Dominik Hartmann is first vegetarian GaultMillau chef of the year
The Swiss guide gives its 2027 title to the 34-year-old chef of Magdalena in Rickenbach, a village restaurant with 18 points and two Michelin stars that stopped serving meat and fish in 2022.
Dominik Hartmann, chef of Magdalena in Rickenbach, in the canton of Schwyz, is GaultMillau Switzerland's chef of the year 2027, the guide announced in Zurich on 5 October. He is the first chef with a fully vegetarian kitchen to receive the title.
The guide rates Magdalena at 18 points out of 20. Michelin gives it two stars and, according to the public broadcaster SRF, a green star as well. Hartmann, 34, runs the house with Marco Appert and Adriana Hartmann. It opened in May 2020 as a restaurant and bakery under one roof, GaultMillau named it discovery of the year in 2021, and in 2022 the kitchen went entirely vegetarian.
SRF reports that he trained as a cook and then as a confectioner, and worked for Andreas Caminada and Fabian Fuchs before returning to Schwyz. GaultMillau's own profile counts a staff of 20 and describes Magdalena as the only vegetarian restaurant in the country at 18 points.
A village restaurant without meat or fish now holds the most wanted title in Swiss cooking.
Why Dominik Hartmann is a first for the guide
Urs Heller, who heads the guide, calls the cooking "vegetable-based, but at the same time pleasurable and full of surprises". He adds that succeeding with strictly vegetarian food "far from a big city, out in the countryside" is not something to take for granted. Hartmann told SRF it was good to be able to show how much weight vegetarian cooking now carries.
The award comes from a brand that is still adding countries: Gault&Millau Italy publishes its first guide in January. In Switzerland the 2027 edition lists 870 restaurants, 84 of them new, and costs 52 Swiss francs.
Three more kitchens reach 18 points
The top of the table does not move. Seven chefs hold the maximum of 19 points: Tanja Grandits and Peter Knogl in Basel, Franck Giovannini in Crissier, Andreas Caminada in Fürstenau, Philippe Chevrier in Satigny, Heiko Nieder in Zurich and Marco Campanella in Ascona and Arosa. The press release says an eighth is not in sight.
Below them, Gilles Varone in Savièse, Daniel Zeindlhofer at Igniv in Zurich and Franck Pelux at the Lausanne Palace move up to 18. Varone and Zeindlhofer are risers of the year, with Federico Palladino in Castel San Pietro and Aurélien Mettler in Grindelwald, both at 17.
The discoveries of the year are Nicolas Schröder at Buech in Herrliberg, Cyrill Baumann at Ufer7 in Basel, Claryce Monnier and Alexandre Lacoste at Le Moulin d'Assens, and Alessia Saglini and Baldo Lopez at 3VIE in the Blenio valley. Stefan Beer of Radius in Interlaken is green chef of the year, Giuseppe Lo Vasco of Mammertsberg sommelier, Sarah Benahmed of the Lausanne Palace host and Stefan Gerber of Badrutt's Palace pastry chef.
All of them work in a sector where minimum wages rise 0.6% in 2027. Dominik Hartmann, for his part, takes the title one point short of the seven at the top.
