Acquired Taste
The Sugared Soul
of Switzerland
In the world of fine dining, sugar is often regarded as a simple “crowd-pleaser”— a temptation that is not always taken seriously. But in Switzerland, things are different. Here, there is a remarkable concentration of world-class pâtissiers. Why is there such a deep appreciation for a discipline that elsewhere often plays a supporting role? Maison Ë traveled to the best of the best to discover what holds the Swiss love for sweets together at its core.
(Sweet) Few can resist the Graubünden Nusstorte in Switzerland. This includes Stephanie Mittler—head pâtissière at Mammertsberg at Lake Constance. “I had my first piece at Casa Caminada. A rich shortcrust pastry with caramel and walnuts, served with cream and vanilla ice cream: To me, this is now the taste of Switzerland,” Mittler says. Years later, she reinterprets the classic: a walnut mousse combined with yogurt foam and sea buckthorn gel, accompanied by salty caramel and walnut ice cream, and a broth of black tea whey for added freshness. We ask the Munich native: Why do the Swiss have such a sweet tooth? “It’s historically rooted. Dairy products, such as cheese, have always played an important role here. Plus, Switzerland is the birthplace of industrial chocolate production.”
Sweetness is the alpha of good taste—the kind that seems desirable to us right after birth in the form of essential breast milk. Unlike bitter or spicy flavors, sweetness signals “easy to consume.” At the same time, it comes with a high calorie count, meaning lots of energy, which is why even adults can hardly resist it evolutionarily. However, in the world of fine dining, sugar doesn’t have the best reputation. It’s a crowd-pleaser, bad for health, and unnecessarily fills the stomach—which is why even some restaurant critics skip dessert. As a result, those who make desserts often remain in the shadow of the “real” chefs—not even mentioned by name. This is different in Switzerland, a country that has long had a sense of dolce vita.
Fruit, Nuts, and Dairy Products
Stephanie Mittler, 32, is a lively woman, with hoop earrings peeking out from beneath her blond, wavy hair. At the time of her Nusstorte awakening, she had a wealth of experience behind her—studies in nutrition science, stints at Munich’s Dallmayr and Bad Ragaz’s Igniv—and had just taken a position at Schloss Schauenstein, a Michelin three-star foodie hotspot in Fürstenau, Canton Graubünden. It is run by Andreas Caminada, who also operates the vegetarian-starred restaurant Oz and the aforementioned Casa Caminada, which specializes in Graubünden home cooking. From there, Mittler moved to Lake Constance, specifically to Mammertsberg, where she has worked as head pâtissière and sous-chef since 2022. In October, she was named Pâtissière of the Year 2026 for Switzerland by Gault & Millau. “The Swiss love their sweets. Unlike in Italy or France, citrus or fresh flavors are missing in traditional desserts—instead, nuts, apples, pears, and dairy products set the tone.”
The pâtissière, however, takes a different approach, aiming to create desserts that don’t overwhelm at the end of a meal. Examples include her cocoa fruit sorbet with black tea whey; the summer classic “Raspberry and Shiso” with cream-cheese mousse, raspberry kefir and sorbet, and fresh shiso from the Mammertsberg garden; or a pre-dessert made of strawberry and fennel. Only during the last course, in the form of friandises, should things get really sweet—and preferably chocolatey.
Swiss Precision Meets Culinary Obsession
Titouan Claudet is also sweet on chocolate. Not only is he the head pâtissier at the Geneva-based Atelier Robuchon, he is also in charge of the attached Woodward Hotel and its boutique pâtisserie. His “chocolate dream” consists of a cake made of 100% Felchlin chocolate, enhanced with cardamom and cocoa fruit juice. Geometric shapes are the signature of the 32-year-old, seen in his Bûche Mosaique, a beautiful, diagonal-cut cocoa biscuit refined with dark chocolate cream and mousse, sea salt praline, and a milk chocolate coating. Born in Besançon, France, Claudet describes himself as “straightforward, almost pedantic,” with a strong need for order and symmetry. This precision is right at home in the world of pâtisserie, as it demands milligram-accurate strictness. It’s no surprise that pâtissiers are often casually referred to as the “autists of the kitchen.”
By the way, Titouan Claudet was named Pastry Chef of the Year for Switzerland in 2025. That puts him in good company among his compatriots. A few examples: David Schmid, World Confectioner of the Year 2021, who in Aarau creates French classics such as macarons and Paris-Brest; pastry world champion Rolf Mürner; or Othmane Khoris, Pastry Chef of the Year 2023, who runs a dessert boutique in Geneva. The Parisian’s signature dessert is a vanilla sushi rice with Gruyère double cream.
Another Pastry Chef of the Year 2025 who technically doesn’t hold a Swiss passport—although he’s been based in Switzerland for years—is currently based at the Mandarin Oriental Savoy in Zurich. Andy Vorbusch has a clear stance on crowd-pleasing desserts: “A chocolate cake like that completely wipes you out.” The Hamburg native has made a name for himself by using unusual ingredients such as peas, candied lettuce, dill pickles, and fermented shiitake mushrooms.
Patisseries are often casually referred
to as the “autists of the kitchen.”
So Much for Diet Food.
That’s almost the opposite of what Switzerland has traditionally stood for: chocolate and milk, cream and nuts, plenty of dough, and rich sweetness. It starts at breakfast. Around 125 years ago, physician Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner served his patients a mix of rolled oats, fruit, and sweetened condensed milk. His “apple diet dish” went on to conquer breakfast buffets around the world as Bircher muesli—nowhere more refined than at Zurich’s grand Dolder Hotel, located right next to the former sanatorium where Bircher-Benner once practiced. The ingredients: grated Granny Smith and Gala apples, natural yogurt, heavy cream, honey, lemon juice, and roasted hazelnuts. Bon appétit.
Sweetness continues to set the tone later in the day: for a typical Swiss lunch of Älplermagronen—a hearty pasta and potato dish with cheese—there’s often at least a spoonful of applesauce on the side, or even a sweet main course like Dampfnudeln, followed by a flan-like Caramelköpfli or a Thurgau-style sweet cider cream. In the afternoon come Rüblitorte (carrot cake), apple tarts, meringues, Lucerne gingerbread, Basel Läckerli, or Vermicelles—chestnut purée piped into “worms,” topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It’s the favorite dessert of Mario Siegrist, who, together with head chef Dominik Hartmann, runs the pastry kitchen at Magdalena, a restaurant in Rickenbach, Canton Schwyz, distinguished with four Gault & Millau toques.
The building housing the restaurant is nearly 700 years old, carefully modernized in a Scandinavian style. On this Sunday at noon, just before service, the two have joined a Zoom call. Hartmann, 33, blond curls, wearing a white “The Bear” t-shirt, describes his concept as “seasonal, with a focus on Swiss products, often highlighting a single ingredient.” His 27-year-old colleague adds: “For us, the seasons set the rhythm. Instead of sugar-heavy desserts, we focus on less sweetness and the precise use of acidity.”
Hartmann cites as examples a pre-dessert of cashew cream with rhubarb-kombucha foam and wheatgrass sorbet, or a pumpernickel cream with pickled cherries and cherry gel, brightened by a shiso broth and a scoop of cherry-shiso sorbet. Of course, the same question must be asked of the Magdalena duo: why do their compatriots have such a knack for patisserie? Siegrist’s theory: “Culinary training here is on an incredibly high level, which suits the precision-driven world of patisserie perfectly.” Hartmann, who trained first as a chef and then as a confectioner, adds that the bar in France is also set high, which influences the French-speaking part of Switzerland. “And when it comes to chocolate,” he says, “we just happen to love eating our own exceptional product.”
At Magdalena, for instance, that takes the form of a blackberry-centered chocolate mousse boldly paired with salsify and dill.
Pâtisserie as an Art Form
When asking immigrant pâtissiers in Switzerland why the working conditions are so good, you’ll get more answers: the high quality of ingredients, particularly chocolate; the pleasant working conditions and good pay; the willingness of locals to spend a lot of money on food; and, lastly, the deep respect for the profession of pâtissier, which is considered an independent art form between Basel and Bern, not just the obligatory sugar shock at the end of a meal.
We return to Lake Constance, where Stephanie Mittler also proves that pâtisserie is by no means synonymous with a food coma. Every now and then, she says, it’s perfectly fine to revisit the classics. This applies to her beloved nut cake, as well as what she serves for lunch at Mammertsberg: cakes and strudels using apples sourced from local farmers. “Right now, we have plum dumplings and people are crazy about them—nothing gets reordered more often.” Mittler also recalls the apple fritters that were reserved for regulars at Schloss Schauenstein—fried in fat and served with burnt and fresh cream. More likely than not, a number of guests came back just for those.