Every few months, the kitchen team at The Stube rebuilds the eight-course menu from scratch. Every single time, the Gruyère course stays exactly where it is.
The cheese doesn’t change to suit the course. The course changes to suit the cheese.
Where It Comes From
Twelve minutes down the valley road, past the point where the trees thin out and the farms begin, there's a small producer called Maison Rey. The Reys have been ageing Gruyère in a cellar cut into the hillside for three generations. The cheese they make is not the kind you find in a supermarket — it's sharper, more complex, and varies slightly depending on what the cows have been eating that season.
The Stube kitchen has been working with Maison Rey since the restaurant opened. The relationship is simple: the Reys make what they make, and the kitchen finds a way to use it. Some seasons the cheese is younger and creamier. Some winters it's been in the cellar so long it crystallises slightly at the rind. The course changes to reflect this. The cheese doesn't change to suit the course.
What the Course Actually Is
The Gruyère course is served as five textures: a warm fondue in a small ceramic cup, a thin gel set on a cold stone, a wafer-thin crisp that shatters immediately, a poured cream finished at the table, and a sliver of the raw aged cheese served last, on its own, so you can taste exactly what everything else was made from.
The idea came from a conversation about how most people never taste the thing a dish is named after — it gets transformed so many times that the original ingredient becomes theoretical. The raw sliver at the end is an answer to that problem. It's the one moment where nothing has been done to the cheese at all.
The whole course takes about twelve minutes. Guests are not rushed through it.
Why It Never Leaves
The kitchen team has discussed removing it. Not because it isn't working — it always works — but because keeping one dish fixed on a menu that otherwise changes constantly creates a kind of pressure. If everything else can change and this can't, it had better be worth it every single time.
So far, it has been. Guests who return to The Stube often mention it before they've sat down. A few have come back specifically because they remembered it. One couple, who first visited in winter 2019, have now eaten it six times. They always sit at the same table.
The kitchen team finds this both gratifying and slightly terrifying. Which is probably the right response.
What Pairs With It
Our bar team's recommendation for the Gruyère course, unchanged since it was first introduced: a glass of Johannisberg from the Valais — specifically the one from Domaine de la Treille, which has just enough acidity to cut the fondue without competing with the raw cheese at the end.
If you don't drink, the kitchen has been serving a poured apple reduction as a non-alcoholic pairing since last spring. It works better than it sounds.
How to Book
The Stube is open Tuesday to Sunday from 7:00 pm. The eight-course menu is CHF 195 per person. Reservations are required and can be made through the website, by phone, or at the front desk. Hotel guests receive priority — mention your room when you book.
If you have a dietary restriction that affects the Gruyère course, tell us at booking. The kitchen team will always find a way to honour the spirit of it, even if the form has to change.
