Personalities open Yardo Cookery Studio

In the presence of prominent guests, the organic supermarket Yardo opened the first organic cookery studio in Switzerland on 26 April 2006. Among those present were Vreni Giger, GaultMillau cook of the year 2003, Renzo Blumenthal, the best looking organic farmer and most successful Mr Switzerland, his no less well known farming colleague and politician Toni Brunner, cult goalie and new children’s cookery star Jörg Stiel, and Sandra Schiess, the TV presenter.

Picture: Sandra Schiess, Toni Brunner, Renzo Blumenthal

Three months after the launch of the first organic supermarket in the centre of St. Gallen, Yardo opened a spacious and modern cookery and lecture studio (approximately 200 m²). The cookery studio is located in the basement. Daylight comes in from above through the open gallery. “We didn’t plan it like this when we started,” explains Yardo owner Albert Keel. At first, he toyed half-heartedly with the idea of a lounge or a bar but, after visiting Bio-Lüske in Berlin, the penny dropped.” The studio is sponsored by Poggenpohl (Switzerland) AG and Siemens-Gaggenau. Convinced by the innovative idea, Poggenpohl promised to sponser further Yardo locations. Cooking utensils and crockery are provided by WMF and Villeroy-Boch. With its new venture, Yardo would like to close a gap in the holistic approach to health and establish new standards in marketing experiences.

The cook of the year 2003, Vreni Giger (picture), skilfully served “organic-tastes-better-delicacies” onto the plates of the guests as if by magic. And even though Sandra Schiess was talking to Renzo Blumenthal and Toni Brunner and asking them about such things as the Swiss football camp, organics or pesticides, an ascetic or pleasure-loving approach to life, they kept giving a helping hand to Vreni Giger.

The high number of obese young people is the reason why Jörg Stiel, the former goalkeeper in the Swiss national team, appears in the Yardo cookery studio as a children’s cook (working together with the professional René Schori) on Wednesday afternoons. His aim is to familiarise 6-10 year old children with organic food and to get them interested in natural and healthy eating habits. “If 14 or 15 year olds are already overweight, trying to convince them about healthy nutrition is much more difficult or even too late” is Jörg Stiel’s opinion. Albert Keel says that the children’s cookery courses are already proving very popular.

So, for anybody in eastern Switzerland interested in health topics in future, for anybody wanting to experience cookery events and entertainment as well, there is now a new address. With its new cookery and lecture studio, Yardo wants to take advantage of the connections between all the organic foods in their store and creative ways of preparing organic food, combined with entertainment and information on the organic scene in general.

“Healthy, enjoyable fun with organics” is how Albert Keel, co-owner and head of Yardo AG, describes the project. “Organic does not imply lack of enjoyment or not having fun. Organic brings a lot of things together.” This is confirmed by what is on offer: Mondays and Thursdays are reserved for lectures on health, demonstration cookery and regular courses. The next items on the programme are “Diabetes - the insidious disease that does not hurt” and the course “A Summer Figure in eight Weeks”. In the meantime, Keel has come to the conclusion that he should plan a longer run-up time to the courses, because the number of enrolments had not materialised as rapidly as he thought. His promise: “A new and attractive programme will be on offer in the period after the summer holidays.” By then the courses will be advertised more intensively with announcements in the newsletter that appears every two weeks and in a company paper that will be a supplement in a local newspaper. Radio adverts offering a chance to win Yardo courses are also planned.

Wednesday afternoons are for the Kidz-Club with Jörg Stiel and Fridays are for “event cookery”. As well as cookery with stars and professional cooks, there is “cooking with value added.” From May to July there will be some real entertainment:  among other things, Salsa Latino - hot n’ spicy dishes from Latin America combined with a salsa short course, Pasta e Parlare - Italian summer specialities from the Cinque Terre plus a short course in Italian for holidays, and Soul-food and Soul-style - American multicultural cuisine from the Southern States combined with colour and style counselling.

On Saturday evenings during “Blind-Date-Cooking”, singles might meet their future partners. The monthly “Biotalk”, with TV presenter Sandra Schiess and two well known guests will also become a regular feature in the programme.

Albert Keel would like to integrate cookery studios in future Yardo stores - “if the local conditions are right”. Healthy vegetarian dishes (self-service) will supplement what is on offer in the adjacent bistros. Keel is currently on the look out for new locations, particularly inner city sites with at least 3-4 parking places or in busy shopping centres. He is hoping to open another organic supermarket in Zurich later this year and in Lucerne in the spring of 2007.

He is also happy with the success of the store in St Gallen, with its 70,000 inhabitants, although he does concede that he was “a little too optimistic.” He says that after a brilliant start, three months later there had been a drop in the number of customers per day (only 500-600), which he had not reckoned with. “But we have got a good base and at the moment the number of customers is continuing to rise again. We have reached our first target with about 800 customers a day,” he explains. After the departure of Anton Kerler, the industry insider Hans Rudolf Sommer was recruited as the new store manager. His years of experience as an independent retailer of organics and natural cosmetics will give Yardo new impetus and drive forward the successes already achieved.