A guest of Mr. Sunshine
Marco Campanella combines cucumber with passion fruit and in doing so makes the best ravioli in Switzerland.
A profile of a culinary artist whose forthright and curious nature is reflected in every one of his dishes.
Marco Campanella handles fish with such finesse, yet he also has a deep love for vegan dishes – such as the combination of bell peppers, eggplant, and black garlic (below).
His culinary creations are always filled to the brim with sunshine. Even in the depths of winter, Marco Campanella whips up dishes that are so fresh and full of life as if nature were in full bloom outside. However, there is no season that suits the colourful yet refined and straightforward cuisine served up by a chef with two Michelin stars and 18 Gault Millau points more than the summer. When the skins of tomatoes turn red and delicate yellow flowers appear on cucumber plants, there is no better place for gourmets to be than on the terrace of La Brezza in the Eden Roc hotel in Ascona.
Campanella’s amuse-bouches are as eye-catching as the craftsmanship of a goldsmith, while their captivating aromas, textures and temperatures prime the senses for the delights to follow in the next few hours. These include langoustine with pumpkin and sea buckthorn, Ennetbürgen beef served with kohlrabi, eel and sherry, as well as turbot with fennel, mussels and quinoa. One of the classic dishes served in La Brezza is the tomato tatar with ricotta salata, basil and pine nuts. At first glance, it is simple in appearance, but impressively underlines the 32-year-old chef’s understanding of how to bring to the fore the natural flavour of a product and highlight this with a few clever complementary notes.
For example, Campanella repeatedly utilises tomatoes – which find ideal growing conditions in Ticino – and cucumbers as the main stars of his culinary creations. ‘I love their freshness and versatility,’ he says. ‘Cucumber juice refined with dill, pepper, sugar, salt and a glug of vinegar provides a wonderful platform for a large number of dishes.
When you work with cucumbers, you need to make sure that their characteristic flavour and freshness are not overwhelmed by too much acidity.’ Sometimes, Campanella transforms cucumbers into a sorbet or pearls; other times, he stews them or grills them on his Big Green Egg. ‘When the aromas of cucumber and smoke come together, this creates an extremely delightful flavour profile,’ explains the top chef.
At La Brezza, Campanella has already paired cucumber together with seared langoustines and sour cream, as well as with pickled mackerel and passion fruit. Passion fruit? ‘Yes, they go together excellently. Another interesting ingredient that complements cucumbers is kalamansi. The citrus fruit is similar to a mandarin and like the passion fruit its firm acidity is balanced by its sweet flavour.’ One of Campanella’s formative culinary memories also featured cucumbers, more precisely cocomero pugliese – a type of cucumber that is typically grown in Puglia and looks like a small melon. ‘Whenever I went to the beach with my grandmother, she always packed cocomero for us. We have kept this tradition alive and always enjoy the refreshing and slightly sweet flavour of this cucumber like small children,’ explains Campanella. With a little bit of luck, cocomero pugliese will also be served to guests at La Brezza – fresh when it is in season and preserved when not.
In the summer, the former Caminada apprentice Campanella cooks at the Eden Roc in Ascona, while in winter, he can be found at the Tschuggen Grand Hotel in Arosa (below).
When he is not slaving over a hot stove or looking after his one-and-a-half year-old daughter Enola at home, Marco Campanella loves exploring the world. ‘My wife Sarah and I fulfilled a dream last autumn and travelled to Japan. And it wasn’t just for the food, we are also really interested in the country’s eventful history and the architecture,’ he states.
The fact that it didn’t take long for little Enola to want nothing more to do with the jars of baby food they brought with them and happily ate ramen and Wagyu beef naturally filled her father with great joy. Who knows, perhaps the family’s gastronomic tradition (his parents ran a restaurant at Lake Constance and his brother Tommaso manages three establishments in Ticino) will be passed on to the next generation.
And did Campanella gain any inspiration from his time in Japan for La Brezza? ‘As a chef, you take something away from every trip you go on,’ he says. ‘But, I am more interested in the techniques than the ingredients. Ultimately, when I am in my kitchen in Ascona, I mainly want to work with the foods and products available in Ticino. The region has so much to offer and the number of exciting producers is constantly growing.’
Making carrots the star of a 2-star dish? No problem for Marco Campanella!
A visit to Marco Campanella is not complete without enjoying a plate of pasta. His ravioli, in particular, are famous far and wide and are an absolute hit at every food festival he attends as a guest chef. If you have ever tasted his parmesan ravioli covered with a nut butter foam, you will never forget the rounded flavour that feels like a warm embrace. Chefs constantly stress that there is no such thing as perfection in their job, however Campanella’s ravioli comes mightily close.
Since 2020, the head chef at La Brezza has also been offering a 100% plant-based menu in addition to his Inspirazione menu. This vegan offering features creations comprising kohlrabi, pistachio and dill as well as cauliflower, pickled lemon and almond, and is based on the Moving Mountains philosophy of the Tschuggen Collection. Moving Mountains promotes a cuisine that is influenced equally by our natural surroundings and by nutritional science, and attaches great value to nutrient density without having to make compromises in the food you enjoy. The excellent reception the Moving Mountains menu has enjoyed among guests and critics (Gault Millau named it the best vegan menu in Switzerland) can be attributed to one of the talented chef’s most remarkable attributes – his inquisitiveness. Driven by a thirst for knowledge, he immerses himself deeper and deeper into a culinary world that some of his peers continue to disregard.
Speaking of his thirst for knowledge, during his time working alongside Andreas Caminada at Schloss Schauenstein, Campanella always carried a small notebook on his person so that he could jot down everything he found to be valuable. ‘At the end of a shift, I often pestered the boss with questions and I am to this day grateful that he always took the time to answer them for me,’ he remembers. Today, Marco Campanella is himself a mentor for the (even) younger generation. And who knows, maybe he will follow in Caminada’s footsteps and one day join the ranks of those world-class chefs to have earned three Michelin stars. With his talent, his excellent craftsmanship and his qualities as a team player, which he developed as an ambitious footballer and a member of the squad for the German under-16s national football team, it would not come as a surprise if he did.
Words Alex Kuehn
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