Creative cuisine from East Switzerland
Restaurant Candela
High-quality menus to suit every palate
René Engler and Monika Gerster, the hosts at the Restaurant Candela in St. Gallen, delight their guests with both regional and international menus. Vegetarian and vegan cuisine takes up almost as much room on the menu as traditional dishes.
In the kitchen, head chef Reto Hofer puts his energy into preparing fresh, flavorsome, and creative dishes.
To do so, he prepares meat and fish marinades, vegetable pastes, farces, curry pastes, sorbets, and ice creams with the Pacojet each day.
Creating special highlights
Reto Hofer has been using the Pacojet for 22 years. "The Pacojet is truly designed with us chefs and our needs in mind," says the head chef. Pacotizing® offers Reto Hofer ideal opportunities to showcase the concentrated flavor of his ingredients. Thus, chive oil serves as a flavor enhancer for sauce bases, while herb oils are used to enrich mayonnaise and Hollandaise sauce – resulting in completely new flavors.
An absolute highlight: herb oils
In the opinion of the head chef of the Candela, nothing beats the flavor of oils containing herbs from the restaurant's own garden and processed with the Pacojet. That is because deep-freezing fresh herbs preserves their chlorophyll, so that the full flavor and freshness of the herbs is released during pacotizing®. The herb oils are then vacuum-packed in small portions and incorporated into the dishes as required. For the daily herbs mise en place, the kitchen team at the Candela predominantly use the Pacojet Coupe Set.
Original ways of processing trimmings
Reto Hofer also regards the Pacojet as the perfect tool for using up trimmings from high-quality ingredients that would otherwise go to waste, but which are packed with flavor. For example, the chef de cuisine uses trimmings of Appenzeller Mostbröckli (a Swiss specialty cured meat) to make a wonderful mousse with apricot mustard, and the belly flaps of Scottish smoked salmon to produce a creamy mousse.
Working sustainably and efficiently
For Reto Hofer, sustainability and efficiency in the kitchen are essential. Working with the Pacojet fits perfectly with this principle. "To me, the Pacojet is an essential purchase because efficiency in the kitchen is very important, and the versatility of this device is simply infinite," says the passionate chef. His favorite recipe? "All-cream ice cream – nothing beats the creaminess and consistency."
The benefits
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