Things are happening with the Relais & Châteaux hotel and restaurant association! Eager to highlight the uniqueness of the various Relais & Châteaux houses in Switzerland and create a better understanding of the passion and personal touch their maîtres de maison and chefs bring to these establishments and regions, we were invited to the venerable Mammertsberg in eastern Switzerland. What a treat!
Preserve the richness and diversity of world cuisines and promote the tradition of hospitality
is the motto of the globe-spanning Relais & Châteaux association of individually-owned exclusive hotels and top restaurants. The members’ commitment to protecting local heritages and the environment was set down in a manifesto that the association presented before UNESCO in 2014. It engaged the members “to contribute to sustaining our natural resources and ecosystems by using local and seasonal products and countering the waste of food.”
It was against this background that we received an invitation from Mylène Oquidan of Relais & Châteaux and hosts Luisa and August Minikus to partake of the pleasure and hospitality of the Mammertsberg and so experience this vision up close.
August Minikus guarantees soaring culinary creations there. With his young kitchen brigade, he celebrates light, creative gourmet dishes of the highest quality in which he marries regional and seasonal products with international influences. While at Mammertsberg, we had a chance to visit two local vegetable and fruit producers in the company of this distinguished chef with 17 Gault Millau points and 1 Michelin star.
White asparagus from the Fahrmaadhof farm in Diepoldsau
In a downpour, we went to the Fahrmaadhof owned by the Britschgi family in Diepoldsau from where Minikus sources his asparagus and other seasonal vegetables. They have been growing white asparagus since 2004. By now, on its 32 acres the family enterprise produces about 40 tons of white asparagus every year!
Agronomist Simon provided an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how white asparagus is cultivated. We were interested to learn that it requires sandy, slightly permeable soil and that each spring they cover the sprouting asparagus with earthen mounds to keep the sunlight off them.
He also let us in on another little secret: they accelerate the growth of the asparagus spears with mini-tunnels and in-soil heating, so that they can harvest and sell them even before start of the official Swiss white asparagus season. Admiringly, we watched as women workers diligently sorted and packed the white spears.
And this is how the light lunch of white asparagus by August Minikus looked afterwards:
Strawberries from the Sonnenhof in Steinebrunn
Our next stop was the Sonnenhof, a traditional family farm where they plant, tend, and harvest strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and currants with love and second-generation know-how.
The farm was started in 1973 by Werner and Rita Müller. In 2010, the couple turned the business over to their son Matthias. He now carries on the berry business with enthusiasm and help from his wife and children. Our chef guide personally escorted us on a tour of the strawberry plantings and passed on to us a few facts about this sweet fruit of lovely shape and glowing color.
They grow strawberries at Sonnenhof in hanging gardens. Just like a potted plant, the strawberry plants grow in natural earth. Depending on the variety and atmospheric conditions, the taste of strawberries can vary significantly. We were given the chance to try 8 (!) different varieties (we had no idea that there even were that many?!) Besides the delicate Darselect, Joly, and Elsanta berries, Müller experiments every year with new varieties.
Let it be told that strawberries actually have more vitamin C than oranges! Despite being 90 percent water. Thanks to a surprisingly small 32 kcal of food value per 100 grams and the high vitamin and mineral content, they are often found in diets — however, NOT when eaten with a piece of chocolate cake.
A word of reflection
It is not that we had no notion of where vegetables and fruit come from and that producing them takes effort, sweat, and passion. But this visit made us truly aware once again what all has to happen unseen by us so that we can pick ripe strawberries or finely sorted, bundled white asparagus from grocery store shelves just like that without a second thought.
So we want to take this opportunity to express our respect and a great big thank you to all growers that, daily and in all kinds of sometimes lousy weather, lavish such care on the cultivation of these products and help us put those fresh fruits and vegetables on our plates.
© Foto Christine Hinnen
Warm thanks also to Luisa und August Minikus of the Mammertsberg as well as Relais & Châteaux and PrimCom for the invitations and the extremely fascinating “farm tour”!
