El Atún Rojo. By Fuentes. “We’ve never had such a huge tuna deli­ver­ed,” mar­vel­led Mike Wehrle, Culinary Director at the Bürgenstock Resort. The colos­sus weig­hed 140 kg, deli­ver­ed with head and fin by Luca Bianchi—sourced from the very best address: El Atún Rojo, Ricardo Fuentes, Cartagena, Spain. “Fuentes is one of the world’s finest bluef­in tuna pro­du­cers. He is among the very few European pro­du­cers who­se catch is traded and auc­tion­ed at Tokyo’s famous fish mar­ket. The ulti­ma­te pro­of of the out­stan­ding qua­li­ty of his pro­ducts,” Bianchi enthu­ses. A QR code pro­vi­des infor­ma­ti­on on the weight (140 kg) and the “Date of Slaughter”: 26/7/2026. Invoice: CHF 6,000. Photo abo­ve: Janet Lopez.

A case for Janet! Breaking down a giant tuna? At the Bürgenstock Resort, the­re is only one per­son who can do it: Janet Lopez, Mike Wehrle’s peti­te Japanese head chef, trai­ned within the Nobu group and part of the team for six years. Janet: “Even for me, it’s a chall­enge. The tuna is much big­ger than I am! Normally we break down smal­ler spe­ci­mens.” Janet cut for hours, “with my seven Japanese kni­ves and my hammer—the most important tool for this job.” A job that made its­elf felt that evening: “I was real­ly sore.” The men in the bri­ga­de were deep­ly impressed—Chef Wehrle too: “Janet is fantastic!”

Chutoro for the GaultMillau Garden Party. The occa­si­on for the spec­ta­cu­lar tuna cut­ting? Today’s Sunday GaultMillau Garden Party in Bad Ragaz. Mike Wehrle and Janet Lopez are ser­ving Hon-magu­ro tata­ki in the “Asia Corner” with shi­chi­mi toga­ra­shi, cori­an­der dres­sing and bubu ara­re (rice crackers)—refreshing, spi­cy and spec­ta­cu­lar. For this, Janet cut chut­oro from the tuna’s bel­ly. “The midd­le cut,” explains Mike Wehrle, “not quite as fat­ty and ide­al for this dish.” The other parts are being used at the Bürgenstock as we speak: bluef­in sas­hi­mi, tata­ki and nigi­ri at “Spices”, plus a Thai varia­ti­on by “Spices” chef Ning: “Koi Pla Tuna”, with chil­li, lemon­grass, cori­an­der and green man­go. Chef Christian Scharrer of “Verbena” at the Waldhotel also stocked up: bluef­in tar­ta­re for a vitel­lo ton­n­a­to with veal (back), caper gel and caper foam.

The shot of the year! Two tuna rari­ties are Mike Wehrle’s per­so­nal favourites—reserved, at most, for hims­elf and per­haps a few fri­ends: sumi­bi­ya­ki hon-magu­ro hoho & hon magu­ro no hone­zui. Sumibiyaki? Those are the cheeks—and even on a giant tuna the­re are only two. They are gril­led and ser­ved with pon­zu, chi­ves, gin­ger and radish. Honezui? Tuna bone mar­row, expert­ly sawn open, ser­ved chil­led with tosa sho­yu, chi­ves and gin­ger. The shot of the year! Even for pro­fes­sio­nal Mike Wehrle, the fact that you can also make use of the bluefin’s back­bone was new. He got the tip from his sup­plier, Luca Bianchi.