Anyone who associates fine dining in the Paznaun Valley exclusively with Ischgl and its many gourmet restaurants needs to fill a gap in their culinary knowledge. Well before Ischgl lies the small village of See, where in 2017 an investor from Bonn built an exclusive chalet hotel high up on the hillside with the lovely name “Bergwiesenglück.” Over time, a restaurant was added—named “Hermanns Kitchen” after the farmer who had once worked the land. And because hotel director Rudolf Schuchter is a well-traveled foodie, wine enthusiast, and hunter, a restaurant serving good Tyrolean cuisine wasn’t enough for him. So he asked his friend Gustav Jantscher—a legendary chef and, more recently, executive chef at “Arlicious” in St. Anton—to set up a small, refined à la carte restaurant in the hotel’s “Jagdstube.” Jantscher brought along his longtime sous chef, René Zangerl—for fifteen years, the two had worked as an inseparable team at establishments such as “Aiola” in Graz, the “Post” in Dalaas, and the “Tannenhof” in St. Anton. Then, in the fall, came the big step out of the shadows—Zangerl took over and, three evenings a week, presents a menu that fuses Tyrolean cuisine with that eccentric style for which the restaurant has been famous for years—a distinctive Far Eastern touch, without cooking Asian cuisine in the strict sense. One of the many bite-sized dishes: bao buns with lamb heart. A lightly smoked pigeon breast with wild broccoli, spruce oil, and a robust jus is followed by black hake, briefly seared and stuffed into gyoza, with oyster, miso, and Nashi pear. Zangerl raises the quail himself—he serves the breast with kimchi and sesame in lemongrass foam. And one has to agree with Schuchter when he says, “Game and Asian flavors work well together!” At least when someone with Zangerl’s flair takes on the owner’s favorite theme. For this course, the local repertoire of flavors is more than enough: roe deer and duck liver, served with pointed cabbage strudel. Game “at its best.” Anyone who might wonder about the sources of some items on the wine list—Schuchter sources a significant portion of his selection from the London market, which is virtually unmatched in its diversity. He serves a Ligurian orange wine made from the rare Pigato grape variety with the salty Gambero Rosso, paired with char caviar. And to accompany the game, a magnificently aged 2006 Cabernet Römigberg from Lageder is poured into the glass. Paznaun has yet another exciting new spot to recommend.
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