On a beautiful day in June, Migros hosted a grilling party on Zürich’s local mountain, Uetliberg—about 30 minutes by train from the main station. If you follow my Instagram account, you may have noticed that I am working with Migros this summer on developing recipes for their #Grillitarier  campaign. This party brought together many of the individuals like me who are involved in this campaign to cook and eat together, and even to engage in a friendly grilling competition!

A Friendly Migros Grilling Competition

Once everyone arrived and cooled down with a cold drink, our hosts from Migros informed us that we would be preparing the meal for the evening’s festivities! We also learned there would be an element of competition. What’s more, the winners of the best dish would be featured in an upcoming issue of the Migros Magazine. As a result, everyone divided into thematic teams: vegan, vegetarian, meat & fish. Without delay, I opted for “Team Fish” with Romana of Share & Eat.

So far this summer, my #Grillitarier recipes have featured meat dishes. They include Skewered Curry Kalbsbratwurst and Entrecôte with a Bleuchâtel Compound Butter. By and large, I will admit to having less experience grilling fish. Therefore, I used this opportunity to get some tips from the others at the event, including the experts from Migros.

To start, Romana quickly found some organic salmon for kebabs, which we seasoned with lime juice and soy sauce. While she worked on the marinade, I began preparing the salmon, pineapple and red pepper.

I also selected some whole trout, farm-raised in the Swiss canton of Fribourg. In reality, having never cooked a whole fish in my life, this seemed like a good time to try it! Anna from Migros gave me a lot of advice for how to get them ready for the grill.

During the party, I had the pleasure of meeting food bloggers from the German-speaking side of Switzerland. Furthermore, I enjoyed seeing the variety of dishes prepared by the other teams, like the sausage-stuffed peppers from Caro & Toby of foodwerk.ch. Romana also prepared a colorful and delicious vegetarian dish—skewers of halloumi cheese, avocado and pineapple.

Once all the dishes were cooked, we gathered under the tent to share a meal together. The talented musician, Tobias Jensen, sand and played the guitar. Finally, for dessert the Migros team put two ceramic pots on the grill. They had filled them with Swiss chocolate for a sweet fondue. Instead of bread, we used marshmallows and skewered fresh fruit.

In order to see who won the competition, look for a future issue of Migros Magazine! In the meantime, here is my recipe for grilled whole trout, based on the dish I prepared at the party.

Grilled Whole Trout with Rosemary and Citrus

When I returned home from Uetliberg, I grilled a whole trout for my family, using the ingredients and techniques I picked up at this event. On the whole, everyone was very happy with the result, and we will definitely be making it again.

I think grilling fish can be challenging, so it helped me to learn a few techniques for getting it right. If you’ve never grilled a whole fish before, I hope this basic recipe will inspire you to try it out.

Recipe

*I tried a salt bath for 5-10 minutes, as recommended by an article via Men’s Health. Overall, I thought it gave a nice flavor to the fish and helped prevent it from drying out.

Photo credits: All photos above were taken by David Biedert / davidbiedert.com, except for photos #5, #7 and #8, which were taken by me.

Please note: This article is part of a paid partnership with Migros. As always, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are purely my own.

Updated: January 8, 2023