Third Michelin star for Sven Wassmer and the “Memories” restaurant

“Even when I was a little boy, I was drawn to the kitchen,” says Sven Wassmer. At the time, he was standing on a special chair next to his grandmother at the kitchen table and, an unusual weakness for a child, loved to stir up salad dressings. At the time, he knew nothing about Michelin stars and even less that decades later he would be wearing their highest possible number, namely three.

Wassmer, born in 1986 in the Swiss canton of Aargon near the German border, rose to the top international cooking league in mid-October thanks to this prestigious award. A dream that he hadn’t had as a child, but had carried within himself since he began as a serious chef. Wassmer’s career can certainly be described as steep: at the age of 27 he was already awarded two Michelin stars, at that time he was cooking in the “7132 Silver” restaurant in Vals, a high mountain town in the canton of Graubünden; he was already allowed to help design this restaurant and to tailor his visions of a new Swiss kitchen to his body.

Since 2018, Sven Wassmer has been responsible for the “Memories” restaurants and the more casual “Verve by Sven”. Both belong to the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, a luxurious and spacious wellness resort whose restaurants now have a total of six Michelin stars – a record-breaking number. Here, too, Wassmer was able to shape both the furnishings and the culinary concept: “The ‘Memories’ was a white sheet of paper, what an opportunity!”

Memories, memories. Awakening them and creating new ones is one of the goals that the newly minted three-star chef will continue to have. Many a dish carries childhood memories: for example the croissant in the amuse bouches, an impossibly tiny sourdough croissant filled with wafer-thin slices of homemade lardo, white bacon. Sven Wassmer tosses his version of “Knöpfli”, i.e. cheese spaetzle, in liquid roasted yeast butter and gives it surprisingly harmonious additional notes with meadow cumin and truffle slices. The cheese used is 96-month-old Gruyere and Sbrinz – “something like Swiss Parmesan, which has become rare”. However, not in grated form, but as an elaborately produced cheese water that only conveys the taste, but ignores the typical heaviness of melted cheese. It’s tricks like this that distinguish normal Knöpfli from three-star Knöpfli.

He could talk for hours about old apple varieties

A major concern for Sven Wassmer are Swiss ingredients that have almost been lost. He could talk for hours just about old apple varieties. The Swiss seed bank provides chefs like him ProSpecieRara, who takes care of the preservation of old varieties of fruit, vegetables and herbs, invaluable services. Wassmer owes her and an organic farm that cultivates this variety again “Schlossere horseradish”. “Because horseradish isn’t just horseradish, there are big differences.” The aroma of the ethereal, hot root appears in “Memories”, among other things, with a rose made from beetroot, apple cider vinegar and a powder made from black currants. In addition, the horseradish is ideally combined with chives and Swiss caviar. And when it comes to caviar, there is also some background information to be passed on to the guests of the star restaurant, a task that the service fulfills in a pleasantly entertaining and unobtrusive manner. The roe comes from Siberian sturgeon, the meat of the fish is processed in its entirety after the caviar has been removed, and even the tough fish skin has been thought of as a use: in cooperation with a tannery and a textile designer, it is turned into sturgeon leather accessories.