Vegetarian chef makes Swiss culinary history with Gault Millau award

For the first time, Gault Millau Switzerland has named an exclusively vegetarian chef its Chef of the Year. Dominik Hartmann, who leads Magdalena in Rickenbach, canton Schwyz, will hold the title for 2027 after earning 18 out of 20 points in the latest edition of the restaurant guide.

The decision places a restaurant outside Switzerland’s traditional metropolitan dining centres at the centre of the national conversation. Hartmann’s kitchen has already earned two Michelin stars, and his team has spent the past several years building a high-end identity around vegetables rather than treating them as a supporting course.

Gault Millau Switzerland announced the award on October 5, 2026. Its director, Urs Heller, described Hartmann’s approach as “Vegi 2.0”. The guide said the cuisine was “tasty and full of surprises”.

That recognition gives vegetarian cooking a new position in Swiss fine dining. It also acknowledges a specific business and creative model: a chef, a small team and a restaurant in Schwyz using technique, seasonality and a tightly defined menu to compete at the highest level of the country’s restaurant rankings.

Hartmann completely reoriented Magdalena’s cuisine towards vegetarian menus in 2022. The change gave the restaurant a clear culinary direction and turned vegetables into the foundation of the experience, rather than a compromise for guests avoiding meat or fish.

Hartmann runs the Rickenbach restaurant with Marco Appert and Adriana Hartmann. Their operation includes an on-site bakery, extending the kitchen’s focus beyond the tasting menu and into bread and pastry production. Gault Millau previously named the team a 2021 Discovery of the Year, before Hartmann’s fully vegetarian pivot.

The award does not erase the discipline required by fine dining. An 18-point rating places Magdalena among Switzerland’s highly regarded restaurants, while the two Michelin stars confirm that Hartmann’s work has been judged at the top level by another major guide.

The distinction lies in the menu’s organising principle. Vegetarian food at this level requires chefs to build depth through fermentation, roasting, stocks, herbs, grains and dairy, as well as through the careful handling of seasonal produce. Gault Millau’s description of Hartmann’s cooking as “Vegi 2.0” signals an approach that treats vegetarian cuisine as a complete gastronomic language.

The latest guide covers 870 Swiss restaurants, with 84 new entries. It also records a lively reshuffling of the country’s dining landscape: scores rose for 98 chefs and fell for 31. Against that broad field, Hartmann’s award marks a change in what Switzerland’s leading restaurant institutions choose to celebrate.

The guide’s top score remains 19 points, shared by seven chefs. The group includes Franck Giovannini at Crissier in Vaud, Philippe Chevrier at Satigny in Geneva, Tanja Grandits and Peter Knogl in Basel, Andreas Caminada in Fürstenau, Graubünden, Heiko Nieder in Zurich, and Marco Campanella at the two La Brezza restaurants in Ascona and Arosa.

Those names show the strength and geographic spread of Swiss fine dining. Hartmann’s achievement adds Rickenbach to that map through a cuisine with a different centre of gravity. His 18 points place him just below the guide’s maximum while making him the first exclusively vegetarian Chef of the Year.

The wider numbers suggest that Switzerland’s restaurant sector continues to renew itself. New entries and changing scores create room for distinctive concepts, including kitchens that build their reputation around plant-based cooking.

Vegetarian fine dining has moved from specialist niche to serious contender in Switzerland’s guide system. Hartmann’s award does not establish a nationwide trend by itself, but it gives the movement an influential institutional endorsement.

The timing matters. Swiss restaurants operate in a market where international visitors, local diners and experienced food travellers compare establishments through ratings from Gault Millau and Michelin. A vegetarian kitchen that earns 18 points and two Michelin stars can now compete for attention without presenting meat as the benchmark for luxury.

For chefs, the recognition may encourage more ambitious use of vegetables, grains, pulses, mushrooms and fermented ingredients. For diners, it expands the range of meals associated with celebration and destination dining. The effect will depend on execution. Vegetarian menus still have to deliver precision, texture, balance and hospitality, while restaurants must manage the costs and supply challenges that come with high-skilled kitchens and seasonal produce.

Hartmann’s model also reflects collaboration. Magdalena is run by a small group, includes a bakery and has developed its identity over several years. The award rewards that sustained work, rather than a single fashionable menu.

Magdalena’s award sets a new reference point for Swiss restaurants deciding how far to take vegetarian cooking. Hartmann’s success in Rickenbach shows that a plant-focused menu can anchor a restaurant’s entire identity and reach the upper levels of national criticism.

The next test will happen beyond the ceremony and the guidebook. Magdalena must maintain its standards, protect the consistency that earned 18 points and continue giving guests reasons to travel to Schwyz. Its partnership between Hartmann, Marco Appert and Adriana Hartmann, together with the on-site bakery, gives the restaurant a broader platform from which to do that.

The award also leaves room for regional interpretation. Swiss cuisine varies sharply between cantons, from Alpine produce and dairy traditions to Ticino’s Italian influence and the urban dining scenes of Basel, Geneva and Zurich. Vegetarian fine dining can draw on those differences rather than follow a single international template.

Other developments in the guide underline the breadth of the sector. Franco Palladino was named Revelation of the Year in Ticino with 17 points, while Alessia Salvini and Baldo Lopez of Ristorante 3 VIE in the Blenio Valley appeared among the year’s discoveries with 14 points. Hartmann’s title adds another kind of discovery: a vegetarian kitchen now recognised as a national leader.