Escoffier’s heirs in Zurich: When a top chef prepares dishes like they did 125 years ago

The turbot is a delicately meaty stunner. The fish must have weighed at least eight or ten, judging by the thickness of the fillets. Only after ordering is it portioned, vacuum sealed and poached in a water bath so that it remains juicy and translucent. The fillets are then fried in butter so that the skin and the jelly underneath receive the appropriate amount of heat and develop delicate roasted aromas. Finally, the bones are removed from the flatfish and the parts from the sunny side (as the upper side is called) and the dark side, along with the skin, are placed on the guests’ plates. There is also Béarnaise sauce, which has to be enough – and it is enough.

Turbot in this purist version is now hard to find, even in France. If you want to enjoy it in German-speaking countries, the “Dolder Grand” in Zurich is the right place. The restaurant where the dish is served is called “Grand Heritage” and is not a permanent establishment, but a temporary establishment that revives historical recipes by the kitchen pioneer Auguste Escoffier and is accepting reservations until February. For the 125th anniversary of the Swiss Grand Hotel, classics of French food culture are on the menu, wonderfully old-fashioned dishes that you thought you knew but are rarely found in this purity and quality, including shrimp cocktail, ragout fin and pêche melba, a dessert of peach, vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce that Escoffier once invented in honor of the great opera singer Nellie Melba.

With great dedication to detail, the kitchen team at the “Grand Heritage” cooks like they did at the turn of the 20th century, only in the soup named after the Indian Viceroy Lady Curzon, veal cheeks, boiled beef and veal head now provide the strong taste and no longer turtle meat, because the traditional preparation would not only violate today’s sensibilities, but also the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. And as befits such a menu, the dishes are listed in French, with the German translation below in small print.

Glittering surroundings in black and white

Why does Heiko Nieder, who as culinary director of the “Dolder Grand” is also responsible for a gourmet restaurant with two Michelin stars and half a dozen other culinary outlets, also organize a pop-up that changes twice a year? “The idea came about during the pandemic, when hotel restaurants in Switzerland remained open and we wanted to offer our guests another attraction,” explains the chef. “We plan every pop-up from scratch. This not only applies to the food on offer, but also to the selection of wines and the ambience.”

It’s not quite Maxim’s, it’s not quite The Great Gatsby either. But the glittering, all black and white interior of the “Grand Heritage” puts you in a good mood, as does the attentive service staff. With its nostalgic uniforms, it would fit well on a film set where the next season of “Babylon Berlin” is being filmed. Unfortunately, the cheap, retro-looking pressed glasses could have come from a film set manufacturer; they are too small and too thick for the fantastic Laurent Perrier champagne, which was bottled especially for the restaurant and tastes so good that you love it throughout the entire menu want to drink. The food, on the other hand, is consistently excellent, starting with a smoked salmon tartare that has been cut by hand to better showcase the slightly waxy texture of the fish. It is served on white bread with mayonnaise, cucumber pieces and a dumpling of caviar.

Heiko Nieder’s career began in the early 1990s in the “Four Seasons” in Hamburg. Back then, classic cooking was as consistent as it is today in the “Grand Heritage”: specialties of French cuisine, the finest ingredients, concentration on the essentials. It’s not just Escoffier cuisine that you get here, and yet the spirit of this personality, who shaped not only French but also European food culture, flows through the entire menu. “Escoffier developed numerous cooking techniques that are still valid today and determine the work in restaurant kitchens, even if few people know that they are already 125 years old,” says Heiko Nieder.

There are errors in every component

Auguste Escoffier, who was born near Nice in 1846 and died in Monte Carlo in 1935, worked in a number of famous hotels himself, including the “Savoy” and the “Carlton” in London and the “Ritz” in Paris. One of his lasting achievements is the introduction of the division of labor in restaurant kitchens. Escoffier developed the brigade system, in which each employee has a clearly defined task, from the saucier to the pastry chef. In addition, he laid the foundations for 20th-century French classicism by simplifying and modernizing the often cumbersome dishes of his predecessors. In 1903 his “Guide Culinaire” (cooking guide) was published, which contained around 5,000 mostly concise recipes and basic preparations and was primarily aimed at professional chefs. The book is still considered a standard work today and is also an important reference point for the map in the “Grand Heritage”.

How sensitively the kitchen team, which Heiko Nieder has assigned from the two-star restaurant “The Restaurant” to the pop-up, approaches the historical models and reinterprets them, is shown, for example, with the Filet Wellington, a main course that is very simply structured : Beef fillet with duxelles made from chopped, fried and seasoned mushrooms, covered in puff pastry. But there are sources of error lurking in every single component that can ruin the overall picture. Auguste Escoffier would certainly have enjoyed the precision with which the “Grand Heritage” chefs prepared the dish, especially since it is accompanied by a sauce with black Perigord truffles, whose earthy, woody note goes wonderfully with the fatty sweetness of the puff pastry fits.

The side dishes are also perfectly made, from the “Carottes Vichy” (glazed carrots) to the “Chou-Fleur Mornay” (cauliflower with cheese sauce) to the “Pommes Pont Neuf” (thick-cut potato fries, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside ). Like the turbot with Béarnaise sauce described at the beginning, the filet Wellington is also one of the courses that is best consumed as a couple. The medium to small portions that have become fashionable in high-end restaurants in recent years were not yet an issue in Escoffier’s time.

And finally, the mousse made from three types of chocolate: once again proof of how magical it can taste when today’s top chefs take on the classic from 125 years ago.