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GaultMillau Switzerland has been closely following Tanja Grandits’s career for 14 years by now. «Our inspectors first discovered her in a little hotel on the country side in the canton of Thurgau,» says editor-in-chief Urs Heller. «Now she’s at the very top. She’s been continuously delighting us with dishes that are unmistakably hers while perfecting her craft. That’s why she’s our ‘chef of the year 2020’.» In addition to the coveted title, GaultMillau Switzerland is also rewarding Grandits with 19 points for the first time ever — an unprecedented achievement for any female chef in Switzerland.

Pulpo Tanja

Tanja style: only one colour in the plate.

Team Tanja Grandits at work, 19.09.2019. Foto Lucia Hunziker

Concentration, precision: Tanja Grandits, Swiss «Chef of the Year».

For Grandits, it’s important to share her success with the whole team. «This award would have been impossible without each and everyone in my team, we’re like a big family,» clarifies the Basel-based chef. «My right-hand Marco Böhler is the captain of my team and Julien Duvernay is one of the best pastry chefs in this country, just to name two.» Grandits’ dishes are often based around herbs from her garden and the visual idea of monochrome plating. On any given day, you’ll find a tasting menu that is exciting, unusual, playful, and yet surprisingly harmonious. There are modern dishes like a veal tartare dressed with homemade whey hidden underneath an orgy of wild herbs. But there are also more traditional dishes like melt-in-your-mouth lamb knuckle or dry-aged Swiss ribeye lacquered in cherry vinegar.

07.10.2019; Basel: Koch des Jahres - Tanja Grandits; Koch des Jahres Tanja Grandits. © Valeriano Di Domenico

19 points! Tanja Grandits is the first Swiss female chef on the top. 

870 restaurants featured in the GaultMillau Guide 2020

We’re not worried about the culinary variety in our country at all. 870 restaurants are featured in this year’s GaultMillau guide — more than in any previous issue. We discovered 96 new restaurants. 103 chefs gained one point more while 48 chefs lost one.

Find new restaurants, stories, recipes and videos daily on gaultmillau.ch.