Nina Meyer: An Organic Gourmet Chef

Nina Meyer is often awestruck by the beauty of her homeland, especially on days like this, when autumn reveals its gentler side.  Most mornings, she sets out early with her dog for a short walk. “To recharge and gather energy,” she says, and also for inspiration. Nina usually takes the Balderschwang Höhenweg, a scenic high-altitude trail that passes right behind her house.

The five-kilometer trail offers breathtaking views: to the east, the Riedberg Pass; to the west, far into Switzerland, with the massive Säntis on the horizon. And the Hohe Ifen? “That striking rock over there,” Nina points southward, “directly above the Fuchsalm. That’s it.” It’s the namesake of her hotel, the 2,230-meter-high Ifen.

“Balderschwang Has Nothing – But Plenty of It”

Balderschwang is one of the five Allgäu Hörnerdörfer villages. With just 400 residents, it’s one of Bavaria’s smallest communities and boasts the highest-altitude village center in Germany. “Otherwise, Balderschwang has nothing – but plenty of it,” Nina says with a laugh. It’s a place stripped down to the essentials: peace and relaxation. At night, when you open the window, all you hear is the soothing sound of silence, occasionally interrupted by the distant ringing of cowbells from the nearby pasture.

Dreams of Acting and Fashion Design – But Not Cooking

Nina grew up in a house built in the 1930s, which for years served as a vacation retreat for employees and civil servants from Frankfurt, and later as a home for war veterans. In 1966, her grandparents, Willi and Erika, bought the property.

Nina was born in 1981, the eldest of four siblings. As a teenager, she dreamed of a career as an actress or fashion designer. “But absolutely not,” she admits, “a career as a chef.”

Schnitzel, Fries, and Pudding: 1970s Trendy Cuisine

The 1970s come back to life when Nina describes the menu from those days: hearty comfort food, with meat galore. Roasts, schnitzels, dumplings, and fries.

But everything changed around the turn of the millennium during the BSE crisis. It prompted her father to radically rethink their approach, Nina recalls: no more meat from industrial farming. Instead, the kitchen shifted to locally sourced, organic meat.

After graduating from a hotel management school in Bludenz, where she was the only woman among sixty graduates to receive the highest grade possible in cooking, Nina went on to work in acclaimed restaurants with toques and stars. She also completed additional training in Zurich before returning to the Allgäu.

She regularly worked in the kitchen at the “Ifenblick.” Yet, she also explored other paths: teaching snowboarding courses, home economics at the Montessori school in Sonthofen, and raising her two children as a single mother.

Steamed Dumpling with Pulled Goat:
Nina’s New Crossover Cuisine

In 2019, five years after her sister Bianca took over the hotel from their parents, Nina became head chef. Initially, there was supposed to be a transition period working alongside their father, Bernd. But he quickly stepped back – and was amazed by the bold and creative dishes his daughter brought to the table: Kässpätzle (a dish made of egg-based pasta, layers of cheese, and topped with onions) with miso onions and baked apple, glazed eggplant marinated in beet syrup, mirin, and soy sauce, Dampfnudel (a kind of dumpling) on apricot compote with “pulled goat,” or Buchteln (sweet rolls) stuffed with minced sunflower.

Even the towering mountain Hohe Ifen might have been astonished to see the culinary revolution happening down in the Balderschwang kitchen. Suddenly, the kitchen was alive with rebellious energy, for example, with five-spice blends of cinnamon, fennel, Szechuan pepper, mandarin peel, and star anise.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose in the kitchen. 

The “Ifenblick” remains firmly in family hands. Aunt Susi occasionally steps in to help out in the kitchen, while Papa Bernd actively contributes as master chef. Brother Sebastian provides fresh bread and rolls, and his wife, Raja, a trained chef, joins Nina in the kitchen twice a week.

Creating Culinary Masterpieces Like Sculptors and Woodcarvers

The heart of Nina’s kitchen philosophy is that ingredients are never thrown together randomly just to make a dish appear bold. Everything is perfectly balanced – and tastes absolutely incredible.  During our morning hike on the Balderschwang Höhenweg trail, this leads to a question: How does Nina know what combinations will work? What goes together and what doesn’t?

As we pass by Sägebachtobel, a small gorge carved into the Nagelfluh rock over the course of millennia, she explains: “I just see it. Like a woodcarver who sees the figure hidden within a tree trunk or a sculptor who envisions the statue waiting to be revealed from a block of marble.  That’s how I see the finished dish when I look at the individual elements.”

Nina’s Cookbook:

Mett, Dim Sum, and Kässpätzle

In late October 2023, Nina appeared on “The Taste,” the latest season of the TV cooking show. During her debut, she captivated two-star chef Tim Raue – whose Berlin-based “Restaurant Tim Raue” is ranked among the world’s fifty best – with her creation of Chinese crystal dumplings. Raue was so impressed he dropped to his knees in admiration. “That touched me deeply and made me incredibly proud – an unbelievable feeling,” Nina later reflected.

Shortly before her TV debut, the organic gourmet chef published her first cookbook. “Zwischen Mett, Dim Sum und Kässpätzle” (Between Mett, Dim Sum, and Kässpätzle) reflects her culinary crossover concept, blending the East Westphalian roots of her father, Asian-inspired cuisine, and her Allgäu home. The book features dishes like kimchi-stuffed krautkrapfen with vegetable jus and fried eggs, or savoy cabbage curry with potatoes and chickpeas. But it also includes classics like beef roulades with red cabbage and potato dumplings.

„Between Mett, Dim Sum, and Kässpätzle“ reflects her culinary crossover concept.

Nina treasures her daily interactions with both her guests and her suppliers. These include Tobias Ruppaner, whose organic farm near Immenstadt provides her with a calf every four weeks, Pia Kessler, who delivers red cabbage, chard, zucchini, and more, and hunter Stefan Pfefferle, who personally brings her freshly hunted venison.   With his impressive stature and traditional hunting attire, Pfefferle could have stepped right out of an old Heimatfilm, a genre of films from the 1940s-1960s that idealized rural life, nature, and traditional values.

The Bolgenach Stream: Nina’s Place of Rejuvenation Since Childhood

In her free hours, Nina often heads up the Höhenweg or down to the Bolgenach. This small stream originates south of the Riedberger Horn mountain and flows into the Weißach, a tributary of Lake Constance. The banks of the Bolgenach, right by the playground and public barbecue area, have long been a place of rejuvenation for Nina.

As a child, she would come here with her siblings to splash around and swim in the pools. Now, it’s her dog, Mr. Weasley – named after the Harry Potter series – who frolics in the water.

”Change is the only constant.” Everything flows. Everything in the Bolgenach.

Will she one day work in New York, London, or Tokyo? Who can say? Least of all Nina herself. She tosses one last stick into the water for Mr. Weasley to fetch and reflects: “Change is the only constant.” Everything flows. Everything in the Bolgenach. Everything is as constant as the Hohe Ifen rising behind the Fuchsalm alpine pasture.