Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 161 Transcript

What to Eat in Switzerland Besides Cheese and Chocolates: Exploring Local Swiss Cuisine Specialties

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, this is the podcast for you. I’m your host Carolyn Schönafinger, the founder of Holidays to Switzerland.com, and in each episode, my expert guests and I share practical tips to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. You’ll get helpful advice about traveling around Switzerland and hear about the most popular destinations, as well as some hidden gems. And we’ll introduce you to plenty of wonderful experiences that you can enjoy as part of your Swiss vacation. Each episode is packed with expert tips, itinerary ideas, and inspiration to help make your Swiss vacation planning easy. So, let’s dive in.

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast. If you think Switzerland is only cheese and chocolate, well, today you are in for a big treat because the country has so many other specialties that are really worth trying when you visit the country. And there’s no better person to tell us all about these delicious dishes than Andie Pilot, who is a Swiss-Canadian cookbook author and pastry chef. And she’s been on the podcast a few times before. I’ll link to those previous episodes in the show notes so you can go back and hear everything that Andie has shared with us previously. But for now, Andie, welcome back.

Andie Pilot: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me again.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Would you like to tell everyone a bit more about yourself? I’ve just given a very brief overview there, so tell us more about yourself and how you came to be living in Switzerland and your love of Swiss cuisine.

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. I am half Swiss, half Canadian. I grew up in Canada, in Calgary, near the Rocky Mountains, and today I live near the Swiss Alps, and it’s wonderful. My connection to Switzerland is through my mom. She is Swiss, and as a child, I spent many summers in Switzerland, and my favorite thing to do was to eat Swiss food all day long. And I loved going to the bakery here and trying out different things and eating my grandmother’s food and my aunt’s food. And when I got a bit older, I trained to be a pastry chef in Canada, and I thought, what better place to learn all my childhood favorites, how to make all the breads and sweets that I loved to eat than spend some time in Switzerland learning that. And I thought maybe I would come for a year, and then I eventually ended up meeting my husband, and now it’s been almost 15 years that I’ve been here. And I started blogging about Swiss food in 2015, and from there I was able to write cookbooks, and I do a lot of food tours and things like that, and, yeah, there’s nothing I love more than talking about Swiss food, except maybe eating Swiss food, I guess.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Of course. Well, you’ve got to know what you’re talking about, so you’ve got to try it. Absolutely. Okay, so I know that there are some foods or dishes that are probably available all over the country. So, we might start with a few of those, but then there are some that are quite specific to the different cantons or different regions. So, let’s start with some Swiss foods that people can expect to find right across the country.

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. I mean, ubiquitous Swiss standards, you have cheese fondue, you have raclette, which is like melted cheese scraped over potatoes. And probably a lot of people also know Rösti, which is the large potato pancake that’s fried. This one is great because, although you find it all over the country, there are still a lot of regional variations. In some places, they’re serving it with lots of onions or another place with bacon, cheese, or a sunny-side-up egg on top. That’s a standard dish throughout Switzerland.

Another one that you’re getting, especially maybe if you’re going hiking in the mountains and you stop at an Alpine hut, that is Älplermagronen or sort of an Alpine pasta dish with lots of cheese and potatoes, and that one is a real a filling meal if you’re up in the mountains, and, yeah, you need some sustenance.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, and I love when they serve that with the apple sauce. It’s such a contrast, but it just goes so well together.

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. Yeah, the best part.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And what about there’s a particular or a couple probably, but one particular kind of sausage that is pretty well available across the country? What’s that one called?

Andie Pilot: Exactly, that’s the Cervelat. That is beloved all across Switzerland. You can get it in every grocery store. It’s a great one to know about because you can eat it raw or cooked. When you buy it, you can sort of slice it up and they make actually a salad. Salad is a bit of a stretch, but it’s mostly this Cervelat sausage and maybe some cheese. Perhaps you’ll get some onions and cherry tomatoes, but lots of people here make that and you find it on restaurant menus all the time as well. And then it’s a really beloved sausage for roasting over an open fire. So often when you see families hiking, that’s what they’ve brought with them. It’s a real favorite to do that. But, as you said, this one is really country-wide, but there’s a lot of really great regional sausages too. In the French part of Switzerland, you’ll find Saucisson, particularly in the Canton of Vaud. This is a big, really flavorful sausage. They’re serving it with potatoes usually. There is also a sausage from Ticino called Lugánega. This is a lovely Italian sausage. In St. Gallen, they have a famous Bratwurst, a really delicious one from there. So, definitely in any region you are, you can sort of see in the butcher shops they’ll have some different local sausages, and they’re definitely worth trying.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, and are they mainly made from pork, or are there some from beef? What’s the usual?

Andie Pilot: That’s exactly correct. Most of them are pork, or lots of them are pork. There are often also beef sausages too, but yeah, mostly pork.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so we know that we’re going to find fondue, raclette, Rösti, the Älplermagronen and Cervelat and some other sausages right across the country, but I’d like to talk more about some of the local specialties. And what got me thinking about this was on my recent trip to Switzerland, whilst we were in Graubünden, I tried Capuns for the very first time. And they were delicious. I ended up ordering them quite a few times whilst we were there. So, could you tell everyone a bit more about Capuns, what they are, perhaps how they originated, and anything else that we should know about them?

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. This is also one of my most favorite Swiss foods, and whenever I travel to the Canton of Graubünden, I try to eat it as much as possible. It was really a peasant food. It was made in all households there, and everybody had a kind of a slightly different recipe. It’s basically a dumpling batter, so almost the same batter you would use to make a Spätzle. And then you take the batter and you wrap it into Chard leaves. There’s actually a special kind of Chard that grows a lot in Graubünden, and that’s what they traditionally would have used, but I mean, if you can’t find that, you can make it with just regular Swiss Chard or any sort of leafy green. And then they simmer it in cream. Often in the batter too, they will add Bündnerfleisch, which is like the smoked or the dried meat from the region, and there’s lots of different herbs that they add into. And then, yeah, this is simmered in cream. There’s a little bit of cheese on top or maybe a few a little bit of bacon as well. It’s just so very delicious.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yes, so very lush. And yeah, I was very pleasantly surprised. It was so yummy. As I said, after that first attempt, I tried it a few more times, and it was always delicious. So, and I found it was not too heavy. Like sometimes you don’t want a meal that’s mainly meat, even though sometimes, as you said, there was maybe a bit of bacon with it, but it definitely wasn’t a heavy meat dish, so a winner in my book. What about Zurich? Because there is one dish there that I do particularly love, and I think, well, it’s probably available across most of the country anyway, but it is a specialty of Zurich, and I don’t even really know how to say it properly. So, excuse me if I get it wrong, but I think it’s Züri Gschnätzlets?

Andie Pilot: Yep, exactly. And this is basically Gschnätzlets is just the word that means sort of like strips of meat. And the Zurich style for this is to simmer it in a cream sauce and it’s often also served with Rösti and it’s a real favorite in Zurich and, as you said, throughout the country. Traditionally it was always made with veal. There was a lot of veal in Switzerland because lots of calves were born, but of course, farmers were only keeping the cows to produce milk. So, all the young male calves, their meat went to things like Züri Gschnätzlets. And this is definitely served all over Zurich and maybe the most iconic place to get it is a famous restaurant called the Kronenhalle, and that’s where a lot of Swiss luminaries would always eat, and it’s one of the fanciest, a really fancy restaurant that you can go to in Switzerland. It has beautiful artwork on the walls and if you were going to splurge and eat your Züri Gschnätzlets somewhere really special, that is where you would go to have it.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, okay. Mostly when I’ve had it, it’s been served with Rösti. Is that the typical accompaniment to it?

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s most often served with that. Of course, sometimes you maybe see it with noodles or something, but typically with Rösti on the side.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Now, a lot of our listeners will definitely be including Lucerne in their Swiss travel plans. So, what’s a typical specialty that they should definitely try once they’re in Lucerne?

Andie Pilot: Yeah, if they can find it, it’s the Luzerner Chögelipastete. And this is a puff pastry outside. It also has a creamy sauce. It’s made with these little like sausage balls. Chögelí just means like little balls of sausage, and it’s in this wonderfully buttery, flaky puff pastry filling. If it’s made in a really traditional way, they also have raisins in it, which adds a nice sweetness to the dish. This is something that would have been served around Fasnacht, which is like the carnival season, and it’s a nice sort of cold weather dish.

Another variant of this where that you can get sort of year-round is just what’s called Pastete, and that’s basically maybe we would know it more as like a Vol-au-vent, these like puff pastry cases that’s filled with a creamy sauce and that’s really beloved, especially in Canton Lucerne and further afield in Switzerland as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oh, okay. So, the Pastete, is that served in like most restaurants or cafes? Is it difficult to find?

Andie Pilot: That is not difficult to find. That I would say, like, we live sort of rurally and almost every Gasthof and rural restaurant will serve that, or it’s a definitely a popular weekly menu that they will have. And Swiss people really love it. I know my sister-in-law asks for it for her birthday meal every year. My mother-in-law will make her these Pastete, and-

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oh, there you go. Very interesting. Going a bit further south into the Canton of Valais, there’s a dish whose name is probably a bit off-putting, I must say. It’s kind of translated to English or what we think of as in English. So, the dish is called Cholera, which as I said, could be a bit off-putting, but I haven’t tried it myself. I believe it’s very delicious. Can you tell us more about this meal, please?

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. Yeah. Cholera is, as you said, an unfortunate name, which may have to do with the disease cholera and may not. It’s a bit of a debate where the name comes from. Some people say it also might be like the Holla, like the coals of the oven that it was put there. And other people have argued that the name comes from the disease and that people had to stay at home and use the things that they already had in their pantry to make a dish because they couldn’t go out because of cholera outbreaks. So, the things in this are things that you would typically have at home.

It’s almost like a large pie. The pastry on the outside can be more like pie pastry. Some people also make it with puff pastry. And the inside is typically filled with potatoes, cheese, onions, apples, pears, maybe leeks. And again, it’s sort of something where you could easily use whatever you had on hand. It would also be a bit seasonal what you had in the garden, and you could put it in this Cholera pie, and then you bake it in the oven. The cheese gets melty and it’s just absolutely delicious. One giant slice of this cheesy potato, apple, it has the sweet, it has the savory, it’s really filling and delicious. And it’s also one of these really traditional dishes, much like the Capuns. It’s going to be a little bit different everywhere you have it, but equally delicious. It’s sort of they say there are as many recipes for this as there are grandmothers in the Valais, but it’s definitely, you can find it in a lot of restaurants now. I think I see it on menus more and more, it’s become more and more popular as people become more and more interested in local foods. It’s a good one to try if you’re in that region.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so even though it’s like a pie, it’s available all year round. Is that, I mean, you said depending on what people had in their pantry or in their house, even though it’s a warm meal, you can still get it any time of the year?

Andie Pilot: You can, yes.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, okay, well that’s definitely one to keep an eye out for. We’ve talked there about some of the main dishes. Is there anything else that we perhaps should know about before we move on to some desserts and sweet treats?

Andie Pilot: Maybe we could go back to Graubünden for a moment. You had the Capuns, I love Capuns, but it’s not the only regional food there. They also have an excellent dish called Pizzoccheri, and this is a buckwheat pasta that’s sort of made by hand. It’s usually also served with a bit of a creamy, cheesy sauce. That’s really excellent. And they have another dish called Maluns, and it’s these tiny little potato nubbins. Basically, you just grate your potatoes and mix it with some flour, and then it takes quite a long time, but you fry it in butter until you get these tiny, almost like crumbs of potatoes. And this is also usually served with some mountain cheeses or always applesauce on the side, and it’s so very simple, but just absolutely delicious. That’s my daughter’s favorite meal when we travel in Graubünden. It’s excellent.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, well, that’s another one I’ll have to add to my must-try list for next time.

Andie Pilot: You can, yes.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so we’ve had our main dishes. No one can resist sweet or dessert, and there are quite a few specialties in Switzerland. Not all of them you would probably maybe get served at a restaurant. Certainly some are more like a cake or a biscuit. And a couple in particular that I wanted to talk about, again, I did indulge in on my recent trip. So, the first one is from Appenzell, the Biberli. I’ll let you explain to our listeners what this is. You’ll do a much better job than I would.

Andie Pilot: Yes, and this is another sort of ubiquitous Swiss classic. You can buy it all over the country. It’s like a little round honey gingerbread with a marzipan filling. And it comes in such a sweet little package, and on the front is a beautiful Appenzell scene of Appenzeller farmers and cows and Swiss scenery in this very classic style from the region. And this is beloved by children and grown-ups alike throughout the country. It’s such a favorite hiking snack. It’s something you find at every kiosk, every gas station. If you ever just need sort of a sweet pick-me-up, this is the thing to get. It’s very delicious and, yeah, perfect to tuck into a backpack if you’re heading out to the mountains.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And for anyone who is heading to Appenzell, this is where the biscuit originated from. And there’s now the Biberli World just outside of Appenzell, which I visited, and it’s just fascinating. It tells the story of the gentleman who, he was a baker and how he started or came up with the recipe and how it developed into what it is today. I believe it’s still family-owned, the company, and it’s really interesting. A lot of the displays are aren’t in English, but the pictures and like those beautiful Appenzell scenes, like you don’t need words to appreciate them. But there is a movie that can be shown in English and it’s, yeah, it’s really fascinating. So, definitely worth going there and stocking up on the biscuits while you’re there.

Andie Pilot: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, while you’re in Appenzell, you can do a whole food tour and visit, they have a famous brewery as well. They make a famous spirit out of a bitter, an alpine bitter using like all sorts of alpine herbs. Did you also visit the Appenzeller, it’s like a liqueur?

Carolyn Schönafinger: No, we did go to the brewery, but we didn’t go to the liqueur place. And of course, not far away is the famous Appenzeller cheese dairy at Stein. So yes, you’ve got to visit that as well.

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. A whole Appenzeller food tour, yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, wonderful. In Schaffhausen, which is sort of into the north of Switzerland, close to the Rhine Falls, there’s a delicious biscuit there that I also sampled. So, please tell everyone what this biscuit is.

Andie Pilot: Yeah, that’s the Schaffhauserzungen, the tongue biscuit from Schaffhausen. And that’s a lovely little sandwich biscuit with a delicious filling on the inside, and just a wonderful biscuit to eat. The bakery that makes it traditionally is called Räber. They’ve been making it for many years, and it’s a real favorite in the region and for anyone who goes to Schaffhausen, a great something to bring back from the city. What was your impression?

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oh, it was just delicious. Yeah, the buttercream filling was wonderful. And just the presentation. I mean, you get this all over Switzerland. When you go into a bakery or a cake shop, like the way the goods are presented, I mean, you can’t go out with empty-handed because it’s so enticing, you’ve got to buy something. So, and even the packaging is beautiful. That’s something I really love about Switzerland and other the other European countries like the presentation is so important.

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it’s exactly how you say, you almost can’t leave without taking something with you, and when you do, it’s just perfect to give as a gift to bring home.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, no, it’s wonderful. Okay, so what about other sweet treats, cakes, biscuits, or desserts that are perhaps specific to a certain region?

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. Yeah. As you mentioned, a dessert that or a treat that looks really beautiful. Probably one of the most favorite ones from Zurich is the Luxemburgerli. These are the tiny little macarons from the bakery Sprüngli. There’s one in the main train station in Zurich and along the Bahnhofstrasse as well. There’s a big Sprüngli cafe and bakery. They are also just an absolutely beautiful and enticing little treat to bring home with you or to enjoy there. They’re so colorful in all the different colors, all the different flavors. It’s so fun to go and and make a box of six or 12 and just say, “Oh, one with champagne and one with Cassis and lemon,” and just choose the ones that you like. That’s one that’s beloved.

In if you go to Bern, one of my favorite ones there is the Mandelbärli. This is like a very cute little cookie. It’s in the shape of a bear. It’s almost like a Madeleine, the French cookie. So, it’s almost more cakey than crispy. It’s just a cute little bear, and you can get it also in many different flavors in coconut and in lemon. And the bakery there that makes it is called Glatz. That’s available though all over the city. They also sell it sort of in the big department stores as well, and that’s a nice little souvenir from Bern.

If you are looking for a bit of a bigger treat, more on the cake side, if you are in Zug, they have their famous Kirschtorte. That is a cake filled with Kirsch, which is the cherry spirit. That has a long history in that city. It was a cake that was beloved by Audrey Hepburn and Charlie Chaplin, who both lived in Switzerland, and they would order cakes from the bakery Treichler in Zug. And a similar cake, so the Zuger Kirschtorte typically uses almonds. And in the town of Solothurn, they have a very similar cake, so it’s also sort of meringue base and cake and then buttercream, but using hazelnuts, and they make that version in Solothurn as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: That one sounds delicious. I do like hazelnuts. Yum. Now, one thing that surprised me when I first sort of started taking notice of this is when the Swiss order dessert, very, very popular dish is like an ice cream sundae, but it’s not just any ice cream sundae. It’s called a Coupe Danmark, is that right?

Andie Pilot: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, that’s one of the favorites. I think there are a lot of ice cream sundaes that you can order in Swiss restaurants. Some people will just go in the afternoon and just have a coupe. It’s also a wonderful thing to have after a hike. In our family, it’s a way to motivate not only my daughter, but also my husband sometimes to do a really big hike if it ends in a coupe at the end. The Danmark, I think, is the one that you find on most restaurant menus. It’s just vanilla ice cream, and then you get a little pitcher on the side with warm chocolate sauce, and you can pour it over and eat that. And there’s something so magical about pouring over the chocolate sauce and having this wonderful coupe.

But there’s lots of variations, lots of regional ones as well that use products from the region. As we were talking about Appenzell, they also have a version in Appenzell that would incorporate maybe the Biberli or something in it, or maybe also the Appenzeller Alpine bitter, or there are also very seasonal. The Coupe Romanoff is vanilla ice cream and strawberries. It’s only available sort of April, May, in the spring when strawberries are in season. And right now my favorite one is the Coupe Nesselrode. This is with a chestnut paste. So, it’s vanilla ice cream and lots of chestnuts in it as well. And you find it on a lot of restaurant menus, and it’s just a fantastic way to end your meal or to substitute a meal or to have it any time of day.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Of course. And do you know where the Danmark part comes from?

Andie Pilot: No. I’ve also looked a lot about why it is called that, and I have not been able to find out. So, if somebody ever writes to you and tells you why, I would also love to know.

Carolyn Schönafinger: I mean, of course we expect the Swiss to eat ice cream because of you have so many cows that produce milk, but yeah, the Danmark part always kind of threw me. So, maybe someone out there listening can enlighten us. That would be great. Yeah. So, we’ve covered a lot of different main meals and sweet treats there that are regional specialties. Do you have a favorite Swiss meal, and you’re not allowed to say fondue or raclette. If you couldn’t choose one of those, what would be your favorite Swiss meal?

Andie Pilot: That’s a great question. I think we already talked about it today, but I have to go with Capuns and all the meals from Graubünden. I think I would be very happy to spend a long time in Graubünden and try every Capun that is on every restaurant menu in the whole canton. And it’s a pretty big canton. So, that’s one of my favorites at the moment.

Carolyn Schönafinger: It is. Okay, great. All right. Well, maybe as you explore more of the country and try different things, maybe that’ll change. But yeah, but Capuns is definitely a great choice. Do you have any tips for our listeners who are going to Switzerland, ways that they can sort of really search out and find the best local specialties?

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. I think in Switzerland, compared to some of the neighbor countries like France and Italy, some of the specialties are more hidden. And I think the best thing to do is to keep your eyes open and to pop your head into some of the local bakeries and places like that. In the towns, they will definitely advertise that that’s a specialty of the town, but you won’t know about it until you actually go into the bakery and just have a look around. And I think also the people who are making these delicious regional treats, they’re proud of their treats and they would happy to help you to find something from their region and something new to try. And of course, you can find some information online as well, but yeah, if you’re hiking in the mountains or if you’re trying out a new town, I would say just keep your eyes open and look in those bakery windows and try what strikes your fancy.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, and always ask the locals too. Like ask the person on reception at your hotel, yeah, yeah, and ask the local man that you see out doing his shopping, ask him what’s a specialty. So, yeah.

Andie Pilot: Yes, that’s a great tip.

Carolyn Schönafinger: People are, as you say, they’re proud of those regional dishes, and they’re happy to share them. Why not try them?

Andie Pilot: Absolutely. Yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Great. Well, thank you for sharing all that with us today. Where can our listeners find out more about you and your books?

Andie Pilot: Yeah, I have a website, helvetickitchen.com, and a lot of the foods we talked about, I will have a recipe for them on my blog. You can find that there. And I also have many cookbooks about Swiss food, Helvetia Kitchen. My newest one is called Simply Swiss, and it’s 50 recipes, all Swiss food. They’re easy to make at home, and you can make them all over the world too. The ingredients are can be found anywhere. And yeah, you can find me on Instagram too and Facebook at Helvetia Kitchen.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Wonderful. Okay, so I’ll put all the links in the show notes for this episode. And I will say as we’re getting fairly close to Christmas as we approach this, Andie’s book Swiss Cookies is just amazing. I did buy that a couple of years ago, and I have made a few of the cookies from it. So, it’s definitely worth getting a copy of that book if anyone’s into baking cookies around Christmas time, which of course the Swiss are. A recommendation, maybe someone could put that on their Christmas wish list. If their partner or their kids don’t know what to buy them, that would be a great suggestion. So, I’ll include the links for all those. Thank you so much again, Andie. It’s been great to chat to you and to talk about Swiss food.

Andie Pilot: It was my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me again.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Chocolate and cheese will probably top of your list when you think about some of the foods that you’re going to try in Switzerland. But thanks to Andie, there’s now plenty of other options as well. If you’d like to hear more from Andie, she has previously been on episodes 31, 40, and 60 of the podcast, and I’ll put the links to those episodes in the show notes. In the show notes, you can also find a link to get a copy of my free Switzerland Travel Planning Starter Kit and Guide. So, make sure you go and grab a copy of that. The show notes are at holidaystoswitzerland.com/episode161. If you’ve decided to try any of these foods, if we’ve inspired you to visit a destination, or if you’ve booked a trip or a hotel with one of the Holidays to Switzerland partners that you’ve heard mentioned on the podcast, I’d love to hear from you. And if you’ve got any feedback about the podcast, please let me know. Send an email to podcast@holidaystoswitzerland.com. I’d really love to hear from you. That’s all for this week. Until next week. Tschuss!

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.