Bretzel & Gretel

Enter the enchanting universe of a unique little Swiss chocolate bretzel and explore new worlds of gourmet delights. Julie Ordon invites you to indulge in a wonderful journey of discovery.

Sweet and savory, crispy and delicate, generous and comforting, surprising and bewitching, Bretzel & Gretel reveals a Swiss delicacy as an invitation to recall childhood memories, to travel, to discover new flavors, steeped in tradition, true to the spirit of legacy and Swiss quality. From memories of playing in the meadows as a little girl high up in the Swiss mountains to dazzling the greatest fashion photographers around the world, Julie Ordon invites you to discover a little crispy, delicately and deliciously chocolaty knot, presented in a series of original olfactory and gustatory interpretations of high-quality visual and creative appeal.

At the crossroads of the world of fairy tales, luxury and Swissness culture, Julie Ordon creates a new universe that is at once epicurean, refined and feminine, in partnership with the Bongénie Grieder department stores and the Alpina Gstaad luxury hotel – “The Home of Bretzel & Gretel”.

Fine, knotted, symmetrical and golden brown, the bretzel is originally a German specialty. And as the recipe followed migration flows, Alsatian, Swiss and American, too. There, for instance, it is topped, filled, flavored, tweaked in every imaginable way. In particular, it is often found dipped in chocolate. During her many stays and business trips to the United States, Julie Ordon discovered that the little savory biscuit lends itself surprisingly well to being combined with that other delicacy that she knows well from her childhood in Switzerland. Still, she found the chocolate-covered pretzels on the other side of the Atlantic somewhat wanting. Often too sweet, poorly prepared, this little chocolate biscuit truly deserved a bit more attention, a gourmet interpretation. So delicious, so crispy – and totally unknown in Europe.
Bretzel & Gretel was born from this observation, from this desire, from Julie Ordon’s sweet tooth, but also from her treasured memories, and her tastes. The identity of the start-up merges with that of its founder. To her, the little pretzel is a means of expression. Her imagination marked by fairy tales, a fantastic universe very present in the family, her travels, her heritage – all keys to decoding the origins and DNA of Bretzel & Gretel.

An inspiration
Julie Ordon is probably one of the most internationally known Swiss personalities in the world of fashion. The Supermodel, discreet in her own country, hops from one plane to the other and poses for dozens of covers a year. VOGUE, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, l’Officiel... in a career spanning nearly thirty years (which she began at the age of just five with her mother, a photographer on her own time), she has worked – and still works – at a steady pace with the greatest photographers. Patrick Demarchelier, Ellen von Unwerth, Paolo Roversi, to name but a few, quickly got her career off the ground – she was not yet of age then.
Today, Julie Ordon often has friends over for dinner, having made her home a place where people like to come together and feel the warmth. But the little witch house at the end of the garden has another facet. One that evokes fairy tales, legends, and a fantastic universe in which the story of Hansel and Gretel is just within a white pebble’s throw. It is rich with similarities with Bretzel & Gretel: a sweet tooth, images of small cozy chalets made of gingerbread, biscuits and chocolate, the challenges of childhood. Not too difficult to imagine for a young woman who started an international modeling career at the tender age of 15, and was quickly whisked away to the United States. Far from her family and her native Switzerland. So, the little bretzels sold at the checkout of grocery stores in NYC gave Julie that familiar, comforting taste she sometimes sought, reminding her of her Swiss culture and traditions.

Refinement in taste
A clever balance between sweet, fruity, tangy and savory. In terms of taste, the little chocolate bretzel created by Bretzel & Gretel is wonderfully complex and simple at the same time. The bretzel is savory and crunchy, delivering the satisfaction of crispy baked dough. The chocolate is sweet, melting and delicate by nature. Together, the two ingredients reconcile opposites, merge contrasts and create a sensation of harmony in the mouth. All the more so since the making is entrusted to the best craftsmen, who use only the best ingredients and follow the most rigorous methods.
For its launch in June 2021, Bretzel & Gretel will present a collection of three small bretzels, each coated with dark, milk and white chocolate, giving the little biscuit a brilliantly modern twist.
By varying the recipe of its little pretzel, multiplying the varieties of chocolate, adding spices, seeds, fruits, nuts, flowers, colorful toppings, an infinite number of gustatory fantasies, Bretzel & Gretel is creating a whole new range of products rich in a diversity that resembles the personality of its creator.
This fusion of aromas and influences is the embodiment of the spirit and vision represented by Bretzel & Gretel. With a credo in mind: crispy, melting, surprising, delightful, whimsical and very, very gourmet.