For the latest cycle in its ‘SWISS Taste of Switzerland’ inflight food and beverage programme, which begins today, SWISS is offering culinary specialities from Canton Grisons to First and Business Class travellers on its outbound long-haul flights. The meals are the creation of top chef Sandro Steingruber of the VISTA gourmet restaurant in the Grisons village of Sagogn. SWISS Premium Economy Class guests will also enjoy a three-course meal that draws its inspiration from the new host canton’s cuisine.

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will be serving culinary delights from the top-notch Restaurant VISTA in the Grisons village of Sagogn to First and Business Class guests on its outbound long-haul flights from Switzerland for the next three months. The gourmet restaurant in the canton’s Surselva Valley has earned 15 Gault&Millau points along with a deserved reputation as a quality golfing eatery, and is a byword for elegant dining amid its Grisons alpine surrounds.

Sandro Steingruber serves as both the VISTA’s managing director and its chef de cuisine. A native of Canton Ticino, he previously spent several years as executive chef of the nearby Waldhaus Flims Hotel. And for the next three months he will be sharing his reinterpretations of Grisons gastronomic specialities with SWISS’s inflight guests.

“Sandro’s culinary skills are genuinely original and betray a keen devotion to detail,” says Julia Hillenbrand, SWISS’s Head of Brand Experience. “And I’m delighted that, through his creations for us, we can give our inflight guests such an enjoyable sensory insight into the flavours and the aromas of Grisons cuisine.”

“It’s a privilege and, above all, a pleasure for me to present my culinary ‘homeland’ to people from all over the world,” adds Sandro Steingruber. “Every one of the dishes I have created for SWISS bears the tastes and the aromas of the Grisons mountains; and I truly hope that SWISS’s guests enjoy their gastronomic journey aloft.”

Classic dishes re-imagined

The latest ‘SWISS Taste of Switzerland’ culinary cycle offers SWISS First travellers such delights as Bündnerfleisch (air-dried Grisons beef) tatar with pickled mushrooms and a Nusstorte (nut pie) parfait that is an intriguing variation on this cult Grisons dessert. SWISS Business guests can look forward to veal goulash with cream accompanied by spinach pizokel and, for dessert, chocolate cake with cherries in Röteli liqueur. The meal choices in both classes are rounded off with wines and speciality cheeses from Canton Grisons.

In Premium Economy Class, too, the new inflight menu draws its inspiration from SWISS’s latest host canton, with such delicacies awaiting the traveller as a mountain cheese from Ftan and a classic Grisons nut pie. The new SWISS First, SWISS Business and SWISS Premium Economy menus will be found in the attachments.

Culinary heights together with Gate Gourmet

SWISS has been taking the First, Business and Premium Economy Class travellers on its long-haul services from Switzerland on a journey of culinary discovery through its home country’s various regions for some 21 years. Every three months, in collaboration with SWISS’s inflight catering partner Gate Gourmet, a new top chef is invited to create a varied selection of quality dishes from their ‘home’ canton.

As the prime supplier of SWISS’s inflight food and beverage product, Gate Gourmet ensures that all these meal creations arrive on board in the finest possible quality. Gate Gourmet is a subsidiary of gategroup, the world’s leading provider of airline catering and inflight sales products.