Lip-schmackingly good!

PLAIN IN PIGNA
Corina Giovanoli (owner, Hotel Privata, Sils)

This traditional dish is from Switzerland’s Engadine Valley, where I’m from, and is quite similar to the ubiquitous Swiss rösti (but roasted rather than fried). I love it because it’s so versatile: warm and hearty in winter, and ideal after a day out in the snow; but also perfect with salad after a day’s hiking in summer. It always contains Speck (cured ham or bacon), which rösti does not necessarily have. (You often get rösti with bacon and eggs mixed in, but the standard dish is really just shredded potatoes.) My father’s twist on this recipe was to add vegetables, and his own recipe – which we still serve in our restaurant – contains leeks, carrots and celeriac. Absolutely delicious. It’s great to know we're passing down a family tradition to our guests as they enjoy their meal.
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BAVARIAN VENISON
Jack Montgomery (buzztrips.co.uk)

There's something rather Mrs Beeton about Bavarian cuisine – venison being a classic example of what I mean. Succulent fillets with rosemary or thyme sprig masts are served basking in a rich sauce, while surrounding the meat are often dumpling, potato and occasionally pear islands topped with redcurrant jelly. A regular on Bavarian menus, and somewhat underrated in Britain, venison is lean with a delicious gamey flavour that is more than a match for being paired with fruit. A good place to try this classic Bavarian offering is in Berchtesgadener Land, an area which was once a favourite hunting ground for German royalty.

SALZBURGER NOCKERL
Laura Wilford (Inntravel)

In purely factual terms, Salzburger Nockerl is a feather-light, soufflé-style dessert – a speciality from the Austrian city of Salzburg. But when I first came across it, while staying at the matchless Hotel Matschner in Ramsau, I couldn’t fail to be reminded of those stunning Austrian Alpine peaks. In fact, these curvaceous and golden-crested ‘dumplings’ are supposed to represent the hillsides surrounding Salzburg itself, with the dusting of icing sugar their snow-covered peaks. As legend has it, they were first created by Salome, mistress to Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau in the early-17th century. He couldn’t get enough of her seductive and fluffily sweet treats – allegedly the main source of his passion!
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BIRCHERMÜESLI
Penny Kendall (photographer & route-finder)

This simple but delicious breakfast food was created in the late 1800s by Dr Maximilian Bircher-Benner, for his clinic patients in Zürich. He was an early champion of the nutritional value of raw foods and the original recipe consisted of oats soaked in water overnight, topped with grated apple, hazelnuts and condensed milk (used to prevent the possible contraction of tuberculosis from unpasteurised milk). After over a century of tinkering in households all over Switzerland, there are countless variations –but my favourite, which we make almost every day, is to keep it simple.
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TIROLER GROSTL
Caroline Dickinson (Inntravel)

When considering my favourite Alpine dish, I didn’t need to look much further than the Tyrolean fry-up, known locally as gröstl, that I first encountered during a stay at the Hotel Wiesenhof in Pertisau. It’s a real hunger-stopper and a mainstay on the menus of the mountain chalets and restaurants in this part of Austria. Traditionally, it was a delicious and satisfying way of using up yesterday’s left-overs, and makes a great shared-from-the-pan mountain lunch. Lardons, onion and sautéed potatoes are all lifted by the heady aroma of caraway seeds – and don’t forget the fried egg on top! It’s an absolute treat that never fails to set me up for an afternoon in the snow.
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