It’s easy to serve gourmet food when you add expensive ingredients to a dish, such as black truffles or caviar. The real challenge is to serve great food that people can afford to eat every day. Chef Martin Wyss, who owned the legendary Swiss Inn in Niu Valley, was known for cooking elegant comfort foods that were affordable.

From 1982 to 2000, he and his wife, Jeanie, served basically the same menu from the day they opened. It included European specialties such as Trout Caprice, Croute Emmental, wiener schnitzel and cheese fondue — not usual Hawaii fare.

One of the most popular dishes at the Inn was Emince de Veau, Zurich-style strips of tender veal with mushrooms in a wine and cream sauce. It was served with the perfect complement, a crisp potato pancake called roesti, the national dish of Switzerland.

Wyss, now 80, is a practical chef. He says to substitute chicken thighs or pork tenderloin for veal, which can be difficult to access in Hawaii. When asked what kind of wine to use in the gravy, he says, “Whatever white wine is on sale!”

He cooks Yukon Gold potatoes the day before for the hash browns, but says an easy substitute for home cooks is a box of dehydrated hash browns found in the same aisle as instant mashed potatoes.

The chef’s recipe for hash browns may become your family’s favorite for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It turns out tender inside and crisp outside, with bits of brown on the edges. Flavored with bacon, onion, butter and oil, it is delicious by itself. Wyss shows off his years of experience by flipping the roesti in the pan with a swift flip of his wrist.

Combined with the addictive gravy from the minced veal, it’s a dish that makes it easy to understand why many customers returned weekly to the Swiss Inn.

Wyss understands that home cooks are looking for easy recipes, and offers some shortcuts. For the brown gravy, he suggests using instant mixes for gravy, au jus or demi-glace, available in grocery stores.

He does add the richest cream he can find — 36% heavy cream. Even with common chicken thighs replacing the veal, the dish is rich and flavorful.

Wyss was a chef at the Kahala Hilton before he opened his restaurant with Jeanie and his sister-in-law Sharon Fujii, who had worked at the hotel’s Maile Room. Jeanie and Sharon’s mother worked in the Kahala’s pantry.

The sisters ran the front of the house at Swiss Inn, and he was in charge of the kitchen.

“That is why we are still married. The kitchen door was the boundary,” he jokes.

Wyss learned the trade as a cook’s apprentice in Switzerland and at a Montreal hotel. His family home was outside of Zurich.

Since the Swiss Inn’s customer base was 90% local, many diners became good friends. During the 1989 flood in the valley, more than 80 East Honolulu residents were stranded when Kalanianaole Highway was blocked with high water and fallen trees. Unable to get to their homes, they made their way to the restaurant on New Year’s Eve and stayed overnight. Wyss cooked breakfast and lunch for them, and they stayed until the road was cleared at 5 p.m. New Year’s Day.

Though the restaurant closed 20 years ago, the memory of the place stays alive in Oregon, where the Wysses’ daughters Suzie and Jennie reside. Jennie and her wife, Tammy Hay, own the Swiss Hibiscus restaurant in Portland, which features Wyss’ recipes. Until this year, the Wysses would frequently be found there, continuing to help at the restaurant.

EMINCE DE VEAU (VEAL EMINCE ZURICH-STYLE)

By Chef Martin Wyss

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salted butter, divided
• 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (substitute 4 ounces canned mushroom stems and pieces, drained)
• 18 ounces veal, sliced into 1/4-by-1/4-by-1-inch strips (substitute pork tenderloin; or boneless, skinless chicken thighs)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup brown gravy, au jus or demi-glace
• 1 teaspoon minced parsley or chives, for garnish

In large skillet over medium, heat 2 teaspoons butter. Add mushrooms and stir until cooked, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

Season strips of meat lightly with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with flour. Heat oil in skillet until very hot, then add remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Add meat and saute quickly until slightly brown on all sides, about 4 minutes. Add onions and saute 2 minutes. Remove meat and onions and set aside.

Add wine and mushrooms to hot pan and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add cream and brown gravy. Continue cooking until mixture is reduced to desired consistency (not too thin or thick), about 3 to 4 minutes.

Return meat and onions to pan. Mix well with sauce and reheat but do not let come to boil, as that will toughen meat.

Garnish with chopped parsley or chives and serve immediately with roesti (recipe at right). Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information (based on veal): 450 calories, 31 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 140 mg cholesterol, 300 mg sodium, 9 g carbohydrate, no fiber, 2 g sugar, 28 g protein.

ROESTI (SWISS-STYLE HASH BROWNS)

• 1 (4.2 ounce-box) shelf-stable dehydrated potatoes (substitute 3 cups grated cooked Yukon gold potatoes, or refrigerated or thawed frozen hash browns)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 slices bacon, chopped
• 2 tablespoons salted butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon minced parsley, for garnish

Rehydrate potatoes in hot water as instructed on package, but do not add oil. If using fresh potatoes, cook whole potatoes until tender the night before, refrigerate overnight, then peel and grate. If using frozen hash browns, defrost first.

Heat nonstick flat skillet on medium-high. Add oil, bacon and butter. After about 5 minutes, when bacon is three-quarters cooked, add onions and saute 1 minute.

Add hash browns, salt and pepper; stir 2 minutes. Mix and pat into a round on bottom of skillet. Over high heat, brown until crisp and golden on first side, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip potatoes (if needed, turn potatoes onto a plate, then invert plate over skillet). Cook 3 to 4 minutes on second side.

Slide onto serving platter and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately with Emince de Veau. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on dehydrated potatoes and not including salt to taste): 280 calories, 18 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 25 mg cholesterol, 150 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 4 g protein.

NEW BOOM IN SALES FOR AN OLD FAVORITE

The dressing is classically Swiss: a creamy vinaigrette, flavored with mustard and pepper, thickened with egg.

Like much of the Swiss culinary repertoire, the dressing was popularized in Hawaii by chef Martin Wyss, through his Swiss Inn restaurant in Niu Valley. Wyss made a batch every day for the 18 years of the Swiss Inn’s run.

After the restaurant closed in 2000, Wyss’ wife, Jeanie, made the dressing in small batches to sell at farmers markets. After a few years, Jeanie’s nephew Taisei Lee took over, getting the dressing into stores. Now Taisei’s brother Kenji has expanded to a whole new level.

Production has doubled over last year, Kenji Lee said, and by the third quarter of this year, sales had topped all of 2019.

A new spicy flavor is due out on Black Friday and plans are in the works with ChefZone to make a gallon size available for restaurant service. And a “clean label” version is in development that will sub out the canola oil now used and incorporate more local ingredients.

The ramp-up began late last year when the family’s Swiss Inn Dressing company partnered with a Waipio manufacturer, Lee said. “We can produce a lot more of our same recipe and reach more people.”

Before that, the dressing was a family affair, the work done out of rented commercial kitchen space. “Whoever was available, could be Tai or my mom or Auntie Jeanie or Uncle Martin, kind of a case-by-case basis,” Lee said.

The company also launched an advertising campaign and opened an online store. Lee’s ambition for the dressing is simple: “Every refrigerator should have this in there, and that wasn’t going to happen hand-mixing each batch.”

Lee said traditional Swiss dressings can vary greatly, each bearing the mark of its maker. Wyss’ version is distinctive, with a tangy, garlicky kick. It’s creamy, but contains no dairy, and no sugar. “It’s going to challenge you to put it in a lane.”

But for Wyss’ former customers, Lee said, the flavor simply takes them back. “For a huge part of our fan base it’s the story behind it, it’s the nostalgia.”

Find Swiss Inn Salad Dressing for about $7 per 12-ounce bottle at all Times Supermarkets and some Foodland and Tamura’s Markets (it’s kept chilled near the produce aisle). For online orders go to swissinndressing.com (Hawaii only). For mainland orders go to swisshibiscus.com/store.

— Betty Shimabukuro, Star-Advertiser

Lynette Lo Tom, author of “Back in the Day,” is fascinated by old-fashioned foods. Contact her at 275-3004 or via instagram at brightlightcookery. Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.