Since Paul Cabayé moved to Grindelwald, the Alps have become an essential part of his cooking. The French chef, who originally hails from Ardennes, relocated to the Swiss mountain village two years ago, hoping to find a better work-life balance at Hotel Glacier’s Restaurant Glacier, a fine dining experience that Cabayé has completely reimagined. Since Cabayé’s arrival, the hotel has been awarded a Michelin Key, and Grindelwald itself has become an unlikely culinary destination, with Cabayé at the forefront of an evolving restaurant scene.
“I came here wanting to do my particular style of food, which incorporates nature onto the plate,” he tells Observer, speaking from the restaurant before service in February. The floor-to-ceiling windows offer panoramic views of the Eiger, Grindelwald’s famous mountain, and the sprawling meadows that surround the town, currently covered in snow. “Sometimes, for me, that is about the herbs I use. Sometimes, it’s the flavors. It depends on the season. I always want to be as local as possible, which means using things from Switzerland.”
Many of the ingredients used in Restaurant Glacier come from Grindelwald or the nearby Alps. During the warmer months, Cabayé goes foraging for herbs like wild sorrel, duranta and salad burnet. The milk and cream comes from local dairy supplier Eigermilch Grindelwald, which can be seen from the windows of the restaurant. Grindelwald honey appears on the tasting menu and during breakfast, while two of the dishes I was served incorporated mushrooms from Fungifuturi, a mushroom cultivator located in nearby Thun. Saffron is brought from Mund, while various types of citrus come from Niels Rodin, an orchard in Borex. Even the meat comes from a butcher in Geneva, which Cabayé considers “not really close” because it’s a three-hour drive.
“It’s not just that I want to get things locally,” the chef acknowledges. “It’s important to take care of nature in the world in general. I do work with some big suppliers, but I want to work with local and small suppliers to help them to grow and survive.”
One of Cabayé’s signatures is alpine salmon farmed in glacier
“It’s like salmon from Norway, which doesn’t have a lot of fat,” Cabayé says. “The gin is also made with glacier
One of Cabayé’s changes at Hotel Glacier has been to divide the lobby-adjacent restaurant into two distinct spaces: Restaurant Glacier and the more casual Petit Glacier. The former is tasting menu only, with five or seven courses (and a whimsical petit four trolley that arrives at the conclusion of the meal). The latter is more like a bistro, although guests don’t need to reserve a table, and the service is more laid-back. Petit Glacier offers some requisite Swiss favorites, like beef tartare and a veal cutlet, alongside more French variations like perch meunière and chicken. Everything is cooked in the same kitchen by six chefs, which is a difficult juggling act. “It’s complicated,” Cabayé admits. “When we have the restaurant, the bistro and the terrace full, it’s a lot of pressure.”
Still, working near the mountains has allowed Cabayé to more fully develop his foraging skills. The chef, now 31, first learned about foraging wild herbs from renowned French chef Marc Veyrat at La Maison des Bois in Haute-Savoie, although he’s been cooking since he was a teenager. Cabayé has worked in restaurants since he was 14 years old, and enrolled in culinary school in Champagne, France, when he was just 15. After completing five years there, he had the opportunity to work with chefs like Veyrat and Franck Giovannini, at Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville de Crissier. These experiences instilled Cabayé with an exceptional joy for the craft, even when it’s challenging. “I loved it already, but to really be passionate, you need to find someone with passion who will give you that same passion,” he notes of his time with Veyrat and Giovannini.
Cabayé’s learned technical precision comes through in each dish. My tasting menu in February featured an egg dish that showcased a technique that cleverly encases a yolk in a faux egg white under a leek emulsion and kombu broth (the kombu is one of the only ingredients that didn’t originate in Switzerland). The chef says he’s constantly learning and looking for new ideas, often from the more than 200 cookbooks he keeps at home. They span a broad range of restaurants and concepts—most recently, he opened Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook—although only a few focus on vegan cooking. “It’s important to know how to do that because diners have dietary considerations,” he says. “But French chefs, we love butter, and it is important.”
The chef prefers classical approaches. He would rather cook a piece of fish à la minute than experiment with sous-vide bags; cooking the meat and fish during service is his favorite part of the job. He’s on the line every day: “I love being in the kitchen too much to just be the chef and not be the one doing it,” Cabayé says. “Maybe one day. But now, I want to be hands on because I love being with the customers and with my team and cooking.”
After many years working in high-pressure, Michelin-starred kitchens, Cabayé finds it easier to maintain his well-being here in Grindelwald. He runs frequently and takes advantage of the nearby skiing, often hitting the slopes before work. He remembers starting at 6 or 7 a.m. and being on his feet in the kitchen until 11 p.m. for much of his career, and has found that this new Swiss mountain lifestyle suits him better. Restaurant Glacier also closes for several weeks every spring, offering an opportunity to decompress and travel. The approach has allowed Cabayé to relax and ensure he’s not creating that same level of stress for his own team.
“You can give whatever [attitude] you want to your team and to the chefs, but it’s bad if they’re a little bit afraid of you,” he says. “This is changing with the new generation. In the past, it was like, ‘If you’re not happy, there’s the door.’ But it’s difficult to find good people, so you can’t be like that now.”
Grindelwald is a small town, with an abundance of pizza places and traditional Swiss restaurants serving fondue. While Switzerland itself has a significant number of Michelin-starred restaurants, Grindelwald has never been known as a culinary mecca. Over the past few years, however, chefs like Cabayé have brought a new spirit to the scenic locale, which attracts skiers in the winter and hikers in the summer. Currently, Grindelwald boasts five restaurants in the Michelin Guide: Restaurant Glacier, 1910 Gourmet by Hausers, Schmitte, Fiescherblick and BG’s Grill Restaurant. Most of the chefs behind them are young, like Cabayé, and there’s a shared interest in showcasing the locale as somewhere known for more than the mountains.
“Here, it’s not about ‘I want to be better than you,’” Cabayé explains. “That’s for ego, nothing more. We are working together to put Grindelwald on the map. Last year, we hosted the first Top Taste of Grindelwald in May, and we will do it again this year. It’s really nice because we are all cooking together.”
That’s not to say Cabayé doesn’t like a challenge. The chef has participated in numerous high-profile competitions throughout his career, and won the Cuisinier d’Or in 2021. The next goal: a Michelin star of his own.
“What is important to me is the customers, but of course we are going for it,” Cabayé says. “And if they come, it’s good for us. But if not, it’s more important that we make the customers happy.”
Cabayé’s precision and his local, nature-inspired approach certainly seems Michelin-worthy. He knows that it might take time to be recognized, and all of his experiences in Michelin-starred kitchens has taught him that if a star doesn’t come, there might be the need for improvement. “Maybe a Michelin star is coming in the future, but we have no pressure with that,” he notes. “We can just keep making things better.”
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