Creative and Seasonal: Cooking with Vaud Producers

An à la carte menu is never written in a single stroke. It takes shape in touches, through deliveries, failed trials and combinations that eventually come together. In this house, everything begins with the product: what grows, what is caught and what is raised just a few kilometres away.

The rhythm of the seasons

Spring: the first herbs, asparagus and young vegetables, cooked very lightly to preserve their freshness and bite.

Summer: stone fruit, flowers, short cooking times and clear jus.

Autumn: mushrooms, squash, game, and longer, deeper stocks.

Winter: roots, citrus fruit, ferments and preserves prepared in previous months.

Creative does not mean complicated

Creativity here is not about piling up techniques. It is used to reveal a product: acidity that awakens a rich piece of meat, bitterness that keeps a dessert from becoming too sweet, a texture that makes a bite last one second longer. Every dish goes through a series of trials before appearing on the restaurant menu, and some never make it there.

Terroir, in practical terms

Terroir is not a backdrop: it is names, farms, workshops and market gardeners with whom the team discusses the year’s planting. Lake fish, alpine cheeses, locally gathered herbs and spices, and Vaud wines all tell the story of the same region, from the first course to the last glass.

This also explains why the à la carte menu changes several times a year and why Daily Lunch is decided according to what arrives in the kitchen at the start of the week.