The view from the Hirschfarm restaurant in Adetswil is enchanting. Lake Pfäffikon beckons far below, the restaurant is located in the middle of vast agricultural fields and deer graze on the adjacent pasture. “Up here you can slow down,” says Gabriele Schellenberg, who has been looking after guests together with her husband Marcel since June. After only two years, the young cook and restaurateur Stefanie Steiner has left the business to the two of them. As she said two years ago, mentioned to Zürioberland24she could also imagine running her partner’s farm together and becoming a mother. Marcel Schellenberg, on the other hand, grew up as the son of an innkeeper in a restaurant and has had gastronomy in his blood since he was a child.
Gastronomy is an intensive business
The host couple worked in the city of Zurich for many years and also ran the Zunfthaus zur Haue there. They only delivered; they had no time for anything else. The couple raised two sons, who, however, do not work in the catering industry. When Corona came and everything more or less came to a standstill, the two did not renew their lease and got a job at the Winterthur restaurant Das Taggenberg. While Marcel worked as a sous chef at Das Taggenberg, Gabriele completed further training and worked in a retirement home. “We had worked so much, I had to do something else,” she says. It was an exciting experience, but also difficult because she had not been able to set boundaries enough.
The two of them started looking for a new business. However, it had to be smaller and they could run it alone. With 30 indoor and 30 outdoor seats, the Hirschfarm restaurant was perfect.
