Terra The Magic Place

The story

Terra The Magic Place – Sarentino, Italy | Two Michelin Stars in the Dolomites

Terra The Magic Place

High in the South Tyrolean mountains, with views of the Dolomites, Terra The Magic Place is the highest Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy. It has held two Michelin stars since 2017, a recognition of cuisine that is both modern and deeply rooted in the organic landscape surrounding it.

The restaurant is the work of the Schneider family. Siblings Heinrich and Gisela took over the family business in 1998, when Heinrich was 26 and Gisela 23. Their grandfather, Johann Brugger, had built a ski hut on the land decades earlier; their parents later turned it into the Auener Hof. The siblings grew up foraging mushrooms and drinking herbal teas made by their mother, and those childhood memories shaped the food they serve today.

Heinrich Schneider is a self-taught chef. He never trained under the great masters – instead, he learned techniques alone in the mountains, developing a style that is entirely his own. He became a certified wild herbs specialist and collects all the herbs himself, fresh from the forest outside the kitchen. His cooking is modern, but the ingredients are ancient: wild herbs, mushrooms, and produce from nearby farms in the Sarentino valley. Meat, flour, milk, cheese, butter – everything comes from within the valley. The restaurant’s approach to sustainability is not a marketing label but a natural consequence of living with the land.

Gisela Schneider, a fully qualified sommelier, shares her knowledge in the hotel’s unique wine loft. Together with Karl Manfredi, who joined in 2010, the trio transformed the entire property into a gourmet retreat with just eleven rooms. The restaurant, called Terra, gives its name to the whole place – “Terra – The Magic Place” reflects their nature: organic, cosmopolitan, creative.

The dining experience here is intimate and unhurried. Guests come for a break in the middle of nature, to indulge in the culinary offerings and the way of life up in the mountains. The kitchen’s philosophy is one of respect for food and those who produce it, using nature’s abundantly laid table. The result is dishes that are not only healthy and tasty but often unique and genuine.