Marktküche, Feldstrasse, Zurich

So after a disappointing lunch, my vegan day continued. I wasn’t going to be deterred by a single bad meal and decided to visit Marktküche in the former Grottino 79 near Bäckeranlage. Marktküche positions itself as “food with class” and it feels like a proper restaurant with ambition. A small but interesting selection of dishes are featured alongside a full-fledged tasting menu.

The amuse bouche was an involtini of eggplant with spinach pesto. It certainly had a nice lingering taste from the pesto, even though the eggplant was slighlty chewy. But in all fairness, if you’ve ever been to meat lover’s heaven La Cote their eggplant amuse wouldn’t win an award either.

The salad with roasted walnuts had great flavor, the mousse of beets was very sweet and had an aftertaste which was slighlty offputting. The best thing however was the warm bread served out of the oven, which is a very nice touch. Also the waiter confirmed that yeast was okay to beat in a vegan setting. The other point worth mentioning was the excellent champagne which was served with the salad.

No complaints on the sellerie soup, the textural contrast to the slighly sweet and chewy quinces was refreshing and played well with the horseradish. Since they had Sushi of the Alps on the menu I asked for a taste of that dish. While the (fake) Sushi was nowhere near real fish, the great discovery was the herb salad that accompanied the dish more as an afterthought. New herbs I’ve never had before, inspriring and suprising flavors, this is what’s truly exciting.

The best overall dish was the Bramata polenta with some truffle shavings on top. The truffle were sheer brilliance, since it took your mind away from the glaring missing cheese on the polenta. This is truly a dish which stands on its own and does so very well, not because it’s vegan, but because someone cooked it with great culinary skill.

The butternut squash which was filled with different vegetables was good, some more caramelization would have been nice. Out of the two desserts, the tarte tatin was great (even slighly deconstructed with separate almonds and caramelized sugar) while the cheesecake suffered from the lack of real dairy products.

Looking back at the meal a hypothesis starts to form – could “vegan cusisine” be the logical evolution of nouvelle cuisine ? After all nouvelle cuisine aimed to cook lighter, focus on fresh produce and showcase the natural flavors. Jus instead of heavy sauces and the like. While the argument carries some sympathy, the forceful exclusion of animal products and dairy is in contrast to the incorporation of all possible products and techniques in pursuing great culinary experiences.

The experience at the Marktküche is pretty good. The plate which symbolizes the challenge of vegan cuisine the best was the Alpensushi. The sushi imitation didn’t do as well as the innovative herb salad. If vegan cuisine can innovate it has a place, it is trying to imitate it is bound to fail. The Marktküche rates highly, because they are primarily trying to be a proper restaurant with high culinary standards and not a place forsaking pleasure for abiding to a doctrine. Another very important aspect – 99 CHF for a 5 course dinner with wine is a great price: