rösti potatoes | Food, Travel, and Stories from a Swiss Chef Who Cooked Around the World

Cooking with Locals in Switzerland

Ulrich Koepf — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:30:28 +0000

“Cooking with Locals in Switzerland”

is a fantastic way to experience authentic Swiss culture, cuisine, and hospitality. Switzerland’s diverse regions—German, French, Italian, and Romansh—offer rich and varied culinary traditions. Here’s a guide to help you plan or explore this kind of experience:

🔍 What It’s About

Buffet mit Essen, Apero, Käseplatte, Gemüse Trauben

Cooking with locals typically involves joining a Swiss host in their home (or small cooking studio) to:
• Learn how to prepare traditional dishes.
• Share a meal together.
• Hear stories about local culture, family traditions, and regional ingredients.

🧀 Popular Swiss Dishes You Might Learn to Cook

German-Speaking Switzerland:
• Rösti – crispy shredded potatoes, often served with cheese, bacon, or eggs.
• Zürcher Geschnetzeltes – sliced veal in creamy mushroom sauce.
• Swiss sausages and potato salad.

French-Speaking Switzerland:
• Fondue – melted cheese with bread.
• Papet Vaudois – leek and potato mash with local sausage.
• Tarte aux pommes – apple tart.

Italian-Speaking Ticino:
• Risotto – often saffron or mushroom flavored.
• Polenta – slow-cooked cornmeal served with meat or cheese.
• Chestnut dishes – seasonal and local to Ticino.

Alpine/Romansh Regions:
• Capuns – chard-wrapped dumplings with meat and herbs.
• Maluns – grated potatoes sautéed in butter with cheese.
• Local mountain cheeses and cured meats.

🏡 How to Book a Cooking Experience

Online Platforms:

• EatWith – eatwith.com
• • – Hosts offer home-cooked meals and cooking classes across Switzerland.
• Airbnb Experiences – Look for “cooking with locals” or “Swiss cooking class.”
• Local tour operators – Many offer farm-to-table or village-based cooking tours.
• My Swiss Experience – Offers regional, curated experiences.
• Community Initiatives:
• Look for Slow Food Switzerland events.
• Local tourism boards (like Lucerne, Bernese Oberland, or Ticino) often partner with residents to offer cooking workshops.

📍 Best Places to Try This

Lucerne – Known for accessible cooking classes with traditional dishes.

• Zurich – Modern Swiss fusion and traditional options.
• Interlaken / Lauterbrunnen – Mountain cooking and Alpine ingredients.
• Ticino – Rustic, Italian-influenced experiences in stone houses.
• Lausanne / Geneva – More French-influenced, urban experiences.

🌿 Tips for a Great Experience

• Book early, especially during summer and ski seasons.
• Let hosts know about allergies or preferences.
• Ask questions! Most hosts love to share the history behind dishes.
• Bring a small gift if you’re invited into someone’s home—Swiss chocolate or wine is a nice touch.
• Top Swiss Cooking Experiences with Locals

1. Ticino Cooking with Locals

• Location: Ticino region
• Details: Shop for groceries with a local host, then cook a traditional Ticino meal together with a chef.
• Price: From CHF 89 per person
• Group Size: Minimum 10, maximum 12
• Availability: Year-round, by request

2. Hands‑On Swiss Cooking Class in Zurich

• Location: Zurich city center
• Experience: Engage in a 3‑hour cooking class guided by skilled chefs. Prepare classic Swiss dishes like Rösti and Fondue in a cozy, welcoming kitchen.
• What’s Included: Ingredients, equipment, tasting, and chef guidance
• Group Size: 4–12 participants
• Price: From €185

3. Private Home Dining Near Lucerne City of Lucerne, Switzerland

• Location: Near Lenzburg (~30 min train from Zurich)
• Experience: Enjoy a private, organic 3‑course lunch or dinner in a local family’s home. Watch—or help with—the meal prep, dine in their garden or modern kitchen, and optionally enjoy a classical concert.
• Includes: Drinks (water, wine, coffee), cooking demo, and transport guidance (train ticket ~CHF 25; car pickup optional)
• Price: Around $232 per person (cancellation up to 24 h in advance)

4. Cooking Workshops in Lausanne

• Location: Lausanne (Vaud region)
• Experience: Seasonal cooking workshops starting with syrup tasting, followed by preparing a full menu including appetizer, main, dessert, and petits-fours using local produce.
• Duration: 2–4 hours (half‑day)
• Suitable for: Groups of adults
• Price & Availability: All year, contact Le Fraisier for booking

5. Withlocals – Home Dinners & Cooking in Major Cities

• Locations: Geneva, Zurich, Basel, Lucerne, Bern
• Examples:
◦ Swiss Fondue Dining Experience
◦ Learn to Cook with a Local: Italian & Swiss Recipes in Basel
◦ Private Pizza/Focaccia Cooking & Dining
• Prices: Around €140–€200 and up, depending on experience and location
• Duration: Typically around 3 hours
• These are intimate home-based experiences blending cooking and dining with local hosts.

Hope you find what you are looking for, your Blogging friend Ulrich Koepf

The post Cooking with Locals in Switzerland first appeared on Food, Travel, and Stories from a Swiss Chef Who Cooked Around the World .

Swiss Regional Comfort Foods

Ulrich Koepf — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 11:07:00 +0000

Have you enjoyed any Swiss Specialties? Tell us about it at the end of this page↓

You Just Have To Try!

as published in THE LOCAL.CH

The Aargauer Rüeblitorte

Swiss chef Ulrich Koepf has worked all over the world, but his favorite dessert remains a cake from his home canton of Aargau. Here, he takes us on a culinary tour of Switzerland, picking out the local dishes you should look out for.

Switzerland’s food is heavily influenced by the fact that this small country is surrounded by five other nations, all of whom have their own signature dishes. These specialties show how influences from France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Liechtenstein crossed the border into Switzerland.

Canton Uri: Ryys und Boor

One of the most significant culinary influences is from Italy. During the building of the Gotthard tunnel from 1871 to 1882, Italian workers used to share their risotto with the Swiss workers. The Swiss then added potatoes and leeks to it in order to create a more substantial, heavier meal to get them through the day working in the tunnel.

That is how the dish Ryys und Boor (rice and leeks) was created, which is still today a specialty in the canton of Uri, where you find the northern entrance of the Gotthard tunnel.

Canton Zurich: Schnitzel

In the German-speaking regions of Switzerland, popular items such as Pork Schnitzel with French fries, veal Julienne with mushrooms in a cream sauce served with potato hash browns (Rösti) are likely influenced by Germany and Austria, according to cookbook author Alice Vollenweider, who discovered old recipes from the 19th century which described Geschnetzeltes (Schnitzel). But it was not until 1947 that today’s version of Zürcher Geschnetzeltes (Zurich-style Schnitzel) appeared in a cookbook by Rosa Graf.

Canton Aargau: Schnitz und Drunder and Rüeblitorte

I was born in the northern Swiss canton of Aargau, and one of the food items I grew up with is a dish called Schnitz und Drunder, a one-pot dish consisting of potatoes, bacon, dehydrated pear, and apple sections. A rough translation would be ‘sections and stuff’.

During my childhood, when times were rough, and we couldn’t afford to buy meat, my mother came up with a shortcut to this dish by using leftover bread slices toasted in butter, and then she added steamed apple sections to it and mixed it all up. It always did the job by filling our bellies!

For dessert, there was Aargauer Rüeblitorte, a local carrot cake that derives from the name Rüebliland (‘root’ land) in the 19th century, the people living in the region around the capital of Aargau mainly cultivated root vegetables, especially turnips.

My favorite dessert in the world also originated in Aargau. It’s called Bundesrat Schaffner Torte and was created for a newly elected federal councilor by the name of Schaffner back in 1961, when the small community of Graenichen organized a reception for him, and the baker/confectioner Ernst Wolleb created this special cake consisting of multiple layers of meringue, cream, and sponge.

When I tasted this cake for the first time, it almost blew my mind. The texture was absolutely amazing, light, fluffy, and not too sweet. It was like having angels dancing on your tongue! It is still a popular dessert in most parts of Switzerland, but sold under a different name and, in my opinion, not quite like the original.

Cantons Vaud: Ramequin and saucisson en croûte

Should you be traveling through the French-speaking regions of Switzerland, you will note the influence of neighboring France, especially the Alsace region.

My friend Patrick Calvetti and his family own a restaurant in the village of Orbe in the canton of Vaud, where he cooks many specialties with French influences. One is Ramequin, which consists of slices of white bread baked with regional cheeses, covered with a tasty seasoned egg and milk mixture poured over the whole dish before baking.

Another is saucisson en croûte, a well-seasoned pork sausage, poached in a broth with seasoning, leeks, and white wine, then wrapped in a pizza or pastry dough and baked for about 30 minutes. Mustard is then added to the broth and thickened with egg yolks to be served as a sauce with the sausage.

Canton Neuchâtel: Jacquerie Neuchateloise

From the canton of Neuchâtel comes Jacquerie Neuchâteloise, a one-pot dish consisting of Sauerkraut (choucroute), bacon, seasonings, and white wine from the Neuchâtel vineyards served with chicken breast. The sauerkraut is slowly cooked with the bacon and white wine, thickened by adding a grated fresh potato, and then served with chicken breast braised in white wine. A sauce is made by adding garlic, butter, anchovies, cream, and parsley.

Geneva: Lac Léman (and elsewhere): Filet de perch

Personally, one of my favorite foods in Switzerland is local fish from the lakes all across Switzerland, such as Egli filet (perch), sautéed in butter with toasted almonds, lemon, and parsley, served with steamed potatoes and wilted garlicky spinach. Yum yum!

Bon Appétit, Buen Provecho, Guten Appetit, Buon Appetito! A version of this article was previously published on Ulrich Koepf’s blog.

The post Swiss Regional Comfort Foods first appeared on Food, Travel, and Stories from a Swiss Chef Who Cooked Around the World .