SALZANO

good quality, good value cooking

The Salzano family, who manage their charming hotel with great personal dedication, consistently pursue their passion: nature-inspired Alpine experiential cuisine. Alongside an extensive à la carte menu featuring "low carb" dishes, the kitchen team’s directive is to design a creative, predominantly regional tasting menu. Chef Jan-Philipp Wesemann executes this balancing act with mastery. As mountain bikers sip a wheat beer on the terrace following their ride, we start with a fresh, texturally dynamic root vegetable tartare, marinated Gotthard zander, and a cucumber-borage cold soup. This is followed by parsnips, beech, apricots, and chamomile (prepared as a gel), while crispy pumpernickel crumbs act as "earth," somewhat completing the natural tableau. Yet the sweet-earthy flavor of the parsnips—a quintessential winter vegetable—does not quite mesh with the philosophy of a nature-oriented, i.e., seasonal, kitchen. Perfectly summery, by contrast, is the zucchini blossom stuffed with a filling of Lostallo salmon and dill, served alongside sautéed zucchini slices and white tomato foam. The stuffing concept returns in the main course: the corn-fed chicken breast is technically flawless as a galantine, filled with multicolored carrots, and accompanied by corn in various preparations and a jus perfumed with wild oregano. The dessert, a harmonious blend of blackberries, chocolate, yogurt, and mountain mint, brings the menu to a convincing close.