Magdalena

Pastry training at the vegetable pass

Dominik Hartmann folds pastry training into the vegetable pass as chef and co-owner at Magdalena in Rickenbach, Schwyz, where the menu begins from a decision to cook without meat or fish. He opened the restaurant in 2020 after training first in pastry and confectionery, then sharpening his cooking under Andreas Caminada and Fabian Fuchs. That order matters here. The plate work carries the discipline of a pastry bench, with structure, layering, temperature and restraint doing more work than garnish. Hartmann was 24 when the founding team took on the renovated building, and the restaurant moved quickly from local wager to national address. In 2021 it received 15 GaultMillau points and Discovery of the Year. In 2022, Magdalena became the first two-star restaurant in Europe to serve exclusively vegetarian cuisine. The kitchen keeps the phrase raw, rough, regional close to the method, not as decoration. Vegetables arrive as the subject, with the confidence to leave a root tasting of earth, a herb tasting sharp, a ferment tasting alive.

Five to seven courses without a meat course

The tasting menu runs as a surprise sequence of five to seven courses, with five or six at weekend lunch, and the kitchen uses that structure to build concentration rather than variety for its own sake. Hartmann works with local sourcing, organic produce, small producers, self-harvesting, and a neighboring organic farmer; the point is not scarcity, but proximity. The signatures show the range of the program: beetroot, agnolotti, Jerusalem artichoke, kohlrabi rolls, vegetable essences, fermented radish snacks. A plate of radishes with basil and ricotta can open like a calibration of bite and fat. Agnolotti may carry dark truffle espuma and white truffle shavings, while a potato gratin returns with sauerkraut and parsley foam. The bread program matters, too. Homemade sourdough comes with whipped butter, sometimes with cream cheese and salt, and it gives the room a second rhythm between courses. Vegan adaptations are part of the house practice when requested, but the kitchen’s central grammar is already plant-led.

Wooden beams, valley light, quiet service

The room sits inside a wooden building dating to 1326, restored with old beams, natural colors, warm light and broad windows toward the lake and the Alps. The setting could easily overpower the bench work. It does not. Service stays formal in structure and quiet in tone, with the tasting menu carrying the evening without a printed map of what is coming next. The pass works against that calm: snacks, foams, tartlets, pasta, roots, biscuits, fruit, chocolate, all paced so the room can stay still while the kitchen changes register. Magdalena holds two Michelin stars and a Green Michelin Star, and the 2025 Gault Millau guide gives the restaurant 18 points and names it Rising Star of the Year for the second time. The more useful close is on the plate: a vegetable kitchen in Schwyz ending the argument with beetroot, agnolotti, and Jerusalem artichoke.