In Sils-Maria, Basel, or the Swiss boarding houses where Nietzsche stayed, meals were not served in the French style of starter-main-dessert, but as a sober succession paced by the spa guest's day: a nourishing soup-base at midday (Mittagessen), quark pastries on Sundays, medicinal herbal teas in place of forbidden coffee, and dried provisions that the traveler carried in his trunk. Everything was light, digestible, and suited to delicate stomachs and mountain air.

Caraway, a small aromatic seed of Germanic and Alpine cuisines, is the soul of this table: it was reputed to soothe difficult digestions—precisely Nietzsche's torment. Together with pearl barley from the high valleys, it defines a poor, clear, and fortifying cuisine, a world away from the heavy sauces the philosopher abhorred.