The 20 most famous dishes of Switzerland
Swiss cooking is the food of mountains and cheese, blending German, French and Italian influences, famous for fondue, raclette, rösti and fine chocolate.
1Cheese Fondue
Gruyère and Vacherin melted in a ceramic pot at the table, with bread cubes dipped on long forks —…
2Raclette
A half-wheel of raclette cheese melted on its face and scraped over boiled potatoes, with pickles and baby…
3Rösti
A cake of grated potato fried in butter until golden and crisp on both sides — a Bernese farmer's breakfast…
4Zürcher Geschnetzeltes
Thin strips of veal in a creamy mushroom sauce, served with rösti — from Zurich.
5Älplermagronen
Alpine pasta with potatoes, cheese, cream and crisp onions, served with apple sauce — herders' food.
6Birchermüesli
Soaked oats with grated apple, yoghurt and nuts, created by Swiss doctor Bircher-Benner around 1900.
7Capuns
Chard leaves wrapped around spätzle dough with herbs and dried meat, cooked in broth and milk — from…
8Malakoff
Fried Gruyère cheese fritters on bread slices — a Vaud dish since the 19th century.
9Papet Vaudois
Leeks and potatoes cooked with cream, served with cabbage sausage — the popular dish of the canton of Vaud.
10Basler Läckerli
Basel's firm honey biscuits with almonds, candied peel and spices, glazed with sugar.
11Engadiner Nusstorte
A closed butter-pastry tart filled with walnuts in caramel and cream, from the Engadine valley.
12Cholera (Valais Pie)
A Valais pie of potatoes, apple, leek and cheese — its name links to the 19th-century epidemic when people…
13Bündner Gerstensuppe
A creamy barley soup from Graubünden with vegetables, beans and air-dried beef.
14Polenta Ticinese
Slow-cooked cornmeal porridge from Ticino with butter and cheese, served with meat stew or mushrooms.
15Meringues à la Double Crème
Crisp white Gruyère meringues served with ultra-thick Alpine double cream and berries.
16Zopf
A soft plaited bread made with butter and milk, baked on Sunday mornings in Swiss homes and eaten with jam…
17Bündner Birnbrot
Bread filled with dried pears, figs, walnuts and spices, eaten at Christmas.
18Rüeblitorte
Aargau carrot cake made mostly with ground almonds instead of flour, glazed with icing and topped with…
19Cervelat
Switzerland's national sausage, grilled over a campfire with slits at both ends that open like a flower.
20Croûte au Fromage
Bread slices covered in melted, browned cheese, sometimes with a fried egg — a warming mountain meal.