The historic Gstaad Palace hotel in the heart of the Swiss Alps has appointed a new culinary director, Franz Faeh.

He plans to bring environmentally-conscious cooking concepts to some of the hotel’s most exclusive guest experiences.

Chef Faeh will use a recycled solar-powered cooker – purchased from a Launen parish priest, who used the device while working on an aid project in Africa – to transform locally sourced ingredients into a three-course gourmet menu for visitors to the hotel’s intimate mountainside Walig Hut.

On the menu will be beautifully prepared fresh langoustine, trout in white wine with herbs, and classic regional dessert, Meringues du Saanenland.

This summer will also see him eschew electricity for open fire as he launches a new street food-inspired barbeque concept to the hotel’s sun terrace, inviting guests to enjoy seasonal delicacies against the breath-taking backdrop of the Bernese Oberland.

Faeh’s appointment by the palace’s third-generation family owner, Andrea Scherz, follows three years as the hotel’s executive chef: a role which this year saw him oversee the revamp of the Fromagerie restaurant, set in a former underground gold bunker.

A Gstaad local and passionate traveller, Faeh describes his relationship with the Palace as a “lifelong dream”.

His training includes stints cooking across Bangkok, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, where he developed a fascination with street cooking and finger food using the local produce and traditional techniques at hand.