Climb Every Michelin Star
Restaurants across the Alps that are reaching new heights
- Category:
- The List
- Words By:
- PRIOR Team
- Art:
- Conor Burke
- Published:
- January 14, 2021
Switzerland
Chez Vrony | Local organic produce gets elevated in every sense of the term at this mountainside Zermatt restaurant, which has been sharing its Matterhorn views for over 100 years. In this rustic cuisine, traditional recipes are given an international outlook.
IGNIV | Badrutt’s Palace in St. Moritz has an appropriately swish, two-star modern restaurant from Swiss star chef Andreas Caminada, who, along with Chef de Cuisine Marcel Skibba, serves luxe, modern dishes in a room designed by Patricia Urquiola. While you’ll want to change out of your ski bib before your meal, it’s not so fussy that kids aren’t invited to sack the extravagant dessert trolley.
Italy
AlpiNN | Chef Fabio Curreli serves seasonal, sustainably-minded cuisine in a glass box dangling off the peak of Kronplatz. The casually cool interior was designed by Martino Gamper, who also hails from South Tyrol.
El Brite del Arieto | Stylish modern Italian Alpine cooking in a beautifully rustic farmhouse. The son of this dairy-farming family in Cortina also helms the excellent, forward-thinking restaurant El Brite.
Ottmanngut | Chic Italian guest house in the Südtirol that’s legendary for its multicourse regional breakfast, which brings a langorous, dinnertime approach to the first meal of the day. In the summer, breakfast is taken beneath the palm trees — a bit of the Med in the mountains.
Petit Royal | The young, Michelin-starred chef Paolo Griffo serves modern haute cuisine in the restaurant of this Courmayeur hotel, bringing a playful approach to the ingredients of the Aosta Valley. Yes, there is pasta, but it might feature foam…
Austria
Rote Wand Chef’s Table | Young Austrian chef Max Natmessnig had already put in time at Vienna’s Steirereck and NYC’s Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare before helming this award-winning restaurant in an old schoolhouse. The locally-sourced meals that Max prepares before guests at the chef’s counter stretch up to 19 courses.
France
Chez Merie | Tucked into the Rhone-Alps, this cozy mother-daughter-run chalet serves updates on classic French mountain fare, such as mi-cuit foie gras with a chutney of quince and apple. If it feels like you’re in their living room, sipping vin chaud on a low sectional covered with sheepskins and furs, it’s because you are.
The PRIOR editorial team, overseen by David Prior, works together to write and produce stories that inspire curiosity about, and the desire to connect to, places and people across the world.
