Swiss fine-dining at Michelin star restaurant La Vetta

Even in his white chef’s toque, Tobias Jochim looks like an athlete. Based on his pink cheeks, I suspect he may have snow-shoed across the Toblerone-shaped Graubunden Alps to his job as executive chef at Arosa’s Tschuggen Grand Hotel. Here, he lords over the five-star property’s five restaurants, but reigns as master of La Vetta, where I am about to dine with a friend.

The menus change according to available ingredients and Jochim’s whim. Edgy renditions of known dishes, they mirror the decor of the room, created by avant-garde Swiss designer, Carlo Rampazzi, who dabbles with sense of place with surreal twists. On this chilly night, we can opt from three different, six-course tasting menus, each motivated by a theme. A classic menu vaunts lamb jerky with balsamic, as well as poached monkfish in ash. Braised cheek of ox with port wine is part of the ‘Weisshorn’, mountain-influenced, menu. And polenta with truffles exemplifies the choices on the vegetarian menu. “Feel free to mix and match,” Jochim says.

We opt for courses from all three lists, selecting chef’s favourite (poached goose liver with veal tongue and sea buckthorn), as well as his most iconic creation, according to regular diners, (wild hare, with salsify, endive, Jerusalem artichoke and nuts) among a bevy of other delights. From Jochim’s reputation, we anticipate straightforward gastronomy; fitting for a town that has a more dressed-down vibe than St. Moritz. Impressively, La Vetta has maintained its Michelin star since Jochim took the reigns in 2012 — a feat not always realised when a restaurant changes chefs.

When the first two dishes are delivered (a crescent-shaped prawn from the North Sea, enwrapped in a smoky onion and a fat scallop balanced atop a pungent parsley root), I pause, reluctant to destroy the aesthetics on the plates. But not wanting to miss out, I dig in and swoon over the burst of acid when the onions meet the prawn, and of the scallop’s mouth-filling umami. As if on cue, we clean our dishes and in unison take a tipple of grapefruit-intoned, Swiss pinot blanc, as suggested for this course by the sommelier.

And so goes our evening, course after course of Lilliputian-sized servings that extend a celebratory après-ski dinner deep into the night. After the fifth course (a tender entrecôte of ox, nestled in miso and flanked by creamy avocado for my companion, and a sous vide, flower-bedecked guinea fowl for me), I am certain we won’t be able to eat another bite.

When the waiter brandishes dessert, however, our mettle returns. It’s the NY Cheese Cake that wows us most. Jochim’s kitchen’s version is a crème brûlée, laden with mango sauce and puddled in buttery vanilla. When truffles and petit fours arrive with coffee, we’ve slowed to an impasse, happy that the only place we have to go tonight is upstairs to our room. But, tomorrow is another day — and, perhaps, another dinner at La Vetta.

The dining room at La Vetta