What's your favourite dish to make?

I love making my wild boar dim sum. These are small dumplings filled with wild boar necks and shoulders. It's a great dish and makes game accessible to everyone.

What is your favourite ingredient to work with?

I love ingredients like wild and garden herbs and things that we grow and forage ourselves. My mother has a huge cottage garden and we are always looking for herbs and mushrooms and, for example, unripe walnuts for our "black nuts" in the forest. This brings my connection to nature to the plate.

Who is one of your top suppliers or producers?

The Lindenbrunnenhof in Forchheim am Kaiserstuhl supplies us with old and new types of vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots, Swiss chard, salads, and colourful potatoes. The quality and variety are always unbeatable.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your culinary career?

When I was working at the Luce restaurant, my sister Kirstin called me and said our father had been brought to the hospital. She asked me to come home. I will never forget the great and compassionate reaction from Mario Corti, the kitchen director at Ellmau.    I went to him and explained: “I'll finish the evening service, then I'll get in the car, but I don't know if I will come back soon.” His reaction was great: “That's exactly how we will do it. Go home, see how it goes and you call me in three days."   My father has, thank God, recovered, but it was clear to me that it was now time for my sister and me to take over the family restaurant. All of a sudden I had to manage a kitchen team that I didn't know and cook a menu I hadn't written. That was tough the first few months!

Which gastronomic trend are you excited about the most?

At restaurant Spielweg we have not been following every trend, but we are doing our own thing and doing it as consistently as possible.

If you could only eat one dish for the rest of your life, what would that be?

That's hard to say. I'm a really big pasta fan. I basically love Italian cuisine in all its possible variations. And then there is also the Flammekueche or simple bread with butter. And you shouldn't forget the three traditional things from Baden: sausage salad, Brägele and Bibiliskäs, and of course sushi.

What’s one thing in the area that your guests absolutely need to see or do?

Guests should follow the hiking trail behind the Spielweg over the Gießhübel and onto the Schauinsland. This is a dream landscape. Then visit the cozy town of Staufen and see the current art exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler Museum.

Thank you, Viktoria.