Mauro Traiteur

Mauro Traiteur's own site lists 3 addresses, and the one that actually runs the catering isn't either of the 2 shopfronts. Chemin de l'Eglise 1 in Montpreveyres, a village south of Lausanne, used to be the Pache family's butcher shop. Mauro and his wife Carma bought it in 2009 and, the following year, founded MT Labo, the company that has since handled every catering order, made the shop's fresh pasta, and bought in everything else sold under the Marterey name. The 2 places a visitor would actually walk into, an Italian delicatessen at Rue de l'Ancienne Douane 4 in Lausanne and a second one at Route Cantonale 99b in St-Sulpice, are where the charcuterie counter and the wine racks are. A quote request goes somewhere else entirely.

The Lausanne shop is the older business by a couple of decades. Mauro's own account, on the site's history page, has him working as a sous-chef at Le Port de Pully in 2000, the year he and Carma decided to go independent and he earned his cafetier-restaurateur certificate. They married in 2001. A few months later he met M. Montalto, who ran a Lausanne shop known since the late '70s as "l'Italien de Marterey." The couple took it over in 2002, initially trading as "Montalto Traiteur," and only changed the name to Mauro Traiteur in 2004, once Mauro had widened the fresh-pasta range and reworked the kitchen. A full renovation in 2008 took the team from 6 people to 9; the St-Sulpice shop followed in 2015; the business now counts 24 staff across both shops and the Montpreveyres kitchen.

What that kitchen actually sells, beyond the shop counters, is a straightforward Italian catering menu: charcuterie and cheese boards, apéritif canapés, pasta and lasagne formats, a short run of meat and fish mains, and dessert. Most of what sits on the shop shelves it makes itself: Mauro Traiteur's own "produits maison" page lists every lasagne, cannelloni, nido and ravioli shape, the bread and focaccia, the desserts and even a house limoncello as made in-house rather than bought in. The separate épicerie fine, over 500 different Italian products by the site's own count, from potted antipasti to biscuits and grissini, is the retail side; the banquet menu is the catering one.

2 dishes that need a cook on site

The printed à la carte menu runs from cold starters (grilled vegetables, a choice of Italian charcuterie, bresaola carpaccio with truffle oil) through lasagne, cannelloni, ravioli and nidi in a range of fillings, to a short list of hot mains and a page of desserts. Most of it reads like food built to travel. 2 dishes don't: a risotto finished "mantecato in forma," served straight out of a wheel of Parmesan, and a beef tagliata with rocket pesto. The menu names them "cuisinés minute" and is specific about what they need: at least 1 cook and 1 server on site, booked for a minimum of 3 hours. Nothing else on the menu carries that clause. The Conditions page separately states that labour is already folded into every quoted price, so staff time is clearly accounted for across the board, but it never spells out whether a standard order arrives ready to plate, gets reheated on site, or is set up as a staffed buffet. The 2 cuisinés-minute dishes are the only place the site actually commits to what a couple gets for the money on the day.

Priced apéritifs and menus, not a quote-only page

Most Swiss wedding caterers price on enquiry only. Mauro Traiteur doesn't, at least not entirely. The Banquets pages print real figures next to real dishes, not just a request-a-quote button. Apéritif packages run from CHF 18 a head for a savoury-only selection up to CHF 36 for the largest savoury-and-sweet spread, with a vegetarian savoury-and-sweet tier at CHF 32. The sit-down side lists 5 named menus: 3 pasta formats at CHF 15, CHF 30 and CHF 35, and 2 meat menus, each 3 courses with dessert, at CHF 42 and CHF 48. Each one links through to a PDF, but the price itself is printed on the page, not hidden behind the download.

What that figure includes and doesn't is spelled out on the Conditions page, not left to guesswork. Prices are quoted in Swiss francs, VAT included unless stated otherwise, and can move if a couple edits the menu after quoting. Crockery, cutlery and glassware aren't in the price: they're rented separately, quoted case by case at no charge for the quote itself, with a lost or broken piece billed at replacement cost. Drinks are billed on what actually gets poured after the event, and Mauro Traiteur charges no corkage on a couple's own wine. A coffee-and-tea package costs CHF 3 a head with disposable cups; real china for that is, again, a separate rental quote. Delivery costs CHF 35 for the Lausanne area and more per kilometre further out; collecting the equipment afterwards costs the same again, unless Mauro Traiteur's own team has to do the tidying rather than just the pickup, which is billed on top at CHF 35 an hour.

5 days to fix a headcount, 4 to cancel

The Conditions page never states a minimum guest count for a banquet booking, small or large. What it fixes precisely is the paperwork. An order only becomes final once a couple returns a signed quote or confirms by email. The guest count has to be confirmed in writing at least 5 days before the event, and that number, not whoever actually shows up, is what gets billed, unless more people turn up and the kitchen was never told. Cancelling inside 4 days of the event costs 50% of the signed total. A deposit usually isn't asked for at all: Mauro Traiteur only requires one, 50% upfront, once a final quote passes CHF 10'000. Children eat free under 8 and at 50% from 8 to 12, full adult price from 12; but once a party brings more than 10 children under 12, that 50% rate applies to every one of them, including the youngest ones who'd otherwise eat free. The invoice itself is due 10 days after it's sent, and the business is closed on Sundays and public holidays, though some dishes can be ordered to cook or reheat at home on those days; bread and focaccia are left out of that option, for freshness.

A tasting, but only past 100 guests

Tastings exist, and the page is specific about who gets one: only bookings for more than 100 guests qualify. Even then, some dishes on the menu might not be available to taste, since the kitchen works with what's in season rather than holding a fixed year-round list. A couple planning a smaller reception isn't offered a tasting at all under the site's own stated terms. It's a specific, checkable rule rather than a vague "tastings available on request," and it cuts the other way for most parties this size.

The gaps: venues, allergies, English, and a locked-out shop

Beyond the menu and the terms, several things a couple would want to know just aren't on the site. No partner or approved venue is named anywhere, no exclusive relationship with a hall or hotel, nothing to check a shortlist against. Dietary handling gets one line rather than a policy: a vegetarian apéritif tier at CHF 32, and nothing about allergies, gluten or any other restriction beyond that. Every one of the 22 pages checked here is French only; nothing states, either way, whether a booking, a contract or the event itself can run in English.

Some of the site's own plumbing is out of date. The "Boutique en ligne" the homepage promotes, complete with its own posted ordering hours (Monday to Friday 08:00 to 18:00, Saturday 08:00 to 16:00), sits behind a password screen instead of an actual shop. 2 of the 4 product categories linked from that same homepage, Focacce et Pizza and Boissons, lead to the site's own "page not found." And the daily-menu page lists a Lausanne reservation line at Avenue Gratta-paille 2 that never appears on the Contacts page alongside the other 2 shops. None of it looks like anything worse than a site that's had features added since 2002 and never fully tidied up.

4 press mentions, and the word the site never uses

The press page is short but real: a Lausanne city guide in 2012, Madame Le Figaro in 2013, Le Temps in 2015 and a regional gastronomic guide in 2016, all describing the same Marterey-street grocer with a kitchen behind it. Le Temps priced a plate of penne with tuna at CHF 6 and called the value "10 sur 10." Nothing more recent turned up anywhere on the site itself.

Nowhere across those 22 pages, including the Conditions page and the quote-request form, does Mauro Traiteur use the word "mariage." That isn't a verdict on whether the kitchen would take on a wedding, just an honest account of what the business publishes and doesn't. What it does publish is unusually specific for this category: a printed menu with real prices, a cancellation ladder with real numbers, a tasting rule tied to a guest count, and a production kitchen, in a former butcher's shop, that will name exactly what it takes to cook 2 dishes in front of the guests rather than just deliver the rest.