Tasty specialities from Bünderland served up

Rahel Dommann, who has Bündnerland roots herself on her mother’s side, has actually been serving up a speciality from this easternmost canton of Switzerland since 2013, and not without success.
 
“My mother comes from the Lumnezia (or Lugnez) region of the canton of Graubünden,” explained Dommann, and it was here, in this region to the south of Ilanz, that she first tasted capuns, a traditional dish made of dough and dried meat and then rolled in Swiss chard leaves before being cooked in a bouillon and served with grated cheese. “I recall the time I spent as a child helping my relatives there. Then, more recently, when I spent my holidays there three or four years ago, I had some capuns again and thought how I might produce and serve them back home in Zug,” she said, as she mentioned it was around this time she was thinking of setting up her own business. She looked round for suitable premises, somewhere she could offer these capuns for people to try, and came across the old kitchens of the Lüönd bakery on Zeughausgasse in the Old Town. It was here where Zuger Kirschtorten used to be made, with a blue ribbon as opposed to the red one used today. “I asked if I could rent them and this I was able to do, though it took much help from friends and expensive renovation to get them how I wanted.”
 
Initially she made the capuns and sold them exclusively to restaurateurs, having discovered that most of those bought in were supplied by one large company. Taking a secret recipe of her aunt, she worked on it until she had perfected it and then made more and more of them. “A lot of people seemed to like them,” she said. “And now I supply a lot of restaurants myself.”
 
It is in this former kitchen where Domman has set up the old table she used when she started selling capuns in front of the Rathauskeller and, a little higher up in an adjoining area, there is a large table specially made by joiner Stefan Gnirf of Baar, around which 17 people can comfortably sit and eat.
 
Thanks to a long lease on the premises, now called the RD Bakery after her initials, Dommann, who grew up in Walchwil, can make long-term plans, though she said she only intends to grow slowly and her unusual dining room is still only open on one day a week, on Thursdays. Nevertheless, it is still booked up two weeks in advance. She is now looking to open on two days a week, while acting as special chef in other restaurants on other days. So successful has she been with her start-up company that she can already make a living from it and she has only had to take out a loan to bring the premises up to scratch. She does not actually make the capuns there, preferring to do this in a professional kitchen elsewhere. This means she does not need a store room on Zeughausgassse and of course her capuns are always very fresh.
 
The 44-year-old realises she will never get rich making and selling her capuns, but at least she is doing something about she which is passionate.
 
As mentioned, so far her dining room is only open on Thursdays, from 5 pm until 10 pm, with warm food served from 6 pm. Reservations can be made on 079 443 37 85.