“You mean to say we drove all this way to eat cheese and potatoes?”

So exclaimed a friend of ours during a visit to the Bären in Gsteig many moons ago. At the time we lived in Canton Neuchâtel so he did have a point. We had just driven two hours, passing numerous hostelries along the way. But we felt justified in our decision because the raclette served in the Bären’s Stübli is second to none. Even though it is “just cheese and potatoes.” With a side of bread.

Celebrating national cuisine
There is no doubt that Switzerland has established a strong culinary brand: rustic fare served in cosy mountain restaurants. We’re big fans and have acted as unofficial ambassadors for Swiss cuisine for years, sometimes with unintended consequences.

There was the fondue evening for friends in Amsterdam – memorable for all the wrong reasons. Keen to create an authentic Swiss experience, we bought the correct proportions of cheeses from a deli up the road, and my husband (then boyfriend) cooked it from scratch while I sat making small talk with our guests. Disaster struck in the kitchen: the fondue caught and burned. This was in the days before food delivery or the wide availability of ready-to-reheat fondue, so my husband had to throw it away, clean the pot, cycle to the deli, buy more cheese, cycle home, chop up the cheese and cook it. By the time we sat down to eat, I had been small-talking for the best part of three hours. Deserving of an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. But happily, the fondue was delicious.

Years later, in America, we hosted a Swiss National Day event on August 1 for our neighbours. We scoured the shops and managed to source a half-moon raclette cheese. We naturally served our guests first and as my husband enthusiastically served the cheese, I encouraged our friends to “eat up, there’s plenty more to go around”. Then it was our turn to eat. I knew something was very wrong at the first mouthful: the cheese must have been in storage for ages as it was inedibly salty. Suddenly, we understood our guests’ reluctance to tuck in.

But we’re not the only ones to suffer missteps. Years ago, a local restaurant decided that the delightfully simple rösti and eggs needed livening up. My father and father-inlaw apparently agreed because the former raved about “rösti with blue cheese and pear” and the latter “rösti chilli con carne”. But I’m guessing our family was the exception to the rule because that restaurant is no longer in business. ‘Nuff said.

More than potatoes and cheese
These days things have moved well beyond cheese, bread and potatoes in the Saanenland. A quick glance at the local restaurant guide shows a broad selection of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Thai food plus of course many Italian options. We’ve eaten in the Bernerhof’s Chinese restaurant many times, the Rialto’s pizza fraîcheur is one of the best I’ve ever tasted, and Mango’s Indian cuisine is a much-welcomed addition to the region.

Our friend from the Bären expedition is returning for a weekend later this year. He won’t face a four-hour round trip for cheese and potatoes now of course, but I think we’ll take him on a different journey instead. A pizza, followed by sushi, rounded off with a curry: around the world in three meals – just three minutes from our door.

ANNA CHARLES