We first met Meredith Erickson over Käsespätzle and alpine sparkling wine at one of our favorite wine bars and shops to visit in Vermont, Dedalus. Her passion for the Alps and the food, wine, and people of the region is electric and contagious, and her warmth and hospitality is palpable. While Meredith has written beautiful cookbooks with the likes of Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey (read our interview with him here), Claridge’s, and the folks behind Joe Beef, her newest book Alpine Cooking is the one that caught our eye the most. A truly beautiful and expansive ode to the alps, Alpine Cooking is part travelogue, part coffee table book (seriously, the photos are incredible), and absolutely full of recipes from the grand hotels and on-piste huttes of the Alps.

We caught up with Meredith over face-time to chat about her travels, her favorite alpine traditions, and what she’s keeping busy with in the kitchen during this time of self-isolation. Be sure to check out Meredith’s book, because if you can’t be in the Alps, this is basically the next best thing.

Alps & Meters: What initially drew you to the Alps for this book?

Meredith Erickson: I was living in London in 2014, and traveling to the Alps quite a bit, when I realized that you can eat so well at 8,000 feet in Switzerland, Italy, France, and Austria. I didn't realize how long it would take me to cover 200,000 square kilometers. It really took me from 2014 until 2019 to complete the book. I was mostly traveling alone while taking really tight notes, and retraced my steps when I went back with my photographer Christina Holmes. The vision was really tight, and what I had in mind completely came to fruition.

If you had to eat one meal in the mountains, what would it be and where?

My favorite alpine dish is Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, which are veal strips cooked in cream sauce, Zurich style. What I love about it is that it's very rustic and simple, but also really elegant. And it pairs with anything…you can drink Burgundy with it, or prié blanc. You can also have it in any season. My favorite place to eat this dish is at Kronehalle, Zurich’s famous fine dining restaurant.

Alps & Meters is a brand that's really rooted in the authentic traditions of skiing and alpine sport. Do you have a favorite tradition that you encountered in your travels?

I think that a big misnomer about the Alps is that it's not culturally rich, which in my travels I have found to be completely false. In the Appenzeller, one of my favorite annual traditions is the Almabtrieb, which is when the cattle are brought down from the high alpine meadows in Autumn. The cattle are elaborately and colorfully dressed, and I think that's a really rich and cool tradition. To me it signifies coming down from the mountains, getting your pantry ready, stocking up and settling in for the coming winter.

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There's quite a vast collection of alpine huts, that provide the perfect mountain lunch-break in the book. Which is your favorite, and what's the order?

I love Alta Badia in the Dolomites, and I think my favorite hut if the Rifugio Bioch Hutte at altitude above the village of San Cassiano. I like it because it's family owned, like most of them, and although it started as a little snack bar, it has grown into a great little restaurant with a nice wine list. As it has been passed down through the generations, it has changed and expanded, but it has been able to maintain a familial feel to it. I also like that it's got really easy access, so everyone can get there.

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So much of high-altitude cooking relies on products that are shelf-stable, like cured meats and hard cheeses, as deliveries in the mountains can be trying and infrequent. Care to share a recipe from your book that utilizes mostly pantry staples?

That's a great one. One of my favorite recipes using pantry staples is the Quark and Peach Cake from the Austria chapter. It utilizes canned peaches and quark, but you could also use ricotta if you can’t find quark. It's a really easy cake recipe that is great for times like these when everyone has a little extra time on their hands.

A lot of alpine culture (in the Alps or otherwise) is rooted in self-reliance, and isolation. What are you cooking for yourself for comfort during this strange and trying time of social distancing?

I'm actually doing a lot a baking. I'm really not a baker, but I find myself baking things for neighbors. For me, it's not about actually eating what I’ve made. It's about taking a couple of hours in the afternoon and making a routine of it. With my downtime, and the fact that my mind doesn't work from 3-4 pm, I try to just choose something to tackle. Lately that’s a cookie, or a shortbread that I can give to my neighbors. It's that routine, and keeping disciplined during this time that I think is really important.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is the profiles of local innkeepers, winemakers and chefs that are scattered throughout the Alps, providing hospitality in the remote corners of the mountains...often passed down through many generations. Is there a specific story or family that stands out to you as synonymous of this tradition of hospitality?

Gerold and Katja Schneider are my favorite alpine couple. Together they run an architectural practice, the hotel Almhof Schneider in Lech, Austria, and the Allmeinde Commongrounds cultural space. They are incredible, and Gerold (a fourth-generation maître de maison) has done such a great job with his family business. At every dinner, Gerold and Katja (his wife) are at their table and keeping a routine that I find to be very comforting at this time.

It's 4 o'clock and the lifts are closing. What's to drink in each country?