in a wood-fired oven over glowing embers until crisp: a rustic, old-fashioned dish that brings long-forgotten flavours to the palate.
