Underground at Zürich HB with Candrian Catering

The ZIWA Swinging Sixties group delves into the world of mass catering

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Zürich Hauptbahnhof’s catering service is the largest covered operation in Europe. This fact and many others came to light on yesterday’s tour arranged by Vreni and her popular ZIWA Interest Group. You didn't need to be 60 to participate, and 30 people turned up to discover this underground world, unremarked by most of the passengers who pass through the station every day. There were two groups, one English-speaking and one German-speaking, who assembled at the meeting point to discover more. Our guide was Patrick, the Operations Manager from the firm Candrian Catering, who also run several establishments in the city and in Basel.

Starting off in the Federal Brasserie, we learnt that this was one of the three original bars established in the HB in 1924. At that time there were three classes of traveller, and hence the restaurants Au Premier, Da Capo and Federal provided first, second and third class food and service. In 1924, a soup cost 20 rappen and a full menu cost 1 franc 20. The Federal now serves over 100 Swiss beers, many of them such as Ittinger now owned by the Dutch brewing giant Heineken. Candrian Catering also works with the Nordsee and Burger King franchises that have outlets in the station.

Did you know that Zürich HB has a staff restaurant with 400 seats, which serves the 1600 catering and SBB staff who work at the station? The entrance is on the first floor opposite the Landesmuseum if you want to try it out for yourself! On the other hand, Candrian also do the catering for the Zürich HB Oktoberfest, and their biggest day of the year is the Street Parade, when the clean-up operation may take a week. Zürich HB’s underground world contains the kitchens which produce the food for all 42 restaurants and cafes above ground, including sandwiches for the kiosks. A single ordering system optimises the cost benefits.

As we were led around the underground maze, we saw the beer and wine stores, replenished daily, the soft drinks storage, and the dry goods store including 600kg. of coffee per week. There are 65 nationalities working at the HB catering, and 80 percent of staff are foreigners. Also in the twilight world we saw the laundry service which deals with staff uniforms, the trucks delivering products all over the station and the people dealing with cleaning and recycling.

Candrian Catering has seven new restaurants opening this year, including – breaking news! – a new sushi bar in the main station called Sora Sushi and an Asian garden lounge; look out for them in the summer 2014. Another trendsetter is the supply of popular new beer Chopfab, which means ‘headless’ in dialect.

As we toured through the kitchens, we were surprised not to see much activity, as the catering staff all go to lunch upstairs at 11.30. We saw the butchery where 25,000 sausages are made every week, the pasta kitchen, the fish kitchen and smoking room for the salmon, and the vegetarian food chefs for the Bona Dea restaurant. Most of the food, apart from a freshly cooked steak, is prepared below ground  before being sent upstairs to the appropriate restaurant for final preparation and service.  There are also a bakery and patisserie where all the station’s bread products (apart from Laugenbrot* and bagels) and desserts are produced.


 After our 2 hour long tour, we adjourned into the light of day at the fine dining Da Capo restaurant for our choice of two three-course menus served with water and coffee: drinks were extra, but good value for CHF70 for the whole experience. Thanks to Vreni and our two Candrian Catering guides for hosting us. I can still smell the coffee!

Julia Newton, 26 February 2014

*PS What is Laugenbrot? You may be familiar with the distinctive brown-topped bread rolls as well as the Silserbrot and Bretzels. They are processed using the product Lye, an alkaline solution similar to baking soda.