Basel Flavors Combine Best of Three Nations

“Just take the No. 15 streetcar to Bruderholz and you’ll be here,” said the voice on the phone. “The restaurant is in a house, but there’s a sign.”

Taking the street car to a Michelin two-star restaurant seemed a bit peculiar, but Basel, in northeastern Switzerland, is full of contrasts.

With a population of under 200,000 and one of the highest per capita incomes in Europe, the city has more than 30 museums, the largest zoo in Europe and some excellent restaurants.

Just minutes from the French and German borders, Basel reflects the culinary influences of both countries, with large helpings of traditional Swiss cuisine added to the mix.

Most of the city’s restaurants are either within walking distance of the major hotels or easily accessible by public transportation. So we boarded the trolley for the 15-minute ride to dinner.

Bruderholz Stucki was like a private home. Three dining rooms occupy the ground floor, and in warm weather there’s dining in the garden. For nearly 30 years chef Hans Stucki and his wife Susi have lived upstairs and served customers in the rooms below.

We dined in the Francais room, where crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling and German porcelain vases with fresh roses decorated the tables. Tall glass doors offered views of the garden outside.

Unlike many celebrity chefs, Stucki is nearly always in the kitchen creating some of the most exciting cuisine in Europe.

Gourmet magazine columnist Fred Ferretti first told us about Hans Stucki: “If he spent more time doing publicity and playing politics, he’d be famous. But he’d rather cook, and as a result his restaurant is not as well known as it deserves to be.”

The menu is extensive and changes according to the season, but the best way to sample the food here is to select from the multi-course menu.

We began with an amuse bouche (literally a little tidbit to “amuse the mouth”) of smoked eel with chopped onion and radishes.

Then fresh duck liver that had been cooked until just warmed through and crunchy on the outside was served with onions marinated in a clear sweet and sour sauce.

This was followed by lobster with curry butter and seaweed that added a fresh, sea-spray flavor. Fillet de St. Pierre, a firm white fish in a smooth buttery sea urchin cream, was served with fresh lima beans and wild rice.

Roasted pigeon came in a black truffle coulis and was served with Swiss chard in cream with chives, fresh pea puree and baby carrots. Each ingredient was allowed to retain its own flavor, yet all worked together.

“Cooking is like making music. All of the elements must be in harmony,” Stucki told us, as we walked through the garden between courses. “A sauce shouldn’t overwhelm but complement, like the cellos in an orchestra.”

We returned to more symphonies of flavor. A serving of several Swiss cheeses came with freshly baked whole grain walnut and prune breads.

Finally it was time for dessert or, more accurately, desserts. Stucki shares our belief that dessert is the most important part of any meal.

First served was a selection of sorbets: grapefruit, passion fruit, black currant and kumquat. Afterward came a plate of perfect raspberries, wild strawberries and red currants.

The most complex dessert was a chocolate-lined pastry shell filled with custard and topped with three perfect raspberries. Also on the plate was a still-warm, caramel-glazed meringue served with cream whipped with vanilla bean. It was served with coconut ice cream.

The nine-course meal cost about $83. Less extensive prix fixe menus at Stucki cost $48 to $62.

The next night, at the recommendation of our hotel concierge, we walked a few blocks to Elisbethenstubli, a favorite of locals, for an early dinner.

We dined on grilled calves liver, paillard of veal and rosti potatoes. Served in an iron skillet, the wonderful potatoes were crusty and full of butter.

Rosti is a national passion in Switzerland, and the grated potatoes often are served with ham or bacon and a topping of melted cheese. This dinner cost about $40 for two.

But if Elisbethenstubli represents some of the best of traditional Basel cooking, surely the future lies at Der Teufelhof Basel.

The century-old house in Basel’s medieval section has been converted into a small hotel, two avant-garde theaters and two restaurants. Upstairs is the more formal Das restaurant, but we chose the more casual Die Weinstube, a modern room with blond wood and French doors opening onto a little courtyard.

We began with a salad of fresh greens topped with slices of warm duck liver served with raspberry vinaigrette. Veal steak came with a light cream sauce. Veal is a local specialty and we found it much more flavorful than American veal. The meal cost about $80 for two.

Basel does offer good, inexpensive to moderate dining. We spent a warm afternoon at the Basel Zoo, eating several kinds of sausages grilled at open-air stalls. Most varieties were under $3 and were accompanied by hard rolls and mustard. Other stands served beer, soft drinks and ice cream.

Perhaps only in Switzerland would we recommend dining in a train station, but the Bahnhof Buffet in the main Basel train station is a must, even if the only reason for visiting it is to admire the art.

Hans Berchtold, who manages the three restaurants that comprise the Bahnhof Buffet, spent nine years at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and enjoys Americans. The two major rooms, the Brasserie and Restaurant DeVille, offer the same menu and share a kitchen, but the Brasserie is slightly cheaper and less formal.

Part of the station is in France, and L’Escargot is the buffet’s cozy French bistro. It’s downstairs and hidden away, so you may have to ask directions, but finding it is worth the effort. The menu is French with Swiss specialties.

We had a hot cream of cucumber soup and split a rack of lamb with a dish of creamed potatoes that had been lightly browned in the oven. Figure on $20 to $30 per person.

Throughout the city are shops selling cheeses, sausages and breads, so picnics are in order. And as this city is noted for its whole grain breads, the best place to try them is Zoller, a bakery offering more than 20 varieties each day. You can also buy the famous Basel lackerli, a hard, spicy, biscuit-like cookie that is delicious with the strong coffee served everywhere.

Recommended: Bahnhof Buffet Basel, Centralbahnstrasse 14. Der Teufelhof Basel, Leonhardsgraben 47. Elisbethenstubli, Elisabethenstrasse 34/3-34. Restaurant Bruderholz Stucki, Bruderholzallee 42.