Restaurant
How to rejuvenate a Relais & Châteaux? By giving more pep to its gastronomy. The creative and tasty cuisine of Oliver Mewes gives a new image to the traditional setting of the hotel-restaurant Schwarzmatt.
Latest edition : 05 May 2021
With great enthusiasm, Olivier Mewes has recomposed the kitchen of the hotel-restaurant Schwarzmatt. After spending more than three years with Claus-Peter Lumpp, three-star chef at Restaurant Bareiss in Baiersbronn, he was the perfect candidate for Rona Mast, who manages the family establishment in Badenweiler with a lot of passion.
After having restored and modernized the kitchens of her restaurant, she was looking for a chef capable of renewing the gastronomic offer, by enhancing it, of course. A young but assertive chef, ready to communicate, to discuss, to listen too.
Chance sometimes doing things well, Olivier Mewes, who had just left the Bareiss and who had not yet made other commitments, was warmly recommended to him by Claus-Peter Lumpp. For the record, Rona Mast is the niece of Hermann Bareiss.
Leaving a three-star establishment to work in a "simple" restaurant?
“I have always worked with starred chefs, in Germany, in Spain... I had the incredible luck of being hired at the Bareiss. Working with Claus-Peter Lumpp was a very rewarding experience, both in terms of gastronomy and human relations. A three-star restaurant is really the top of the top, the smallest detail is important, the plates are prepared with infinite meticulousness, with tweezers.
It's fascinating and an excellent school. But I don't think that's what I want to do all my life.
But from there to taking charge of a restaurant where everything, or almost everything, had to be built ? “Precisely, it was exciting! Discover the team in place, the strengths and weaknesses. Develop a new, more creative menu, with slightly Mediterranean influences while keeping a traditional note. »
Not everything is always easy, especially since the restaurant must also provide half-board meals. “You always have to find the right compromise. What is not possible in a three-star. »
An example ?
“In a three-star hotel, for example, the chef automatically prepares a line bass, which costs much more than farmed fish. This does not mean that the latter is worse, it is enough to know the good breedings! At the moment, he likes to combine sea-land flavors
like this lobster with sweetbread, a marriage of great taste finesse.
Also new on the menu: the variation of veal in three courses or a duo of lamb in the same dish. We are happy to be tempted by this surprising foie gras parfait and ice cream.
In addition to the gourmet menu, a “regional” menu is offered. Currently, asparagus is in the spotlight: with a starter of asparagus with salmon, scallops or a cream of asparagus with poached quail egg and prawns as a starter, followed by a saddle of beef - always with asparagus. Only the dessert does not include asparagus!
To accompany the chef's dishes, Sandra Fischer, room manager, gladly recommends the right food-wine pairing.
One of Olivier Mewes' former chefs once told him: only cook what you like. Fortunately for the Schwarzmatt guests, the young chef appreciates a lot of products!
Hotel-Restaurant Schwarzmatt, Relais & Châteaux;
Gourmet restaurant open from Wednesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner; rest days (except for half-board guests) Monday and Tuesday
“Coffee-cake” tea room open every day from 2 p.m.
Phone. 00 49 76 32 82 010