The Grand Resort Bad Ragaz points stands for indulgence with style. The signature restaurant of Sven Wassmer, "Memories", focuses on product awareness, innovation and seasonality - clear and reduced, the New Swiss Alpine Cuisine is transformed into a genuine and natural overall experience.

High up in the Prättigau, where the vegetation has become primeval forest and the tree line is not far away, the Alpine sea buckthorn poaches in dense, up to six-metre-high bushes. It is practically impossible to harvest the soft capsules directly from the bushes. So Margrit and Adolf Hartmann load their donkeys with whole branches and lead their animals through the rough terrain back down to the valley.

For the retired druggist - although the physically strenuous harvest, the demanding processing of the berries with all the technical and hygienic aspects, marketing, sales and shipping - the Alpine sea buckthorn is still his passion.

Sven Wassmer is standing in the open show kitchen of "Memories" and holds a bottle of orange tincture against the light. "The Alpine sea buckthorn is the lemon of the mountains," enthuses the star chef. "It has a wonderful acidity and a special flowery, open flavour - and it's extremely rich in vitamins." It owes its intensity to a supposed disadvantage: at 1600 meters, the plant needs several weeks longer to ripen than its conspecifics at sea level. "The robust Alpine sea buckthorn thus develops a stronger, more differentiated taste," says Wassmer.

It is precisely such products that interest the celebrity chef, who is reinventing Swiss Alpine cuisine in his restaurants "Memories" and "Verve" at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. Lobster or duck liver are not available at his restaurant. Instead, he tries different things such as a fir cone cooked in sugar, which tastes juicy and sweet like an apple. He is not dogmatic, says Wassmer, his alpine cuisine comes more from the need to know the product completely. "I need to know what it looks like where it grows, what it smells like, how the suppliers work."

Not only Sven Wassmer has devoted himself to refined alpine specialities: his wife Amanda is in no way inferior to him. For over 15 years, Amanda and Sven have been a power couple dedicated to high-end gastronomy. The British-born Amanda Wassmer-Bulgin not only provides the appropriate wine accompaniment to her husband's dishes, as wine director of the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz she is responsible for the entire wine selection of the entire resort.