Tanja Grandits has been awarded the top rating of 19 points from Gault Millau, as outlined in an article by “bz Basel”. The Stucki chef has therefore become the first woman in Switzerland to be awarded this honor, writing her name into the history books in the process, the article states. “It is simply a huge joy, a real highpoint of the joint effort made by myself and my team, the core of which has been working together for 11 years”, Grandits commented in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). This is especially true, given that she was named Chef of the Year for the second time since 2014. “She has simply achieved absolute perfection with her kitchen of aromas and herbs”, commented Editor-in-Chief of Gault Millau, Urs Heller, to Basler Zeitung on Grandits’ award.
Grandits and her restaurant Stucki are not the only restaurant in the Basel region to have received 19 points from Gault Millau: Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois, Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl successfully defended its best rating. Incidentally, Gault Millau has voted Grand Hotel Le Trois Rois as Hotel of the Year for 2020. It should come as little surprise to hear that the exquisite fine-dining experience offered by Peter Knogl was one of the main reasons behind this award. According to an overview by bz Basel, another 20 restaurants from the region have been awarded Gault Millau points. Pullman Basel Europe, Restaurant Les Quatres Saisons and Schlüssel based in Oberwil BL were each awarded 18 points again. Thereafter follow, among others, Roots, which having secured a total of 17 points, ranks alongside Stucki as a restaurant on the rise.
However, Basel not only scores well on account of its fantastic food – it is now also home to the Swiss Bar of the Year. According to bz Basel, the city’s bar Angels’ Share emerged victorious in the Mixology Bar Award. Rebekka Anna Salzmann also made a contribution to this, with the bar’s employee named Newcomer of the Year.
While Salzmann was declared Newcomer of the Year – a nod to a more gender-neutral form, passing on the specifically female term “Newcomerin” in German – Grandits was also named Chef of the Year. “I tend not to pay much attention to questions about gender”, she stated in an interview with NZZ, before adding: “However, it makes me really happy to know that now I can perhaps become an even stronger role model and inspiration for younger women, especially with how to combine a job like this with being a mother”. The German-born chef arrived in Switzerland after having worked in both the UK and France. Switzerland has made her feel “perfectly at home, especially in Basel”. And while she received praise from Urs Heller for her use of herbs, Grandits is not fundamentally against eating meat: “When you cook from fresh, you should eat what you want, except cheap meat and perhaps not vast amounts of meat in general”.
