“Landfrauenküche” – until a few weeks ago, this meant the following to 41-year-old Flurina Candinas: “Being away for six weekends – and on top of that, another weekend when the camera crew was at home with us.” She lives with her partner and two children on a farm with 28 dairy cows in the Canton of Graubünden’s Andiast region, located between Disentis and Ilanz.

Participating in the TV show was no mean feat, Flurina explains in her cheerful, energetic manner. She needed to organize the children, her work in the cowshed and the farmyard – and her job as a Postbus driver. “Everyone had to help out”, she says. Her partner, Rico, had to look after the cowshed with the dairy cows and another ten young cattle on his own. Flurina’s children stayed some of the time with her mother, and with her sister at other times. And of course she also received support from Giacun Stuppan, her manager at PostBus.

“There were a few tears”

For Flurina Candinas, “Landfrauenküche” also meant cooking competitively against six rivals. “They were all good, but my favourite was definitely Astrid”, Flurina says. When SRF host Nik Hartmann announced the third, then second placing, “suddenly it all hit me”. Seconds later, she heard her own name. The winner is Flurina!

“Yes, I definitely shed a few tears”, she recalls. “Winning was like a Christmas present for me. I never would’ve thought that I’d win.”

She never really took on board the fact that she was cooking under the spotlight of the TV cameras. “You do see the people in the studio, but you’re completely focussed on the 25 minutes of time that you have.”

Swiss chard rolls, caramel flan and the problematic roast

Flurina’s winning menu: Swiss chard rolls as the appetizer (recipe available in German here, courtesy of SRF Swiss Television), a caramel flan for dessert, with stuffed roast pork as the main course in between. “That was absolutely the scariest moment”, Flurina Candinas says. “I completely forgot to lower the temperature in time.”

The trepidation about Flurina’s roast (from 37:45)

In the end, everyone was happy and Flurina was relieved. “The highlight of ”Landfrauenküche” for me was the six of us women all became friends”, Flurina says. The seven chefs from “Landfrauenküche” even defeated the Swiss Culinary Junior National Team in the final of “Landfrauenküche” on SRF1 television.