"I hate vegetarian food."
You don't expect to be handed a visiting card that says this on the other side, but that's how the folks at the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant roll. This isn't India. The world's oldest continuously running vegetarian restaurant is Hiltl; surprisingly enough, in Zurich, Switzerland.
"I hate vegetarian food" at Hiltl Zurich. Photo: Author
When we walk in, it's lunchtime, and the place is teeming with people walking around peeking into pot after pot, looking for what to ladle onto their plates. You're spoilt for choice at Hiltl. That's how the restaurant wants it. But unlike your usual lunch buffets, you don't pay for what you eat here. You pay for how you do.
So, once you've loaded your plate with whatever you like, you head to a scale. The machine weighs your plate--bowls to the left, plates to the right--and tells you how much to pay. As a concept, paying by weight is fantastic. You get to sample everything on the menu, in the exact portions you want to, but the ticking weighing scale keeps you from abundance. If you are the kind to heap your plate with anything that looks good, notwithstanding whether you would actually eat all of it, you're in the best place possible. Hiltl compels you to be mindful while eating. You waste, you pay.
Hiltl during lunch. Photo: Author
The vegetarian fare ranges from a selection of salads to a motley collection of desserts, with the entire kitchen thrown in in between. But all of this, in a geography dominated by meat-eaters, took us back to the fundamental question: how?
How Switzerland Became The Home Of The World's Oldest Vegetarian Restaurant
The answer lies in a woman who loved her vegetables, and a tailor who fell in love with her.
Bavarian tailor Ambrosius Hiltl travelled far and wide for work. His travels frequently took him to Switzerland from Germany, and he finally settled in Zurich in 1897, when he was 20. A year later, the 'Vegetarierheim and Abstinence-Cafe' opened in Zurich to much ridicule and derision. Locals termed it 'root bunker' and the people who frequented the cafe 'herbivores'. The patrons were looked at like crackpots. The place wasn't quite a hit. Till one day, when fate took Ambrosius Hiltl to the 'root bunker'.
The menu at the 'root bunker'. Photo: Author
In 1901, Hiltl fell ill. His rheumatism made life difficult and the doctor he went to predicted an early death for him, unless... Hiltl changed his ways. The tailor was asked to give up meat and move to a plant-heavy diet. In 1900s Zurich, there was perhaps no challenge greater than finding fine-dining that was vegetarian. So, Hiltl made his way to the root bunker.
The root bunker changed his life. Hiltl made a full recovery, and two years later, in 1903, when the Vegetariarheim looked for a replacement for its manager, the tailor jumped at the job. Hiltl turned the cafe around. From a turnover of 35 francs at the time, he made it a roaring success. Hiltl's love for vegetarianism pushed him into the Vegetariarheim, and there, he fell in love with the cook, Martha Gneupel. The two got married and together, became the pioneers of vegetarian hospitality in the West.
India Enters The Hiltl Kitchen
For half a century, the Vegetariarheim catered to the 'herbivores' in and around Zurich. In between, Martha and Ambrosius had and raised three children, two sons and a daughter. In 1926, on the restaurant's 20th birthday, Margarith Rubli arrived as a service employee. She worked from 7 in the morning till 9.30 in the night, with only a one-hour break each day. Five years later, Leonard Hiltl, son of Ambrosius and Martha, married Margarith.
Former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai (L), with Margarith Hiltl (R) in Delhi. Photo: Hiltl
Under the second-generation Hiltls, the restaurant grew despite skepticism around vegetarians and vegetarianism. In 1951, Margarith first travelled to Delhi as an official delegate of Switzerland to the World Vegetarian Congress. This was a time when Swiss cuisine swapped meat with bland hash browns as alternatives. Margarith's trip to the Indian capital was eye-opening. She returned home with bags full of Indian spices and decided to add Indian cuisine to the menu of Hiltl.
Margarith's friends and contacts in India guided her on the fascinating and layered Indian cuisine. However, in the 1950s, finding jeera, dhania, elaichi and haldi wasn't exactly easy in Zurich. The introduction of Indian cuisine into the Hiltl menu was met with extreme reluctance from the kitchen staff, who simply refused to cook anything. They thought no one would eat these 'exotic' foreign dishes, forcing Margarith to begin cooking Indian food for herself in her private kitchen.
You pay by weight at Hiltl. Photo: Author
The Indian clientele at Hiltl grew. The country's flag carrier Swissair asked Hiltl to cater for their Indian passengers, and Hiltl found itself at an interesting crossroads: vegetarian Indian food was now part of the Hiltl story.
Seventy Years Later
Today, Hiltl is a hit with people Indian and non-Indian. Guests across various demographics make for their burgeoning list. College students, young employees, the rich and the fancy, the drinkers and the non-drinkers; Hiltl is a melting pot of cultures. The lunch buffet is quite something. From fritters - bhaji, if you will - to an entire section dedicated to chutneys, India sits bang on the throne of the Hiltl buffet.
Hiltl might be the beginning of Switzerland's love affair with vegetarianism, but it is barely restricted to that restaurant today. There's a growing movement, in sync with the popularity of plant-based lifestyle worldwide, in this country too. Switzerland is at the bleeding edge of the vegetarianism movement, with Michelin-star chefs ruffling up seven-course meals with no meat on the menu. Aubergine, mock meat, sweet potato, cauliflower, turnip, radish - the steaks are as innovative as they are explosive.
Vegetarianism As A Movement, From Ski Resorts...
Take this: in a ski resort, in summer, one of the most popular attractions is the three-course dinner at a vegetarian restaurant.
Riders Hotel in Laax. Photo: Author
Riders Hotel, in the resort town of Laax, has a set menu comprising various vegetarian experiments by its resident chef. For starters: bean salad with apricots and hazelnuts, tomato and melon salad with smoked tofu miso cream, chilled cucumber soup with mint.
The starters at Riders Hotel. Photos: Author
The main courses are even more mind-bending: panisee with peppers, black garlic and almonds; planted steak with roasted onion jus, Ticino polenta and zucchini; and saffron porcini risotto with roasted bunker mushrooms.
The 'steak' and the dessert. Photos: Author
The cherry on the cake is reserved for the last bit: yoghurt mousse with carrot granita, dill and sesame seeds; and tonka bean ice cream with plum compote and poppy seed meringue.
...To Old Towns In Cities
Back in Zurich, vegetarian experiments are all over the old town. Up Glockengasse sits the one-Michelin-star Neue Taverne. Here, chef Fabian Fuchs runs an open kitchen where the folks cooking your meal have as much fun as the ones devouring it outside.
At Neue Taverne. Photo: Author
The lively atmosphere is like that of a modern gastropub. The relaxed setting, down-to-earth service, and warm and caring staff make Neue Taverne the ideal spot for lunch or dinner. The entire menu is vegetarian; with some of it entirely vegan.
The 'Tavolata'. Photos: Author
The main highlight of Fabian's kitchen is its 'Tavolata', or surprise menu; perfect for people who cannot seem to decide what to eat. The menu is crafted out of seasonal vegetables, with the team partial towards cabbage and turnips, pumpkin and celery, cauliflower and salsify.
Their fermented vegetable tartare is a must-have; as is the eggplant steak with wasabi sesame, miso and cashew.
The eggplant steak (R) is a winner. Photos: Author
In 120-something years, Switzerland's love for vegetarian food has moved out of that 'root bunker' to take over the city centre. First came the people. Then there were the experiments. The Michelin stars followed.
Today, you'll have to look mighty hard for someone to agree with that visiting card at Hiltl. Who hates vegetarian food?