Benoît Carcenat named ‘Chef of the Year 2023’

Benoît Carcenat in action at La Table du Valrose © Keystone / Anthony Anex

Benoît Carcenat, chef at La Table du Valrose hotel restaurant in Rougemont, has been named “Chef of the Year 2023” by GaultMillau Switzerland. The gastronomic guide awarded him 18 points out of 20.

French-born Carcenat, 42, has been running the Valrose establishment in canton Vaud with his wife, Sabine, since 2021.

“I had never worked in the mountains before. And in fact, you realise that it’s a paradise for cooks, because as soon as you go into the mountains, you go 20 metres and you have plants, fruit, roots. It’s an open-air garden,” he said on Monday.

Before joining Rougemont, Carcenat worked for almost ten years at the Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, one of only four Swiss restaurants to have three Michelin stars, before moving to the Pays d’Enhaut and creating the “Table du Valrose”.

He says his cuisine is “essentially centred on the product, as local as possible” and is combined with “slightly more exotic touches” inspired by his travels around the world. “It’s a cuisine that we hope will be easy to understand – sensitive and emotional. With a bit of audacity and a touch of madness too.”

Other awards

For the 2023 edition of the GaultMillau guideExternal link there is only one change in the “19 point club”, which has been reduced from seven chefs to six following the retirement of Bernard Ravet in Vufflens-le-Château. They are Franck Giovannini in Crissier, Philippe Chevrier in Satigny, Andreas Caminada in Fürstenau, Tanja Grandits in Basel, Peter Knogl also in Basel, and Heiko Nieder in Zurich.

Other awards announced on Monday included “Sommelier of the Year” for Peter Zimmermann at the Zermatterhof in Zermatt and “Pastry Chef of the Year” for Othmane Khoris at The Alpina in Gstaad.

The GaultMillau 2023 lists 870 restaurants, including 89 new discoveries. For this edition, 93 chefs gained one point, while 45 chefs lost one.