Switzerland is known for its chocolate, its mountains, and its banking system -- but salmon? And yet, somewhere between Zurich and Appenzell, one premium producer is beating the masses with a smoked salmon for which gourmets all over the world are willing to pay a lot of money.

Part of high-end producer Caviar House & Prunier, Balik Farm processes about 150 metric tons of salmon a year into the sought-after delicatessen. Production started 35 years ago in a 300-year-old farmhouse in Ebersol in hilly Toggenburg, after a traditional smoking method as practiced at the court of the Russian tsars.

Today,