Kempinski Grand Hotel Des Bains, St. Moritz – Where Comfort Meets Class

Cà d’Oro, the beauty of food. 

Our dinner at Cà d’Oro is a mix of discoveries and surprises. We walk into a cozy, rectangular dining area where tables are placed far enough from each other to keep guests’ privacy. Interestingly enough, the dress code isn’t very formal, bordering on smart casual. A wide water selection is proposed to us, along with aperitifs to tickle our appetites: I choose a rather simple one, the Campari orange.

The menu consists of one large board: not very practical for me, but that seems to be a trend in fine dining restaurants, perhaps a bit of an acquired taste. Complicated dishes are simplified by the explanations of Michelin star Chef Matthias Schmidberger and his friendly staff who immediately make us feel at ease.

We munch on some bread and Swiss butter sprinkled with black olive dust, a peculiar yet intriguing flavor, while the very knowledgeable sommelier, Alfonso, advises us on wines, as per our request; white and red are regional wines meant to offer us a taste of Switzerland.

Cà d’Oro’s molecular cuisine is a sensorial discovery, uncommon ingredients brought together for a delicate exploration of the palate.

Chef Matthias offers us three amuse-bouche, excellent creations he chooses to share with us avid fans of gastronomy: moonfish cornetto with coriander, tender crab with crushed hazelnut and panna cotta caviar, slightly heavy but delicious, and pork sticks, a fun starter, unusual for such a restaurant: succulent parts of porc mounted on small sticks and drizzled with plum cream.

We select many other dishes, too many in fact, being unable to narrow down our choice to a mere few:

Alaskan crab on saffron chips, by far one the best Alaskan crabs we’ve had in a while, followed by the dish we try everywhere, beef tartare. However, this time, it comes in an inventive way, in the form of a beef tartare terrine: the herbs are strong but balance out the rawness of the meat that melts in the mouth.

A frutti di mare feast with homemade roast fish ink, octopus and prawns offers us a taste of the see, while the entry course, truffle pasta, brings us closer to nature: what’s impressive about the preparation of this dish is that the chef shows every guest who orders it the truffle he will use, asks them to smell this rare fungus, and later turns it into truffle foam and cream, then grates the remaining part in front of the guest at the table.

The main dishes are a white fish specialty, usually dry but in this case, moistened by a truffle coating, and tender beef, cooked rare as meat should be, decorated with pieces of crunchy vegetables.

I realized we had ordered and eaten too many starters and main courses when I felt too full for dessert. I could only admire the colorful dessert dish the chef sent over, listening to my friends’ appetizing comments about the mango sorbet topped with a caramelized chocolate lead, kiwi and melon slices, and white cheese foam cube.

The exquisite dining experience ended with a Nonino 5 with gold leaves, a digestive that ages for 5 years in a wooden barrel, just a matter of enjoying the finer things in life.

And to crown a night of great food and great wine, I enjoyed my Grand Epicure, the newly released limited edition cigar from Hoyo de Monterrey, at the lavish cigar room “The Library”.