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.

Discovering Appenzell and its colourful history

Wednesday 29 August, 2013

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/appenzell2.html

http://www.appenzell.info/en

One member came all the way from Melbourne to enjoy the rain

On one of the wettest days of the summer, 21 members of the ZIWA Discovering Zürich and Switzerland group travelled by train from Zürich via Gossau SG to the smallest cantonal capital of Switzerland’s smallest canton, Appenzell Innerrhoden. Heavy rain and our local guide Maria Inauen greeted us at the station. Umbrellas were the order of the day. The picturesque village of Appenzell now has around 5.500 inhabitants, and the canton has a mere 15,000 inhabitants living in an area of 172 square kilometres. The canton is divided into mountains, forest and farmland, and agriculture, tourism and handicrafts support the local economy. As we dodged the rain under a canopy of umbrellas, we learnt more about this historic town and its traditions. Some people had to seek out sensible shoes before they could relax and enjoy the tour.

Appenzell’s history and tradition

Paintings of local traditions are on sale in the local shops

The canton of Appenzell became independent from St. Gallen and was accepted into the Swiss confederation in 1513, and this year is celebrating its 500^th anniversary. In 1560, a fire destroyed 170 wooden houses in the small town, and one person lost his life. Appenzell village was Catholic, but the Protestant canton of Zürich gave gold to help the recovery. In 1597, the canton divided into two half-cantons along religious lines, with Innerhoden (IR) being Catholic and Ausserrhoden (AR) Protestant. People were given the choice of where to settle but a strict divide was maintained. There are four nunneries in Innerrhoden, and today we stood outside one of them which had sadly closed its doors when the sisters of the Franciscan order were reduced in number to five. Pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostelo can still stay in the Appenzeller convent though.

Next door in the Postplatz was a castle, or what goes for such in Switzerland, a once elegant family home built for the Löw family in 1563, with a turreted roof and an extensive garden. However the current owners, the Sutter family, have no children so its future is insecure. Across the road we saw one of many arts and crafts shops, this one selling works by local artist Mettler, who painted scenes of cows and the alpine parades. The festival of bringing the cows down from the high pasture at the end of summer, from mid-August to mid-September, is one of the most famous and colourful, something to see once at least during one’s stay in Switzerland. Several processions take place with a similar format with a leader, a man dressed in tight yellow trousers, the three cows bearing large heavy bells, and the white goats. The landscape of the Alpstein Mountains is a popular destination for hikers, and would be even lovelier on a dry day.

Life in Appenzell

The interior of the Catholic Church of St. Mauritius is ornate

Appenzell is famous for its cheese, and opposite the art shop we saw a yellow house which is the headquarters of the cheese producers. Beer is another famous local product, and we glimpsed the Quöllfrisch brewery near the fast-flowing River Sitter. The artist Dörig makes bells for the cows and also personal jewellery items; men’s single earrings are especially popular in Appenzell apparently.  It’s true that many local farmers are on the lookout for a prospective marital partner.

The tower of the Catholic Church survived the fire of 1560, and we noted the 1920 portrait of St. Moritz on the tower exterior; it caused some controversy at the time due to the saint’s bare legs. We took shelter in the church crypt, to learn more about the traditional costumes that are worn for the local parades and are often handed down – our guide Maria had a dress and headgear from her grandmother. Men wear red jackets and women have colourful skirts and headpieces which can take 360 hours to make. The colour of lace on the hat determines whether the wearer is single or married. Baptisms and meditation take place in the church crypt. Outside we viewed the cemetery which appeared to be very full; nowadays cremated relics are also scattered here on a smaller plot. The church interior is now very ornate, in the Baroque style seen in Einsiedeln, and we learnt that it originated in 1320, was rebuilt in 1488-1515, and was renovated again in 1823-28. Stained glass windows were given by donors. The high altar is not centrally located due to the hardness of the underlying Alpstein rock.

The pharmacy is suitably illustrated with herbs

Appenzell’s politics

Up the main street or Hauptgasse, we passed the brick-red 16^th century Rathaus with its colourful flags, and noted the position of the Museum Appenzell on the floor above the adjacent tourist office, with its distinctive hanging sign. The building also contains original prison cells from the olden days. The buildings all along the Hauptgasse had been recently repainted on their facades in differing styles, by Johannes Hugentobler, who married the pharmacy owner’s daughter. We saw murals of flowers, geometric shapes and symbols as well as 35 different medicinal herbs.

At the top of the main street we reached the Landsgemeindeplatz where voting is conducted outdoors on the last Sunday in April. Elections are held for the local government, the high court officials and the representative to the Ständerat. 5000 people traditionally attend these occasions which are also popular with tourists. Voting is done by a show of hands unless it appears to be a close call, in which case there are two exits where voters are counted out. Men carry swords in the parade from the Town Hall to the main square; it was only in 1991 that women in Appenzell got the vote. Our resident guide hoped for a better future from now on!

After the informative tour, a lovely lunch was taken at the traditional Café-Hotel Appenzell before visiting the Museum Appenzell with its artefacts and photos of local history and the Liner Museum, which features traditional and contemporary artwork.

Julia Newton, 5 September 2013.