The name is Rhaeto-Romanic for "nest," and the sensation it describes is precisely what Andreas Caminada has created within the grand Victorian walls of Badrutt's Palace Hotel. IGNIV opened in December 2016 and earned its second Michelin star in 2020, cementing its position as one of the defining fine dining addresses in alpine Europe. The room, designed by Patricia Urquiola, uses high-quality materials, a warm colour palette, and considered lighting to transform the historic space into something that feels simultaneously grand and intimate — a private sanctuary within a public institution.
The concept that makes IGNIV genuinely distinctive is the sharing format. Rather than following a traditional tasting menu sequence, IGNIV presents up to thirty small dishes throughout the evening, delivered to the table without strict ordering — guests eat at their own pace, sharing everything, choosing their own rhythm. It is haute cuisine stripped of its rigidity and given back its pleasure. Each component is a study in concentrated flavour: the Alpine precision of Caminada's training applied to dishes that feel as though they were designed for conversation, not contemplation.
The kitchen's relationship with regional Swiss and Alpine ingredients is evident throughout — mountain herbs, fresh dairy, game, lake fish — married with techniques and influences that place Caminada firmly in the contemporary fine dining tradition without sacrificing specificity of place. The wine pairing, curated with exceptional depth, matches the format's generosity with a selection that moves through Swiss, Austrian, and French bottles with equal confidence.
Service at IGNIV is among the finest in Switzerland: knowledgeable, warm, and entirely without the stiffness that can afflict restaurants of this calibre. The team moves with the ease of people who understand that hospitality and gastronomy are not in competition with each other. For a client dinner where the quality of the table must speak before a word is said, IGNIV at Badrutt's Palace Hotel is, simply, the definitive answer in St. Moritz.