Alpine Appetite

From molten fondue to Ticinese stews and handcrafted chocolate, Swiss flavours are finding new life in Hong Kong

- By Fontaine Cheung

Swiss food isn't one to shout. It doesn't jostle for attention, doesn't arrive covered in vapour or plated like an abstract expressionist painting. And yet, in Hong Kong—land of omakase anything, lab-grown cocktails and new menus that arrive faster than the next MTR train—it's carved out a space for itself all the same. A quiet Alpine thread, stitched into the city's dining scene with care, confidence and good cheese.

You feel it most deeply at Chesa, a charming outpost of Switzerland and a gathering place that's remained beloved across three generations of Hong Kong diners. Tucked inside The Peninsula since 1965, it was designed to evoke a cosy Alpine chalet. Chesa, meaning “inn” in the Swiss Romansch dialect, still offers the same warm, wood-panelled welcome it did six decades ago. A painted wedding chest from 1723 sits behind glass in the corner, made by a farmer and shipped across time and continents to this exact spot. It's not there to prove anything; it simply belongs.