On the hotel terrace, sun on your face, a glass of stone-pine-scented champagne in hand and an open view of the Engadine peaks – is this the good life? My companion and I are paying a visit to the small but very refined In Lain Hotel Cadonau, and the welcome from our hostess, Tamara Cadonau, is warm and unfussy from the start. She shows us around the property she is visibly – and rightly – proud of. Ever since childhood, her husband, Dario Cadonau, had dreamed of his own hotel, and at just 26, in the middle of the financial crisis, the trained chef set to work with his own hands.
“At first the banks didn’t believe in my husband’s big dreams,” recalls Tamara Cadonau. A five-star hotel in a village of 100 souls? Well. Dario Cadonau refused to be put off and spent four years turning his mother’s former farmhouse and the surrounding land into a hotel built entirely to his own vision. He could count on the support of his family, who run a timber workshop in S-chanf. “In Lain” means “of wood” in German – and that material is everywhere.
It shows in our spacious 63-square-metre garden suite, furnished with taste and intelligence. Together with his mother, Brigitta, who runs an interior-design shop, Dario Cadonau designed the interiors of the entire property. The two clearly have a gift for bringing materials, patterns and objects into an elegant whole that is both understated and very homely.
Relaxation in Nature
Inside the suite, the characteristic scent of Swiss stone pine – said to have a calming effect – greets us. And indeed, within minutes any travel stress falls away. A glance through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the manicured garden and the national park does the rest. We have arrived! To complete the holiday feeling, we have booked the sauna and the hot tub for an hour each. Both are strikingly staged in the garden. The sauna is a tiny house, set into the landscape so cleverly that, despite the large glass front, you are both completely unobserved and able to enjoy the view of the mountains and of the Rhaetian Railway, which threads its way through the imposing scenery in the distance.
After the sauna, the natural swimming pond – fed with spring water drawn from 150 metres down – invites a very refreshing dip. We then warm up again in the rustic hot tub with its whirlpool function and, from here, admire the accomplished architecture of the hotel. From the road, in fact, only the main building is visible, housing a family room and a suite. Another twelve suites – six with terraces and six with garden access – lie below the road, completely screened from the traffic. Clever! And although he is soon needed in the kitchen, the master of the house, Dario Cadonau, is not above feeding the hot-tub fire with logs himself. A very likeable gesture that says a great deal about the spirit of the house. Following the example of Tamara and Dario Cadonau, the hotel’s 32 staff – it belongs to the Relais & Châteaux association – are all wholeheartedly committed.
A Culinary Journey
Nowhere is this felt as clearly as at dinner. Three restaurants beckon at once: the Käserei, with its hearty fare and its own show dairy; La Stüvetta, with à-la-carte dishes and three- to five-course menus; and the gourmet restaurant Vivanda, which we have chosen. Here, in a small separate room, stands the Chef’s Table, giving especially curious guests a direct view of the comings and goings in the kitchen. Private cooking courses are held here too. We, however, are being cooked for, and take our seats in the main room of the Vivanda. Dario Cadonau trained as a chef at the Suvretta House in St. Moritz and later worked with greats such as Philippe Rochat in Crissier (VD) and Daniel Bumann in La Punt (GR). Today he is a top chef in his own right, with a Michelin star and 17 Gault-Millau points. Our anticipation is high, then – and it is not disappointed.
Steering us through the evening is maître d’ Carmen Mahrer. Spirited and lively, she has a gift for conveying the dishes Cadonau creates with his ten-strong kitchen brigade. By now we have stopped counting the courses; thanks to the extra aperitifs, the amuse-bouches and perhaps also the excellent and at times surprising wine pairing, we have completely lost track, switch off our minds and become all eyes, nose and mouth. Towards the end of the gourmet menu we make our way to the cheese cabinet, where, among more than 80 varieties brought to temperature in this room just before serving, we are spoilt for choice. Magnificent!
The next day, after a fine breakfast, it is time to take leave of this special house, where tradition and modernity, nature and the art of the table go hand in hand. It is a temporary farewell, for there are many reasons to return. One of them: the two Corvette C7 Z06s that belong to the house, in which guests can explore the Alpine passes from June to October. In that spirit: a revair!
This article appeared in MEN issue 1/21 (November 2021).
