Swiss-Candian blogger, cookbook author and pastry chef Andie Pilot had only planned to get in touch with her Swiss roots for a year. Just enough time to sharpen her pastry skills. But now eight years on and married Swiss, she calls the rolling hills of Emmental home with her husband and their daughter.
Name: Andie Pilot
Country of Birth: Canada
Years in Switzerland? 8 years
Married Swiss? 6 years
2 Duvets or 1? Absolutely two.
How did you meet your Swiss partner?
I was living in Bern in a cute little apartment in the Lorraine and I decided to have a Canada Day party. I invited all of my Swiss friends and expats, and planned an exclusively Canadian menu: Caesars to start (they don’t have Clamato (clam flavoured tomato juice popular in Canada) so I drained cans of clams into tomato juice), Poutine (dry mozzarella replaced the cheese curds), and Nanaimo Bars for dessert. I made a mountain of food.
But a few hours before people were set to arrive a few friends called to say they couldn’t make it. Then I got a message from my friend Mary, asking if she could bring one of her husband’s colleagues. Of course! I didn’t drain those clams for nothing.
“He’s really cute,” she added, “perfect for you.”
Even better.
By the time Mary, her husband Richard, and his colleague, Sam, arrived, every other guest had cancelled. I was alone, surrounded by my piles of Canadian food, and confronted with a super cute Swiss mathematician who thought he had been invited to a big Canada Day party hosted by a guy named Andy. Fortunately, he took it in stride, even downing a couple weird clam-based cocktails, and we’ve been together ever since.
How did you decide (or not) to call Switzerland home?
I had initially intended to move to Switzerland for a year, get some experience working in bakeries and then go back to Canada. But not long after I settled in Bern and got a job, I decided I would stay indefinitely. Then I met Sam and indefinite turned into definite.
How do you deal with two languages at home? How do you encourage the “minority” language?
My daughter is not yet at school and we actually speak a lot more English at home, so right now (Swiss) German is the minority language—we encourage it through music (a lot of Mani Matter and Stiller Has) and “Die Sendung mit der Maus”.
What have been some challenges?
Swiss German was/is a challenge for me. Even though I have a Swiss mother, I didn’t start learning German until I moved here in my late 20s. I sometimes have trouble understanding our local Emmental dialect, and I always have to read dialect text messages out loud. I also rely heavily on Sam to do most of our household admin and to proofread many of the texts I write in German.
What is your favourite thing about being married Swiss?
I love being a part of Sam’s Swiss family. Both my parents-in-law grew up on farms and their stories of childhood are always entertaining. My father-in-law was a large animal vet, so he has stories about all the local farms (did you know that Kafischnapps (boozy coffee) is a cure-all for cattle and given to mom cows who have just had calves?).
My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook, and I love learning food traditions from her and eating everything she makes (especially Omelettekuchen—she patiently makes a thirty crepes, stacking them with ham and cheese in a delicious, melty tower).
Finding all of Sam’s David Hasselhoff tapes from childhood and using them to constantly tease him is also pretty great.
Your family’s favourite meal:
My pumpkin Älplermagronen with plenty of cervelat, onions and applesauce.
What’s something from your home culture that you’ve introduced into your family?
Putting maple syrup on everything. Both Sam and I love reading and he was delighted to discover Canadian authors Robertson Davies and Margaret Atwood (just as I was delighted to discover Dürrenmatt). My daughter loves Robert Munsch. I play a lot of Neil Young and BTO around the house too.
(In non-pandemic times) Do you get to go back “home” often?
Not very often. More of my family lives in Switzerland than Canada now.
What is the first thing you grab/eat when you arrive back to Canada? And when you return to Switzerland?
When I go back to Canada I just love going to restaurants—sushi, pho, burgers, Indian, ramen, you name it. In Switzerland, it’s too expensive to eat in restaurants all the time, and now that we live rurally we don’t have much variety (it’s a lot of Cordon Bleu). When I come back to Switzerland, I want to eat all the cheese and yogurt I can get my hands on.
Has being married Swiss-made integrating easier?
Of course. I rely on Sam to help me navigate the parts of Switzerland that are sometimes complicated (taxes, recycling), and I know that as my daughter grows up it will be beneficial to have someone who understands the education system. I have been welcomed by both his friends and family, which gives me a feeling of community and belonging.
When have you both had to make compromises because of cultural differences?
I think for our cultures it isn’t necessarily compromise, but rather tolerance. I tolerate Sam’s perfectionism, his adherence to rules, his insistence that pineapple does not belong in cheese fondue… And he tolerates my inability to fold towels correctly, the fact that I always speak a few decibels too loudly on public transport, and my lack of paper bundling skills.
How do you deal with the question of Samichlaus/Santa Claus /Christkindli and other cross-cultural traditions?
At the moment we just use it as an excuse to celebrate as many times as possible. I tell my daughter that she gets an extra visit from Santa and the reindeer on Christmas Eve because she’s half Canadian.
Is Switzerland now home?
Yes.
About Andie
Andie Pilot is a Swiss-Canadian blogger, cookbook author, and trained pastry chef. She lives in the heart of the Emmental with her husband and daughter. She shares her love of food over on her blog Helvetic Kitchen as well as on Instagram and Facebook, and has authored two books Helvetic Kitchen and Drinking Like the Swiss.
