Final countdown to Valentine’s Day: take your pick!

For the last week or so, I’ve had Valentine’s on the brain. I’ve been posting restaurants offering special Valentine’s meals, chocolate shops making all sorts of beautiful Valentine’s chocolates, as well as hotels offering Valentine’s packages on the Swiss Foodies Twitter account.

Photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono.

I’ve been trying to get you in the spirit, but now it’s time for the final countdown, because time is running short. To make things easier, I’ve gathered all the Valentine tweets here so you can start making plans for the weekend!

This list is by no means exhaustive and I may well add to it during the week, so keep in touch either here on The Rambling Epicure, or by following the Swiss Foodies tweets. Every time I stumble on something interesting, I’ll make sure and tweet it.

Valentine’s specials: something to suit everyone’s budget and schedule

1. On Sunday, 14 February 2010, the CGN is sponsoring Valentine’s lunch cruises on all their major routes.
2. List of restaurants all over Switzerland with Valentine’s specials; just click on your canton!  Please note that I haven’t tested these restaurants, but they should include something appropriate for everyone’s taste, location and budget.
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Fine dining, Rudolf Steiner style

The Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner was the inventor of the spiritual movement anthroposophy, a kind of intuitive ethics which has thrived in Switzerland, chiefly through the Waldorf schools and through foundations and communities inspired by his teachings. This seventeenth-century castle, Le Castel, was bought by the Lausanne branch of the Rudolf Steiner Foundation in 1989.

The current community living on the grounds of Le Castel practices biodynamic farming, quite in line with Steiner’s view of humans’ relationship to the world. These products are used in the restaurant.

Restaurant de Bois Genoud “Le Castel”: gourmet, and it’s organic!

The Restaurant de Bois Genoud is organic, but don’t think that means boring. The dishes use daring combinations of ingredients and variations on classic themes, such as duck breast with Sechuan pepper and orange sauce, or a warm goat cheese pastry served with apply chutney, pear caramelized with honey, and orange- and ginger-flavored carrot sauce. Does that not get your taste buds going?

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Photo courtesy of Once Upon A Time.

History, ecological tourism and regional food products all in one

The Lausanne tourist bureau is supporting the efforts of three wine estates around Lausanne to provide rooms on a B & B basis, meals, receptions, cocktail parties, and wine tastings. These include the Château de Rochefort, the Abbaye de Mont and the Domaine de Burignon.

Each estate offers different amenities, but all have shops selling local food products.

Rooms go for CHF 50 at the Château de Rochefort, including breakfast.

The Abbaye de Mont has reception rooms, including one that can welcome groups of 8 to 20 people for meals or buffet teas. Cocktail parties for up to one hundred people can be organized in the wine press room or the courtyard. The cellar can hold up to fifty people for catered meals. It is located in Mont-sur-Rolle, between Lausanne and Geneva.

In addition to its spectacular view over Lake Geneva and the Alps, the Domaine de Burignon, located in Lavaux between Vevey and Lausanne, uses local Vaud ingredients to prepare meals, which are served with wines made on the estate. They have a capacity of 8 to 20 for meals, while they can handle up to 40 people for stand-up receptions.

They have two apartments with bathrooms, going for CHF 60 for one person or CHF 100 for two people, including breakfast. The rate is cheaper for children and according to the length of the stay.

This effort is made in the context of encouraging sustainable eco-tourism.

Rooms are fitted out simply, with an emphasis on natural materials. Furniture is made from wood coming from FSC-certified forests, much of it from the Lausanne Forestry, Estates and Vineyard Service.

Related link: Lausanne tourist bureau

Le Vertig’O: free WiFi and low-calorie nice-price menus

This well located, ultra contemporary restaurant is handy for upscale lunches near Cornavain train station, particularly for those who need WiFi access, which is free in the entire hotel. It is located in the Hôtel de la Paix on the Quai du Mont Blanc, right on the lake and near the jet d’eau.

Chef Jérôme Manifacier was recently awarded his first Michelin start and a 16/20 in the GaultMillau restaurant guide for Switzerland. He turns out a light, modern cuisine, with variations on Swiss, French and Mediterranean classics.

The winter menu includes original dishes such as roasted pineapple with Sechuan pepper in puff pastry with piña colada sauce and duet of warm and cold foie gras with beetroot emulsion served with homemade gingerbread.

Set menus goes for CHF 95 and 135, but are hefty, so you’d better be hungry. There is also a special 3-course menu under 800 calories which changes with the seasons.

The lunch special goes for CHF 55 for 3 courses, which is not bad for a grand hotel. It changes every day.

There is a good selection of local and well as other wines available by the glass, and an even wider selection if you want a bottle.

Belle Epoque brasserie in Montreux gets an up-to-date look

The brasserie at the luxury resort hotel Montreux-Palace has just gotten a new chef and a facelift. This luxury “pub” is a real institution in Montreux, so there is excitement in the air.

Franck Page, the new chef, worked at Fauchon in Beijing, as well as a long list of other top names.

The Belle Epoque architecture, dating from the 1890s, has been decorated with a clean contemporary style, in dark brown, and gray tones.

An American-style breakfast buffet is served in the brasserie, as well as lunch, afternoon snacks and dinner.

The menu includes both Parisian and Swiss brasserie classics. The afternoon snacks include tea and cakes, rather in the style of an English tea.

Important link: Plaisirs Gastronomie & Voyage

Take the Venice Simplon Orient-Express at the Café du Simplon in Lausanne

If you’ve always dreamed of taking the Orient Express but don’t have the time or budget, the Café du Simplon in Lausanne might be the next best thing. The name of the café comes from the street where it is found, the rue du Simplon, and from the Venice Simplon Orient-Express connecting London to Istanbul.

The menu reflects the various culinary influences found along the way, with an emphasis on simple cooking using fresh, good quality ingredients and a Mediteranean touch. Fish is delivered daily, and the reputable Boucherie Simon, which neighbors the café, provides the meat. Vegetarian dishes are given a special place on the menu.

Fun as well as good food are to be had by all. Take a look at their website for the film, music, theatre, and literary event program. It is WiFi-equipped, so it is a good place to meet for business meetings.

La Terrazza

I discovered this almost hidden Swiss-style café-restaurant many years ago on my treks back and forth to the Beaulieu clinique.

Mr. Borella started as waiter at the Lion d’Or during its golden age. He later set out on his own and has been in this same location for about 25 years. Mrs. Borella cooks and Mr. Borella serves. They are from the Dolomites, so they cook hardy, traditional dishes, as well as some well turned-out Swiss classics.

The price is about as right as you can get, and they buy all their ingredients from local producers. The tomatoes taste like tomatoes and the salads, well they come straight from Chapuis.

Nologo Restaurant

This is Japanese food like you eat in Japan, not adapted for Western tastes. Wonderful mixtures of unusual flavors and ingredients like you’d never find in your regular, standardized-menu sushi bars.

Don’t count on them being friendly, just think about what’s on your plate. Tiny space so reserve well ahead.

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Genevan Jean-François Schlemmer turns run-down, forgotten sites into chic, trendy places.

Would you prefer a table near the skeleton or the bar?

After the success of the Palais Mascotte, a tired Geneva institution and cabaret started in 1833 that he brought back to life, he has now converted an old warehouse next to MAMCO, the modern art museum, into an exciting café and restaurant, Curiositas. Curiositas is almost a museum in and of itself, with its display cases full of “curious” collections of seashells, butterflies and surprising knick-knacks.

The menu is more classic than one might expect, but also offers some original variations on classics, such as the duck parmentier with turnips and red currants, or foie gras with oxtail. French chef Sergio Schoener delights in turning out color combinations not common in the world of food. Pastry chef Lionel Gérard comes to Curiositas with the label Ducasse on his CV.

A 3-course daily lunch menu goes for CHF 48 and a daily special for CHF 23. Breakfast is served, as well as light afternoon food.

Schlemmer has resuscitated several dying venues into “must” night life stopoffs, including the Petit Casino, the Restaurant l’Horizon and Psycho. As he says in Le Temps of 14 January 2010, outsiders just think that Geneva is a sleepy town. If they only knew all the fun that goes on behind those Calvinist façades!

Curiositas, rue des Vieux Genadiers 8-10, 1205 Geneva, +41 022 321 30 37, next to MAMCO modern art museum. Map. Open from 08:30 to 22:00.

Links: Le Temps

Free drinking water starting to disappear in Switzerland

I went to the renowned Sprüngli pastry shop in Zurich a few months ago with my chocolate-lover soul-mate, Tina Daub. Not having been there since our college days, we were excited and our taste buds were tingling at full speed before we even sat down.

Photo courtesy of Suat Eman.

We ordered our pastries and tea. Her sons ordered ice cream instead of pastry, so they were thirsty afterward and asked for a glass of water. (We all know that ice cream can make you thirsty, don’t we?) The waiter said we would have to order from the water menu.

This really rubbed me wrong. I said I’d never heard of a restaurant or café in Western Europe that refused to give you a glass of water free of charge. We argued about it, and he asked if I would like to speak to the manager. “Of course,” I said.

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