Professionally we come from very different places, but we’re united by a love of cooking. We are all from the Upper Engadin, but study and jobs took us in totally different directions. Dimitrios studied in Zurich and also worked there for two years in IT; Fabian trained as a civil engineering draughtsman before joining his parents’ sports shop in St. Moritz; and Luca is studying at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont, cradle of the Slow Food movement. But we always used to meet up to cook together, for friends or just for ourselves, and over pasta and wine we would dream up plans for our own restaurant – until we finally went for it!

In winter 2017, we opened a kind of “chef’s table” as a pop-up in the QN bar at the Schweizerhof in St. Moritz. They put a really old-fashioned, wood-panelled room at our disposal, with a kitchen that was barely half the size of the table we’re sitting at now. For us that was more than enough, because we only ever prepared our 4-course dinner for just 14 guests. We just wanted to find out if our idea would work: one table, one small and cosy room, everything always freshly prepared. And it worked: we were fully booked, week after week!

Quite simply: Back to the roots. Simple cuisine with high quality, fair prices, very informal. Here at La Scarpetta, our guests sit together at two big tables. The evening may begin with five couples or pairs of guests, but by the end all of them are talking together and sharing their wine. It makes us enormously happy to see how our place becomes their place, too. The Giardin, our new garden restaurant in Pontresina, is a bit too big to have the same cosy intimacy as La Scarpetta, but the atmosphere and style are very similar to those of its “little sister”. We want the Giardin, too, to keep offering guests fresh and original experiences, so we are starting with a new concept in winter 2019/2020.

We certainly would, if it weren’t already gaining ground here steadily! The young gastro scene – and by that, we mean us hosts as well as our guests – is totally committed to the concept. “Back to the roots” actually also means “back to the original flavours”. After all, Slow Food stands for good, clean and fair ingredients – in other words, tasty, seasonal and uncontaminated goods direct from the producer. Luca’s studies in Piedmont are helping us to expand steadily our network of regional suppliers.

Sure! Hmm, let’s think for a moment… Breakfast is definitely at the alpine cheese dairy in Morteratsch. The setting is gorgeous, and visitors can watch the cheese being made. For our morning snack, we’ll visit the Famiglia Cadurisch in Isola near Sils, who have been making superb goat’s cheese, among other things, on their farm for generations. Lunch… well, here we’re spoilt for choice… PappaLoù on Lake Silvaplana is definitely always an option, but really we ought to head up to an alpine hut! To Georgy’s mountain hut on Piz Languard, for example, or the Segantini mountain hut up on the Schafberg. Simple cuisine, no frills, top quality. You sit in the sunshine, you’re in a good mood and you’ve been enjoying a fabulous hike – what more could you want? In Pontresina, we’ll make a stop at Gianottis wine bar for a drink before heading over to St. Moritz for dinner: the people who run Dal Mulin are not much older than us, and offer wonderful, authentic cuisine and a fantastic wine list. If we’d prefer somewhere lively – and loud! – then La Baracca is the place to go in winter. And perhaps one tip you might not expect, because the name sounds rather conservative: the Country Club at the Kulm Hotel! A really laid-back atmosphere, superb value, and the local cook is a total “back to the roots” enthusiast. The only conservative thing about the place is the name!