Cleo Jackson
‘That whole street was a hub of community activists, and I was in there doing
hair in the kitchen. It all just stemmed from there.’
Frau Godly
Maria Godly is the eldest of four siblings in the Godly family, known for their warm hospitality and deep roots in Sils, Switzerland. Raised in a multilingual home where German, Italian and Romansh intertwined, Maria grew up between the traditions of the Engadin valley and the resilience of her mother, who was raised on the San Bernardino Pass. Her family’s journey into hospitality began when their father, a farmer, was offered the chance to buy the Chesa Marchetta in Sils Maria from a friend and hunting companion, Mr Gabriel.
The decision marked a turning point: Maria, already living in Zurich, returned to support the venture, alongside her younger siblings. The Godly family soon restored the rooms at Chesa Marchetta, continuing its operation as a restaurant while transforming it into a guesthouse to welcome guests from 1958 onwards.
Under the watchful eye of Maria and her sister Christina, and her mother’s traditional culinary instincts, Chesa Marchetta became known for its set menus, handmade Knoepfli (spinach spätzle), and homestyle fondue chinoise served with generous portions of delicately sliced veal. The restaurant never adopted plated service; instead, meals were shared from large serving platters, warmed by specially designed scaldapiatti to maintain the food’s temperature and comfort. By the time Chesa Marchetta closed its doors in April 2016, alongside the family’s historic Pensiun Chastè in Sils Baselgia, Maria had become a living archive of Engadin culinary heritage, beauty and community warmth.
The following conversation takes place in the historic Pensiun Chastè, the current home of Maria Godly, where she is joined by Federica Bertolini, an Italian hospitality expert, storyteller, and seasoned forager.
With two decades of experience in the UK–eleven years in Cornwall and nine in Scotland– Federica now steps into her new role as general manager of Chesa Marchetta, recently acquired by Art Farm. Her background spans 5-star hotels in Edinburgh and Rome to smaller properties in Cornwall and the Highlands, where she developed a more personal, attentive style of guest connection.
Known as The Italian Ghillie, Federica blends her deep local knowledge with her Italian warmth, curiosity and passion for food, ensuring that the legacy of Maria Godly lives on, through generous hospitality, seasonal ingredients, and a deep respect for place.
Frau Godly & Federica Bertolini
in Conversation
The Beginning of a Family Legacy
Federica: You inherited both Chesa Marchetta and Pensiun Chastè from your parents, correct?
Godly: In 1901, my grandfather on my father’s side bought the house in Sils Baselgia that later became Pensiun Chastè. When the property was divided, my aunt inherited the Pensiun because she had always worked there. My father, Peter, inherited agricultural land and a barn.
He was always full of life. Alongside farming, he worked as a mountain guide and went hunting with Mr Gabriel, his friend and the previous owner of Chesa Marchetta.
Then, one day, Mr Gabriel came to see my parents and asked whether they would consider buying Chesa Marchetta.
I was already in Zurich, doing a retail apprenticeship. There was no money. But my parents had to decide whether to buy it.
Federica: Quickly?
Godly: Yes, the very next day.
My parents told us that they would buy it, but only if we all helped with the work in return. So, we said yes.
But to buy it, they asked the Kantonalbank for a loan because my father knew the bank's head.
When we bought it in June 1947, the rooms that would become the guest house were still exactly as the military had left them. There was straw on the floor where the soldiers had slept, and the wooden partitions had already been removed.
Because we had large debts, my parents had to prepare the rooms quickly so that they could rent them out immediately.
Federica: And Chesa Marchetta was already a restaurant?
Godly: Yes, there was already a restaurant and a grocery shop at the entrance. My sister wasn't happy about having to run the shop as well.
People even came on Sundays to buy things, because the other shops and the post office were closed. But because we had the restaurant, we were open.
Federica: When you were the only child, were you very happy?
Godly: I was spoiled.
I always had braids as a child, because of my curly hair…
Federica: With hair like that, braids were probably better.
Federica: And your mum was the one cooking at Chesa Marchetta, right?
Godly: Yes, she was very good at cooking.
Before my parents got married, she came from San Bernardino to the Pensiun Chastè to work there.
Federica: Was that how your parents met?
Godly: Yes. My parents then got married in 1927.
Federica: The same year you were born?
Godly: Yes, when I was born.
Godly: Everyone called me “The doll.”
Federica: Were you a happy family?
Godly: Sure, we were happy, very happy. For that reason, none of us got married.
Maybe we were such a happy family that…
Federica: Exactly–nobody wanted to upset that.
Godly: No, but it was also difficult.
Our clients treated us differently, as we were regarded as a more educated part of the population, while the rest of the locals were farmers.
When I was 16, my parents sent me to business school in Sierre to improve my French. I studied there over the winter, and when school finished in April, it was beautiful.
Federica: Your parents have always been very supportive and motivated you to learn more, didn’t they?
Considering the narrower mindset of the time, it’s something really special, particularly as few parents would have been so open-minded with their children.
Godly: Yes, well, they didn’t really have the time to spoil us. But yes, they were very open-minded. We grew up learning different languages.
Federica: Yes, that’s right. So you grew up speaking three languages: Italian, Romansh, and German, right?
Godly: Italian, not so much. Well, Chiavenna is really close, and we had Italian staff. So that’s how we learned the language.
Learning languages made me curious about other places.
A Family Portrait
Godly: In 1948, when I finished my apprenticeship, I returned. I knew I had to help my mother immediately.
I was older and more practically minded than my sister...
Federica: Did your brothers also help the family?
Godly: Linart studied agriculture in Chur, so he and my father worked in the fields.
Gian Pol, the youngest, learned construction drafting in St. Moritz, then at a technical school in Burgdorf, then in Zurich, then in Canada, where he stayed for six years. He came back when we needed help.
Federica: I want to ask about you and Christina–have you ever thought about doing something else? Was there ever a rebellious phase?
Godly: No. After my sister finished hotel school, she thought that she still had too little experience. Although she had already learned a lot, she worked one season in the bursar’s office in the Chantarella hotel in St. Moritz.
So if I was at home, I would work in the restaurant, and my sister would go there.
We had already been running the guest house for years, but only started opening in winter around 1958. It wasn’t ready for Christmas, so we only opened in February. One day, a German guest arrived with his dog. He had booked a room at the nearby Hotel Maria, but they didn’t accept pets at the time.
We took him in and said, “Let’s begin.” From then on, we stayed open in winter as well, which meant that one sister could leave in summer, and the other in winter.
Federica: So when your parents bought Chesa Marchetta in 1947, you were already in Zurich. Did you then come back to Sils to help your parents?
Godly: My very first time travelling was a few years before the Chesa Marchetta guest house opened—around 1951-1952—when I left for London to work in a private house. London was beautiful, not long after the war.
I explored the city as much as I could, and I looked after three children, aged 11, 5, and 3 years old.
I worked in the house. The owner was Mr Evans, I believe he was a lawyer.
Seeing the World from Sils
Godly: It was my first flight—Zurich to London.
Federica: How did you meet him?
Godly: A guest of Pensiun Chastè, Miss Nurnberg. She knew them and arranged for me to go there.
Federica: Okay, but you were very international in that case, because not everyone went to London in the ’50s.
Federica: What was it like to live in Pensiun Chasté during the war?
Godly: We lived well. It was really peaceful, even though food was rationed, I still have the stamps we used to get food.
The meat was rationed, too. We received meat coupons and bought what we couldn’t produce ourselves.
We had a fountain in the stable. Fishermen fished for trout and sold them to hotels. They used fishing nets, and sometimes fish were found dead or still alive, to be killed and sold to hotels. My father was among those who killed and sold fish.
Federica: Did he kill them with a stick? Or, how did they kill the fish?
Godly: He killed them by tapping on the edge of the tub.
I also remember that during the war, in 1941, the first Engadiner Konzertwochen took place.
I remember a violin concert in the church in Silvaplana with a famous violinist. My sister and I gave the program to the people attending the concert. It was wartime, and a lot of Jewish refugees and intellectuals from Germany and Austria fled to Switzerland.
Big international artists had nothing to do, so some started to organise concerts. We had many clients attend because people from Switzerland couldn’t travel abroad at the time.
Federica: And did you host them? Or did the preacher host them?
Godly: No, I think they paid with the money they earned from the concert
Perhaps the hotels also offered them a special price for their attendance.
In this way, they could work and stay somewhere beautiful, and the clients had public entertainment.
I also found my own travel book the other day!
Federica: Wow, it shows you have been everywhere: Italy, England, Scotland, the Netherlands. Also, Armenia and Georgia, Yugoslavia, Venice, Athens, Asia and even all over Africa. This is incredible!
Godly: Also Burma, Cuba, other places in South America, Chile, Cancun, Mexico.
Federica: Even Australia and New Zealand!
Godly: And thanks to these trips, it happened that I saw guests from Chesa Marchetta in places around the world. It happened once in Doha, Qatar. Such a small world!
Federica: Alone?
Godly: Yes, alone. But when I was in London, Miss Nurnberg picked me up at the airport to take me to where I was going to work.
She and her family had stayed with us for much of the war, and we are still in contact with her son.
Cooking at Chesa Marchetta Sils Maria . Switzerland
Topics of Conversation
Salads
- Seasonal Saladserved on a platter
- Polenta with creamground maize, crème fraîche, cheese
- Asparagus with butterfresh asparagus, golden breadcrumbs
Seasonal
- Homemade sausages?????????????
Main Courses
- Fondue Chinoisethinly sliced beef, aromatic broth, homemade sauces
- Plain in PignaOven-baked potato rösti, bacon lardons, smoked Luganega sausage
- Spinat-Knöpfli????????????
Friday Special - Meat Free
- Geronimiv's fishfrom the shop in St. Moritz, since 1924
- Chestnuts with creammashed chestnuts, butter, breadcrumbs
Dessert
- Plum Cakecandied fruit, a traditional recipe
Service & Menu
Federica: Was the restaurant open only in the summer?
Godly: No, it was always open.
Federica: I want to ask you about the menu. I presume in winter there was a fixed menu or the menu changed, for example, one week you cooked polenta and another week there was something else.
Godly: Yes, we didn’t prepare the same thing all week.
Federica: So, people came, and you served them right away. You had already brought wine, then brought out the salad first, right?
Godly: They already knew of the guest’s arrival in the kitchen and immediately prepared the salad and brought it out to them.
Federica: And...Was it the same salad for everyone?
Godly: Yes, it was.
We have never done table service. We have always prepared large serving dishes.
Federica: Ah, it is silver service in English. So you went to the table with a large plate and put the food on the customer's plate?
Godly: We put it in front of them on a plate warmer. We had beautiful plate warmers with two candles accompanying them.
Customers could eat salad while we cooked the rest of the meal. The batter for the Knöpfli was already prepared, and the meat was already cut for everyone. Everything was prepared to meet our customers' needs.
Fondue Chinoise
Federica: And every evening, how many dishes were there?
Godly: The only alternative was the fondue chinoise.
Federica: So, if someone didn’t want to eat what you had prepared, they ate fondue chinoise.
Godly: Our fondue chinoise was quite well known; it wasn’t like the others.
Federica: Why is it called chinoise?
Godly: I don’t know… before we cooked the fondue Bourguignonne, and it was made with oil. We cooked it a few times, but the entire house was made out of wood, and since the bourguignonne is prepared with hot oil, everything–the curtains, the pillows–smelled of oil afterwards.
When we discovered the fondue chinoise recipe, we changed to it immediately. We said: “Enough with this smell of oil”, and we started to prepare the fondue chinoise. The chinoise was prepared with a good broth. People said it was delicious, and we answered, “Ah, of course it is, the broth is homemade!”, but that wasn’t true; it was prepared with Knorr (the broth stock). Well… it was a mix.
Federica: Did you always add a little bit of vegetable stock cube?
Godly: It was necessary to add a bit of stock. So, we added a bit of legume stock to prepare a good broth.
Federica: Vegetable broth?
Godly: Not only vegetables, but also some chicken, some meat, and some vegetables. It had to be seasoned enough because it needed to season the meat too. Salt and pepper were always on the table, and people could always add a little bit of it.
Federica: It’s true that it must be seasoned and flavoured, no?
Godly: It must be seasoned, but not too much.
Federica: Not too salty because...
Godly: …afterwards, you drink the broth.
Federica: Yes, exactly, I understand.
Meat and Sauces
Godly: I ate meat in other restaurants and hotels too, but I didn’t like it very much. Other hotels tended to serve three types of meat: one of veal, one of beef, and one of poultry. Three very small pieces.
Federica: On the contrary, you served a very generous portion.
Godly: We prepared 150 grams of beef, cut into slices using the slicer. Half was cut frozen because it could be cut thin. And then we prepared the sauces.
We made sauces with recipes I sourced from magazines. I don’t know why we don’t find as many homemade sauces nowadays.
Federica: It makes all the difference!
Godly: You know, we also produced sausages. We had the pig slaughtered in December;
the sausages were better than those of the butchers, and obviously, because we only had one pig, we reached a certain moment when there weren’t any more sausages.
Fish and Polenta
Federica: You also served fish at Chesa Marchetta?
Godly: Sometimes for clients.
Federica: And when you made spinach spätzli did you ever use that wild spinach that they told me is called Guter Heinrich?
Godly: For us, yes, but not for the clients. This year I wanted to make it, but no,
I didn’t realise that everything grows faster and they are already flowering.
It’s already too late for Guter Heinrich.
But the fish was purchased elsewhere.
Federica: Yes, from the shop in St. Moritz, Geronimi (opened 1924).
Godly: Geronimi is a very good fish provider.
Federica: But you also followed the custom of not eating meat on Fridays?
We also never ate meat on Fridays.
Godly: We were not Catholic, and yet we still ate no meat either.
Federica: There were vegetables or polenta.
Godly: Polenta with cream.
Federica: And cheese. Or polenta with cream inside, that is so good.
My mother always has to light the fire when she makes polenta, or else she doesn’t make it. She only makes it in winter when the fire is lit.
Godly: My mother and her family, being born in San Bernardino, owned two cows. They were employees of the canton because the father was responsible for keeping the road open, also in winter.
At the beginning of the last century, in summer, the ladies who were in San Bernardino on holiday, typically Ticinese ladies, came up often to walk, but also often by carriage. They had their lunch packages with them.
Our grandfather had started making polenta with whipped cream, sugar, and cinnamon. We still make it sometimes.
Federica: Really?
Godly: But it’s not as good because it’s made on…
Federica: On gas, not on the fire. Now it’s made on the electric stove.
Godly: Yes, it’s not the same thing.
Desserts
Frederica: What else did you prepare?
Godly: Plums cakes, for amongst other things.
Federica: They’re delicious. Did you prepare the plum cake in the sense of a square cake?
Godly: We prepared it with candied fruit.
Federica: In Italy, my mother always calls it a plum cake—a rectangular tin cake with fruit inside. But when you go to England, a plum cake is something else entirely. They don’t call it plum cake, but a fruit cake. A plum cake would be prepared with just plums.
They call prugne “plums”, so if you go to England and say, “Can I buy a plum cake?” they don’t understand what we mean! It is strange that we use an English word to describe this cake, but if you used the same expression in England you would get a different cake.
Godly: Everything is special in England.
Seasonal Dishes
Godly: To avoid eating meat every day, we sometimes prepared chestnuts with cream.
Federica: I bought a lot of dried chestnuts and have started eating them, but I don’t think I’m preparing them properly.
Godly: They are a little bit hard; you need to keep them in your mouth longer.
Federica: They need to melt…
Godly: Yes. They’re cooked under pressure with a little water and a bit of salt, for about eight minutes. Later, we melt some butter, add breadcrumbs to bind everything together, and use the liquid left from the chestnuts.
Federica: Like asparagus. Because they only need to be cooked for a short time, they cannot be put in water.
Godly: There is no precise recipe; you can add more or fewer ingredients, and there is always an element of estimation involved.
I like to eat asparagus during the spring. I cook them with butter and breadcrumbs. It’s very delicious.
Federica: I like Spargel [asparagus] a lot too. My mother was able to grow them. She planted them in a strip of land, and when I was a child, I picked them with a small iron tool. We always ate them with hard-boiled eggs.
I eat asparagus all year round, to tell the truth. Good things are good because they are only in one period of the year, right?
They are seasonal. That means you must wait.
But can you find asparagus here?
Godly: No. I buy them because I like them too much.
When I buy tomatoes, I freeze them so I can enjoy them all year-round.
Federica: And then do you grate it? I know that some people grate tomatoes.
Godly: I take some tomatoes, put them in hot water, and then peel them. They are summer tomatoes.
Federica: I understand. Freezing is amazing because you can preserve a lot of food.
Godly: I also bought some little pears. I boil and blend them. I put the puree into the empty four-litre ice cream containers.
I freeze the pears, and then I divide them into portions, ready to prepare the sauce.
More Than a Recipe
Godly: We even had famous chefs come eat at Chesa Marchetta, like Philippe Rochat and Frédy Girardet. We also had many children who came to Sils to study German, because schools in the Bregaglia valley mainly taught in Italian.
There were even children from Maloja, at the top of the pass. They would come to Chesa Marchetta to eat, then take the bus home instead of walking back over the pass. The Bregaglia valley was always a place of passage. I learned many things from the people I met passing through.
Federica: I saw in your guest book: someone ate Plain in Pigna (oven-baked potato rosti).
Godly: Yes, it’s my recipe because when I first wanted to prepare it, I found two books with two different recipes.
As you said, everyone has their own recipe. This was a homemade recipe, one used by all the special houses.
Federica: Every family has its version of the recipe.
I think there is something about the individual touch, don’t you?
Sometimes two people follow exactly the same recipe, but they don't get the same result.
I remember when I worked in a restaurant many years ago, I realised that two people can use the same recipe, but the results can be different.
Godly: Yes, exactly. Eventually, I tried a different recipe, and I made my own. It was good!
50 -100 grams of potatoes, 50 grams of lardons, 50 grams of bacon sliced into small squares, and 50 grams of Luganega.
Federica: Oh, the sausage!
Godly: The sausage is cooked.
Federica: As in Cotechino (pork sausage)?
Godly: Yes, but it’s like a fresh Luganega, but smoked.
Federica: Oh, “fumed” as in smoked. And then “Lard” will be the butter for the pot. So, you place a layer of lard, then a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, another layer of lard, and then another layer of very thinly sliced potatoes.
Godly: Yes. And of course, we had our cook, who worked here for almost 20 years.
Federica: Did your cook use your mum’s recipes, or his own?
Godly: Some of my mum’s, and some of his.
Federica: And did you taste it together? Did you decide what to cook together?
Godly: Yes. I sometimes worked in the kitchen when needed. It was simpler that way.
Become part of Cleo s story
To support Lyndie, consider giving to her charity of choice: the Curious School of Puppetry, founded by her daughter Sarah Wright.
This unique school offers puppeteers, artists, and theatre makers the chance to learn from leading professionals through 8-week
intensive training programs. Your donation funds bursaries, ensuring that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, has the opportunity
to pursue their artistic dreams.