Benoît Carcenat, chef at La Table du Valrose hotel restaurant in Rougemont, has been named “Chef of the Year 2023” by GaultMillau Switzerland. The gastronomic guide awarded him 18 points out of 20.
French-born Carcenat, 42, has been running the Valrose establishment in canton Vaud with his wife, Sabine, since 2021.
“I had never worked in the mountains before. And in fact, you realise that it’s a paradise for cooks, because as soon as you go into the mountains, you go 20 metres and you have plants, fruit, roots. It’s an open-air garden,” he said on Monday.
Before joining Rougemont, Carcenat worked for almost ten years at the Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, one of only four Swiss restaurants to have three Michelin stars, before moving to the Pays d’Enhaut and creating the “Table du Valrose”.
He says his cuisine is “essentially centred on the product, as local as possible” and is combined with “slightly more exotic touches” inspired by his travels around the world. “It’s a cuisine that we hope will be easy to understand – sensitive and emotional. With a bit of audacity and a touch of madness too.”
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Fourth Swiss restaurant awarded three Michelin stars
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Switzerland now has four restaurants with three Michelin stars: Memories, in Bad Ragaz, eastern Switzerland, has joined the exclusive club.
For the 2023 edition of the GaultMillau guideExternal link there is only one change in the “19 point club”, which has been reduced from seven chefs to six following the retirement of Bernard Ravet in Vufflens-le-Château. They are Franck Giovannini in Crissier, Philippe Chevrier in Satigny, Andreas Caminada in Fürstenau, Tanja Grandits in Basel, Peter Knogl also in Basel, and Heiko Nieder in Zurich.
Other awards announced on Monday included “Sommelier of the Year” for Peter Zimmermann at the Zermatterhof in Zermatt and “Pastry Chef of the Year” for Othmane Khoris at The Alpina in Gstaad.
The GaultMillau 2023 lists 870 restaurants, including 89 new discoveries. For this edition, 93 chefs gained one point, while 45 chefs lost one.
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Swiss restaurant diners face energy surcharges
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Restaurants in Switzerland are passing on the cost of rising energy prices to diners with the blessing of the industry’s umbrella group.
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The Swiss are increasingly questioning traditional gender roles. Acceptance of same-sex parents has risen by 25 percentage points within ten years.
Swiss researchers develop living material from fungi
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A Swiss research team has developed a new type of material from fungi. This could be used to create compostable films, moisture sensors or edible additives for food and cosmetics, they say.
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The Gotthard Pass is to be re-opened to through traffic on Friday at 11am. A partial re-opening is also planned for the Susten Pass.
Work atmosphere more important than salary, say Swiss
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Fridays are the preferred day for babies to be born in Switzerland, according to a report by the Federal Statistical Office.
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Picking up the baton as the world’s best chef
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The at-times frantic clicking on and off of a pen is the only sign of the adrenaline below the surface in this boyish-looking 42-year-old. He’s leading a lunch service at the restaurant in the Lausanne suburbs, which is adorned with three Michelin stars and 19 Gault&Millau points. Last year it was also named best in…
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