You can never truly describe what you’ve never truly experienced. So, as part of her research for our new book Beyond Peaks: The Cuisine of Schloss Schauenstein, Phaidon’s multi-award-winning Creative Director Julia Hasting paid a visit to the tiny Swiss town of Fürstenau in the Graubünden.
During her time there, Hasting experienced not only the exquisite service and food created by the visionary chefs Andreas Caminada and Marcel Skibba but also observed the changing light inside and outside the castle, walked through its gardens and the surrounding town, absorbing the things that make this three Michelin star restaurant unique. 
Photography by Joan Minder from Beyond Peaks
Hasting’s aim was to understand the atmosphere of Schloss Schauenstein and its culinary world and to then translate the sensory and emotional qualities of the restaurant and surrounding area into a book format. “I wanted to reflect the many layers that make such a visit unique,” she says.
Samples from Julia Hasting’s original design proposals
Schloss Schauenstein is more than a restaurant – it is an eighteenth-century castle reimagined as a modern gastronomic beacon by Caminada and Skibba. Here, a tight-knit team works at the pinnacle of their craft, guided by a philosophy that celebrates terroir through enduring relationships with those who grow, shape, and harvest the ingredients.
The dual volume monograph Beyond Peaks: The Cuisine of Schloss Schauenstein distils the spirit of Schloss Schauenstein through story, recipes, people, and landscape, both past and present. 
Samples from Julia Hasting’s original design proposals
“It was essential to visit this tiny village–which they call the smallest city in the world–and to draw inspiration from it,” Hasting tells Phaidon.com. “When you enter this beautiful castle it's quite dark and the walls are rather thick, but there is a unique light coming in through the old glass, set back, and gridded windows. It’s very quiet and elegant, and yet cozy. There are spotlights on each table, creating a circle of light with shade. This circle and light gradient are a repeating element in my design. It references, among other things, sun, moon, glass shape, plate shape, and round ingredients.”
The main themes guiding our Creative Director’s approach were: insights into Andreas Caminada’s world and the interconnections between nature, place, food, and the people behind it; color palettes inspired by food and place; light and shadow; beauty, calm, and elegance; place and the relationship between inside and outside the restaurant.
The resulting book is also another design landmark for Phaidon, featuring two volumes within one fold-back binding.
Samples from Julia Hasting’s original design proposals
The experience and its stories unfold in the main visual book, STORIES. Here, the reader is guided through a visit to the Schloss: the menu and its dishes are presented as if they were being served directly in front of them. The visual narrative recreates the light, mood, and atmosphere of the space, allowing the reader to feel as though they are present. Inserted booklets function like pauses between courses, offering behind-the-scenes insights. Through these interludes, stories about the place, the people, and the producers are revealed.
Pages from Beyond Peaks - photography Joan Minder
The second book, RECIPES, contains the recipes themselves. “By separating the recipes from the visual narrative, cooking becomes practical and accessible, while the immersive storytelling of STORIES remains uninterrupted,” Hasting explains. “Each recipe references the STORIES book through background colors, making it easy to flip back and forth and to view a recipe alongside the corresponding image and story at the same time.”
Throughout the RECIPES book, images of the castle and scenes from the kitchen are interspersed, offering another layer of insight into the work and processes behind the cuisine. These images are presented in duotone to evoke a behind-the-scenes atmosphere.
Samples from Julia Hasting’s original design proposals
“The cover motif draws its colors from the food and surrounding nature–beetroot, one of Andreas Caminada’s favorite ingredients, being a key reference,” according to Hasting. The circular shape can be read as a wine glass or beetroot slice or a soup, while the two additional shapes echo the custom-made dishes on which the aperitif is served. However these references should not be read that literally – they function to create the overall atmosphere.”
“Each story insert traces the dish back to its origin: a fish course is paired with the fishmonger, while a plant in nature reappears in a photograph of the dish.” Hasting’s idea for a bespoke fall-back binding for the book was integral to the success of the design.
Samples from Julia Hasting’s original design proposals
“It allows for cross-referencing on multiple levels and creates both an ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ reading experience — mirroring the way a visit to Schloss Schauenstein unfolds between interior spaces and the surrounding landscape,” she says. “We’ve done fold-back bindings before, but this experiment of a double fold-back binding was to separate the visual stories from the recipes, so it was a first for us in that respect.”
“It was really quite challenging on all levels, not only in the design, but in the production too. The additional golden foil has this shine which references the light and shade and the luxury feel of the restaurant. I’m really pleased with it.”
Hasting also personally curated the photo edit for the book, juxtaposing ingredients and dishes with photography of the nature surrounding the castle or from its gardens. Where particular photographs were not quite working, Hasting created her own bespoke illustrations – line drawings – to evoke the essence of the dish.
All Phaidon books are collaborative ventures and Hasting worked closely with Chef Andreas Caminada to create an object truly evocative of the spirit of Schloss Schauenstein.
Pages from Beyond Peaks - photography Joan Minder
“From the beginning, he wanted the design of this publication to be a new and unusual experience,” our Creative Director says. “People of this calibre often have very strong opinions in other fields as well as their own, but from the beginning Caminada said, ‘you are the expert in book design and I am the chef.’ It was really great working with him.”
Take a closer look at Beyond Peaks: The Cuisine of Schloss Schauenstein.
Pages from Beyond Peaks - photography Joan Minder
