A new chapter for S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino as a natural choice after the editions dedicated to Italy and France, all countries bordering Switzerland and with a very important exchange at a tourist and cultural level. Stunning territories where wonderful cities, great traditions and magnificent nature blend together. The appointment with the 18th edition on the theme “Germany: Food, wine, culture” is from September 29 to November 24, 2024.

Today, Germany is a country with an increasingly rich and rapidly growing food and wine offering, as demonstrated by the latest presentation of the Michelin Guide, which added 36 more stars than the previous year. A top-notch food scene where a true revolution is underway and a new wind is blowing in the kitchen, with a bubbling and bubbling creativity.

“I have always loved German gastronomy and wines,” says Dany Stauffacher , CEO & Founder of S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino, “and I am very happy that in the new edition of the Festival I will be able to offer something new. Already in 2013 we proposed a twinning with Berlin, presenting a rich and unexpected reality. This time our audience will be pleasantly surprised by a unique gastronomic offer. We have created a great team led by Thomas Bühner , a pillar of German gastronomic culture, with 30 years of high-level experience and a particular sensorial philosophy. In German gastronomy you can clearly feel the influence of Alsace, of French cuisine in general for reinterpreted classics and combined with culinary innovations where creativity and excellence meet.”

“As always, the Festival aims to be a tool for a rich and enjoyable cultural exchange,” continues Stauffacher , “and this year S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino will be in Munich shortly before the start of the Oktoberfest, once again together with Switzerland Tourism, Ticino Tourism, Lugano Region and Ascona-Locarno Tourism to present the new edition and the excellence of our territory to journalists, tour operators and opinion leaders.”

About three thousand Germans live in Ticino today, and the first chose the south of the Alps as their homeland more than a hundred years ago. Many different personalities, but irresistibly attracted by a common denominator: the enchanting landscape. As demonstrated by the experience of Monte Verità in Ascona, where in 1902 a group of young people from Munich gave life to an alternative model of society, with an outdoor life, health, nudism, free love, women's emancipation, natural medicine, all integrated with a touch of spiritualism and esotericism. Or think of the writer Hermann Hesse who moved to Montagnola in 1919 and remained there until his death in 1962.

From the end of September, it will be the turn of eleven German Michelin-starred chefs to showcase their culinary flair in dinners that will take place, as always, in some of the most beautiful and significant locations in Ticino, including restaurants and hotels in the most suggestive corners of the area, hosted by their Ticino colleagues who, as always, will make their passion, professionalism and savoir faire available.

Like every year, the Festival will officially begin with the Grand Opening at the Hotel Splendide Royal in Lugano dedicated to the Chefs of Swiss Deluxe Hotels and will close with the usual Final Party, again at the Hotel Splendide Royal in Lugano, with some chefs from the Grandes Tables Suisses of Ticino.

There will also be great evenings beyond the Gotthard dedicated to Ticino, in the historic structures of some members of the Swiss Deluxe Hotels group, this year in Geneva on 9 October at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues and on 20 November in Zurich at the Widder Hotel where close-knit groups of top Ticino chefs will bring their culinary flair combined with the excellent wines of the Ticino region.

The splendid setting of Tenuta Castello di Morcote will host this time a Dîner au Château in a unique atmosphere. The Lounge evening at the Lugano Casino is also back, a moment dedicated mainly to young people with a food and wine proposal always of a high level. To seal the important collaboration with EHL, the starred chef Lucrèce Lacchio, of the restaurant Le Berceau des sens inside the Lausanne campus, will be the protagonist of the Festival's women's evening, together with a group of students who will be able to experience what it means to organize an event with the practical aspect of service, food preparation and the art of entertaining.

Another new feature of the 18th edition of Spst are some evenings with the meeting of new talents of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef competition, which selects the best young chefs under 30 from all over the world, and as many chefs from Ticino. A younger approach to bring the new generations closer to the gastronomy of the future.

As always, S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino has many new things on its plate and this time too it has selected many new ambassadors to tell the world about its beauty and excellence.