“But when you meet someone that lives here, you fall in love.”
Five years ago, Hiltebrand opened Le Chef to stir up Zurich’s once-underwhelming culinary scene.
“I’m really not a typical Swiss,” Hiltebrand tells me during a conversation over dinner.
Credit: Rainer Unkel/Getty Images
“I need to have color in my life.”
“The city is different in the night,” she adds.
And night, of course, is when Kreis 4 comes alive.
Jillian Dara
There hasn’t always been an audience in Zurich for a modern European restaurant like Le Chef.
In contrast, it still isn’t unusual for restaurants to rely solely on traditional dishes likeZuri-Gschnatzletsor Wiener schnitzel.
Fun Things to Do in Zurich
Hiltebrand wanted to challenge the stagnation and cliche.
Stephan Lemke/Courtesy of 25hours Hotels
“But here, they have a lot of different stories about life.
This is why I wanted to open in Langstrasse.
I don’t feel comfortable on the Bahnhofstrasse; I’m a party girl.
Stephan Lemke/Courtesy of 25hours Hotels
I’m different.”
Her three-to-five course menus combine seemingly incongruous flavors, like white chocolate and salmon or carrot-flavored ice cream.
Kanonaegass
Hiltebrand brought me tothis unassuming hole-in-the-wall, popular for craft cocktails and DJs spinning European techno.
Courtesy of Kanonaegass Bar
Josef
“Josefis my place,” says Hiltebrand.
It also has two bars, Panama Bar and Primitivo, for a post-volleyball pick-me-up.
Courtesy of Dante
Courtesy of Josef
