It was a little hard waking up due to jet lag, but the excitement of our first full day of Switzerland helped us get out of bed and downstairs to eat a quick breakfast before gathering into a coach bus that took us to the Culinary Arts Academy.
Recently recognized as the top culinary school in Switzerland, the CAA offers opportunities like no other for students looking to pursue careers in the culinary arts field. However, our trip started with a tour of the Anton Mosimann collection, a three floor museum dedicated to Mosimann, the honorary dean of the school.
Here, we learned a lot about Chef Mosimann, including the most relevant of his accomplishments. A notable one was his instrumental role in the preparation of food for the royal weddings of Prince Williams and Princess Catherine, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, along with many others. He is also the recipient of over 50 gold medals, all of which were awarded to him for his work in culinary arts. He has served many other famous clients such as President Jimmy Carter and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.
Mosimann is also an avid collector of cookbooks, many of which were on display for us to see, all with a little bit of history pressed into them. Another section we visited was a kitchen named le Table du Claude that contained pots and pans used to create food for King George V.
Following this, we headed into a theatre for a presentation from Gelu Pui, the Programs and Relations Manager at CAA. Here, we learned more about the different programs offered at the school in addition to the timelines associated with each one.
Mr. Pui also mentioned the seven kitchens within the building as well as the multiple restaurants scattered around, all of which are completely student run. Once the presentation was complete, we split into groups of 12 to get a tour around the campus. Here, we got to see the locations mentioned in person along with admiring some views of course.
For lunch, we headed to the buffet area where we had tons of different foods to choose from. This ranged from scrambled eggs to risotto to raspberry crème brûlée. As the students do not return until after we leave Montreux, the buffet food was cooked by the staff members.
As we ate our delicious food, some of us had the chance to sit with a one of CAA's students studying to get her Bachelor of Arts taking the pathway in pastry & culinary arts. We learned more about campus life, as our conversations focused on the goats, turtle, and owl CAA has. There is even a cat named Cesar Ritz who has been welcomed by and taken care of by both staff and students for the past 5 years!
After lunch ended, we all got onto the bus once again, stopping at Chillon castle. Located alongside Lake Geneva, the castle has been used as a place for the military and house. Nowadays, the castle is popular for the inspiration role it has played in some famous pieces of work, the most common one being "The Prisoner of Chillon" written by Lord Byron, a British poet.
Once taking a group photo we began our walk back to the hotel. It was around 2 miles long and for the entire duration we were in awe of the lake and differently colored flowers. Along the way, we couldn't help but quickly stop to take some photos of the scenery.
As you can tell, nature has been a huge part of this trip already.
Following a little bit of downtime, we took a van to Glion Institute of Higher Education. After a small tour, we sat down for another presentation, this time from Jocelyn Schofield and Giovanni Manfredini, both of which are professors at the school. While they provided information on all of Glion, there was a small focus on the two bachelor's degrees they offer: Bachelor's in International Hospitality Business and Bachelor's in Luxury Business.
A four question kahoot quizzes our ability to take in the information given to us, with gifts handed to those who made it on the podium!
Afterwards, we headed over to our Mixology class where we learned the 4 S' of making a mocktail and got to test these out by making mocktails as pairs. There were three syrups, several different fruit juices, lemon juice, and sparkling water available to put in our drink. Mint was also there for a garnish. We were taught the specific measurements needed for each type of ingredient in order to get the best flavor, and also learned the proper way to mix the drink inside of the shaker.
At the end of the 45 minute class, we were all very satisfied with the knowledge we learned and of course the tasty drinks we got to leave with.
Similar with lunch, we ate dinner at a buffet, but of course at Gilon this time. We enjoyed foods such as chicken wings with a dijon mustard sauce, croque monsieurs, and tiramisus just to name a few. We were fortunate enough to be dining outside while the sun started to set, allowing us to have a gorgeous view overlooking the city, lake, mountains, and its surroundings while eating.
With full stomachs we headed back to our hotel where we had a choice of hanging out in the lobby for an hour, staying in our hotel rooms, or visiting the Queen Studio Experience, a small exhibition dedicated to the music group Queen, causing us to split up.
Montreux and Lake Geneva were areas very close to Freddie Mercury's heart, and the museum is actually located at a recording studio Queen used to own. Freddie even wrote his last lines of music in Montreux and there is a statue of him in the city.
As nighttime approached we all went back to our rooms ready to sleep and process all of the helpful and interesting information we were fed today before getting ready for another exciting day ahead.
Good night!