Mrs. Hilda Veraguth together
with her Souse Chef during cooking class.
Mrs. Hilda Veraguth, Swiss Chef of the year 1996, came
from humble beginnings. After only taking a three month course at a hotel
school, Hilda went straight to work as a receptionist in a small hotel,
where she also filled in where-ever she was needed. One place she didn’t
work in the hotel at that time, however, was in the kitchen. Instead, she
gained her early experience cooking meals at home for her husband. When she
became pregnant with her first son, she made the decision to quit her job
and stay home.
However; being a very energetic lady, after her second son was born she
found it to be much too boring at home and resolved to open her own
restaurant. She was able to find a “hut” near her hometown in the mountains,
and after cutting through all the government red tape, she finally got the
green light.
She was soon to find out that business was only good during the
approximately four months of winter. With only 50 seats to start with, she
was still able to make 60,000 Swiss Franks during this period in the first
year.
Hilda and her entourage at the
Amari Orchid Resort in Pattaya.
Her menu at that time was very simple, with only a few dishes available.
Seeing the need to expand the menu, she hired a chef since she wasn’t yet
able to cook very well. But, it didn’t seem to be working out as she had
hoped. The chef’s kept changing, and as she got more and more impatient, she
eventually bought herself a book to learn how to cook. By luck she purchased
a book named “Pauli”, which was being used in many hotel schools. The
ambitious Hilda tried all the recipe’s and soon had most committed to
memory. Her customers were pleasantly surprised to find specialties on her
menu which they usually could only get in big restaurants in Zürich. Since
all her food was freshly homemade, Hilda’s business began to pick up.
Still, it was not enough for her. She heard of cooking lessons being taught
by a very famous cook in Switzerland and decided to enter. At first she was
refused because, the secretary told her, the classes were only for
non-professionals (she didn’t qualify since she owned a restaurant). So, she
booked herself into the school under her sister’s name. At the end of this
course the teacher found out who she really was and told her that she didn’t
belong in this group. Not to worry, Hilda knew she had already learned a
lot.
About a year later, Hilda received a call from the same teacher who told her
that he booked her into a chef course. Finally she could learn to cook the
way she wanted.
By this time, Hilda’s kitchen was already known in a very wide circle and
was fully booked nightly. Even though she extended her “hut” to include 100
seats and 20 employees, customers still needed to book their seats well in
advance, sometimes up to three weeks. When she eventually decided to retire
from working in the “hut”, she had a yearly turnover of more than 1.8
million Swiss Franks (remember 4 month season only).
For the past 8 years, Hilda has been back in her home village, Sagogn,
operating a small restaurant. Her reputation has followed her there, and
with only 50 seats in her new restaurant, once again her customers must wait
up to four weeks to get a seat.
Over that time period, she received 16 Gourmet Points (Michelin Stars), and
thought that they would be all should would get in her career. Then one day
her husband called to her from the restaurant and told her that she needed
to change from her apron and come out of the kitchen to greet a few regular
customers. He slyly told her that she needed to do this because the
customers had already visited her restaurant seven times, each time ordering
the big menu. Hilda dutifully changed into a clean cooking jacket and went
off to talk to these regular “customers”. To her surprise they told her that
they were members of the “Gou Mio” committee. They had decided to award her
with her seventeenth Michelin Star, and more importantly, choose her as the
Swiss Chef of the year 1996. Hilda, now amongst the best chef’s in the
world, is only the third woman ever to receive this title.
Even though this award has meant that she has had to join many functions and
parties, Hilda says that not much has changed in her life, and that she
still works in her kitchen at her restaurant. She is very devoted to her
work, and accepted the invitation of the Amari Hotel Group to come to
Thailand and cook for them for special occasions only because she was able
to close her business for a couple of weeks.
Hilda also held a special cooking class for the women of the International
Lady’s Club at the Amari Orchid Resort in Pattaya. The next day a special
dinner event was held there as well, and the customers who came to join were
more than pleasantly surprised. They were treated to delicious homemade
food, prepared with more than a touch of class.
This being her first visit to Thailand, Pattaya Mail had the opportunity to
asked Hilda what she thought about her visit. “I loved it in Bangkok at the
Amari Airport Hotel,” she replied. “I was there for one week, cooking every
evening, and I really got used to it. I also think Pattaya is very nice and
beautiful, especially all the gardens and the golf courses.”
We asked Hilda how she would judge Thai food, and she told us that she likes
it very much, but that it wasn’t as hot as she thought it probably would be.
She also said that she is very impressed with the food culture here compared
with many other countries. Hilda said if ever she would have to live abroad
and she could have the choice, she would chose Thailand.
On the other hand, she said that even though she thinks Thai people are very
clean, she is quite shocked that trash cans are over-filled, garbage is left
laying around on the streets, and many empty places are being used as
garbage dumps. “The environment in Pattaya is so beautiful, why do people
destroy it by not caring for it?”, she asked. She also told us that she
believes there is still too much difference between rich and poor people,
but even though some people are very poor, they are still very nice and
polite and seem to be happy. “We Europeans can learn a lot from Thai
people,” she said, “about food, personal cleanliness, friendliness and
politeness.”
“I have already made plans to come back within one or two years, just for
vacation, and to travel around this beautiful country and learn more about
Thai people and their culture”.
Well, Hilda Veraguth, have a great time back in Switzerland. Good luck in
your business and we hope to see you back in Pattaya soon!
