Natural, local, and honest cuisine chef Rebecca Clopath once dreamed of leaving her family farm in the Swiss Alps, but after years of training in renowned restaurants, she returned to lead it. Named Food Heroine of 2023 by the FAO, she returned home to Lohn and founded "Rebecca Clopath GmbH," an agricultural business, hostel, and restaurant she manages with the help of her family and others.
Born in 1989, Rebecca Clopath grew up on a farm in Lohn, amid the Swiss Alps, and knew she had a passion for cooking by the age of ten. Mountain life requires everyone to pitch in with various chores, but Rebecca preferred staying away from the fields during the summer hay harvest and instead stayed with her mother, Wilma, in the kitchen. There she was introduced to local products, fresh meat from the pasture and garden vegetables, but not only: Wilma, who is passionate about foreign cultures, would also bring back unique ingredients from her travels, further captivating Rebecca. As a student, she started dedicating herself to cooking, then, at 16 she left home to study Italian in Lugano, and after that the time came to turn her passion into a profession.
Rebecca apprenticed in Münchenbuchsee, not far from Bern, in the restaurant “Moospinte” run by Oskar Marti, known as "Chrüteroski" for his obsession with herbs (Chrüter). With him, she refined her technique and absorbed captivating stories about the products she used, an experience that proved crucial when she joined the Junior National Team of Chefs.
She then had various experiences around Switzerland, ultimately arriving at "Wiesner Mysterion," run by Stefan Wiesner, a master of avant-garde natural cuisine. Initially, his approach disoriented her, but over time she realized she had to revolutionize everything she knew to access a deeper culinary dimension. Rebecca was deeply fascinated by it, to the point of focusing solely on natural cuisine, thereby shaping her career.
After six years of training, Rebecca decided to leave "Wiesner Mysterion" to start a restaurant with her best friend. The project didn’t take off, so she enrolled in an agricultural school in Spiez, reigniting her dream of one day running her parents' farm, even though she had once dreamed of nothing but leaving Grisons.
Returning home, she decided to rediscover the simple, healthy, and local food of her childhood and renamed the farm "Rebecca Clopath GmbH." Now a farm, hostel, and restaurant, the family business is run according to the principle of millefoglie, a philosophy that emphasizes uniqueness and innovation as keys to success, and proposes a cycle of healthy soil, strong animals, and honest cooking. Alongside Rebecca in the kitchen are Severin and Lisa, in service and in the shop are Lara and Martina, and upstairs in the office is Sunniva, Rebecca’s sister, who handles the finances and online store. The indispensable presence of her father, Christian, is accompanied by his brother-in-law Claudio and various collaborators in the farm. Not to forget Wilma, who takes care of everything, from cultural research to laundry, gardening, and atmosphere.
To crown her efforts, she was awarded the Swiss Culinary Merit in 2021, and in 2023, the FAO named her Food Heroine, a title given in recent years to farmers, fishermen, herders, and shepherds. "I try to follow a saying that goes, 'If you want change, you have to be that change.' And I want the earth to be appreciated. In my small way, it's the most I can do."
