Masterclasses

New in 2018 and an immediate success: the Masterclasses! Within two days, curated master classes take place after each of the cooking shows. In 2019, visitors had to choose between exciting workshops:

Masterclasses with Cacao Barry: Dessert creations with Andrés Lara

In this Masterclass, Andrés Lara showed how a wide variety of flavours can be combined with couverture in unusual ways to create startling desserts.
Born in Chicago and raised in Venezuela, Andrés Lara has laid the foundation for his career by training at the pastry school of Jacquy Pfeiffer and Sebastien Canconne. The subsequent collaborations with chefs such as Ramon Morato and Albert Adrià have strengthened his love, respect and understanding for food science. Lara has further exhausted his sensitivity to a wide variety of foods and their flavours, and today creates unique, sweet compositions for Cacao Barry.

Masterclass with SMITH & SMITH Wine Company: Natural Wines with Cédric Besson

What exactly is natural wine? In this high-quality seminar with Christoph Pichler (Product Manager and Director Fine Wines at Smith & Smith) and Cédric Besson from Winzerkeller Besson-Strasser in Schaffhausen ("Die 19 besten Winzer in der Deutschschweiz", GaultMillau), the visitors learned the difference between conventional, organic, biodynamic and natural wine. In addition to covering the different cultivation and ageing methods used in winegrowing, top winemaker Besson also adressed the challenges faced in the vineyard and the cellar in relation to traditional, highly intrusive methods of fermentation and ageing and the ‘minimum intervention’ approach favoured by biodynamic practitioners and natural winemakers. The visitors could discover the differences with their own senses during two wine flights.

Masterclass with Lavazza: Coffee Cupping with Martin Ponti

Martin Ponti was one of Switzerland’s first Q Graders and already has nine years of experience as a professional coffee cupper under his belt. In his Masterclass, the visitors experienced the diverse flavours and aromas of coffee and found out how coffee is officially classified and graded according to SCA protocols. Ponti returned to Switzerland last year after working in Indonesia – one of the world’s largest coffee retail markets – for more than ten years. He now works for Coca-Cola Switzerland, managing the Lavazza Training Centre and sharing his knowledge in the role of Coffee Capability Specialist. The participants could join him in his Coffee Cupping Masterclass to enhance their own knowledge of this precious little bean.