Swiss retreat The Alpina Gstaad aims to reach Climate Positive before 2030, and one way in which this goal is being realised is through its F&B initiatives. Executive Chef Martin Göschel takes a planet-first approach across the hotel’s four restaurants – Michelin-starred Sommet by Martin Göschel, Megu, The Alpina Lounge & Bar and Swiss Stübli – seeking to show that fine dining can also be sustainable.
The low-waste approach at The Alpina Gstaad sees leftover rye bread reused and turned into homemade casarecce pasta and pizza, served up in the hotel’s restaurants and at its Offcut Food Truck (open during the winter season). Meanwhile, damaged over-ripe fruits and berries become chutneys for pastry filling, outer salad leaves, loose herbs or vegetable stems are used in pestos and basic sauces, and waste thrown away is turned into biogas. Preferred suppliers are also identified within a 40km radius, driving the shortest routes to deliver their order in returnable boxes.
The hotel’s kitchens have also been transformed into vacuum and cling film-free spaces, with the materials replaced with reusable boxes or compostable alternatives. “I motivate my team to have as little waste as possible. Both in the food area but especially in the material packaging,” explains Göschel. “This sort of thinking started early for me – in the kitchen with my grandmother. She could make anything out of what we had in the kitchen and it was tasty. I now have many young employees in my team of 30 and am caught up in the idea of the new generation taking care of our environment. A change in thinking has also taken place in my private life now that I have my two children.”
