Stiva Grischuna

Regional dishes held at the bench

Capuns set the pace at Stiva Grischuna in Disentis/Mustér, where chef Michael Häsch leads a kitchen committed to traditional Graubünden cooking. The dish asks for chard leaves, savory dough, wrapping, simmering and restraint; maluns ask for the same kind of patience in another register. He and Flurina Häsch-Maissen took over the house on 1 December 2020 from Hanni and Norbert Maissen-Hänggi, and the handover reads on the menu, where Norbert’s Stroganoff still carries the former owner’s name. That is a particular kind of continuity: a dish kept because the guests kept ordering it.

The house is one of the oldest establishments in Disentis, known locally as the veglia stiva grischuna, the ancient Graubünden room. The restaurant’s own grammar gives the cooking a clear frame: an à la carte kitchen, local sourcing, and a traditional programme rather than a menu chasing novelty. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, recognition attached to this address and to its regional fare, and the bench remains anchored by capuns, maluns and the Stroganoff.

Capuns, maluns, and the old regional method

The method at Stiva Grischuna is the long way because the dishes require it. Capuns are built around chard leaves filled with savory dough, a wrapped preparation whose success sits in texture as much as seasoning. Maluns bring another Graubünden staple to the plate, crisp and plainspoken, with the kitchen leaning on potato, fat and timing rather than ornament. Bizochels cun jarvas, Gerstensuppe, Plain in Pigna, cheese fondue and cordon bleu sit in the same family of appetite: mountain food, made to warm, not to perform.

The approach is traditional and seasonal, with fresh local produce used where the kitchen can keep the dish recognisably of the region. That matters in a place whose name refers to the old Graubünden room itself. The programme is not a tasting menu. It is à la carte, which changes the discipline at the pass: each plate must stand alone, and each order must meet the rhythm of a small room. The wine program is curated rather than theatrical, meant to sit beside capuns and maluns without pulling attention away from them.

Wood, stove, and a small quiet room

The room gives the food its proper temperature. Stiva Grischuna is set inside a Bündnerhaus over 300 years old at Via Cavardiras 3, formerly known as The Lion Hotel, with wood panelling, a large soapstone stove, and the kept-in warmth of a village house that has seen more winters than menus. The separate Stübli holds about 15, small enough for the sound of plates and cutlery to stay close to the table. In summer, the covered terrace changes the light, but the craft remains tied to the interior grammar of the house.

The pass here does not need theatre because the room already holds the story. Dark wood, low conversation, regional plates and the stove make a steady frame for service, and on a cold day in the Surselva the stove does as much hosting as anyone. The task is to keep the kitchen in step with that frame, so the plate reads as Graubünden before it reads as a chef’s signature. At Stiva Grischuna, the dish is capuns.