Creating the Ideal Chalet Menu

- Adam Brown, Head Chef at Mountain Chefs Cookery School

The question we are most often asked at Mountain Chefs is how to create a chalet menu plan that delivers great customer feedback while adhering to the chalet company’s food budget.  I have been a professional chef for the past eleven years, and I've spent the last four ski seaons working in the Alps for some of the premium chalet operators.  As Head Chef for Mountain Chefs, I teach our students what I've learnt through my experience.  I am passionate about helping people learn how to create impressive yet simple food that is affordably produced. 

Chalet menu planning is very different to restaurant menu planning.  In a restaurant, chefs can create a set menu where guests have the flexibility of being able to order what they feel like on any particular evening.  In a chalet you are feeding the same set of guests for an entire week and the guests are not given a choice (other than modifications made for different dietary requirements).  

Below, we have created a list of things to consider when writing a menu plan to accompany your ski season applications. 

Using a Balanced Menu

A good menu plan should provide a balance of nutrition, flavour and texture.  This may seem quite obvious, but we do regularly see people getting this wrong.  When designing a menu plan, look at the dishes across the entire week.  Don’t repeat a similar style of food during the week.  If you have a braised beef dish on the guest arrival day, don’t do another slow cooked dish until later on in the week.

For the dinner menu each day, ensure that you are balancing the menu across each course.  If you are using a heavy or rich main course like slow roast pork with apricot boudin noir and root veg puree, balance the menu with a lighter starter like a roasted pepper and tomato tart with basil crème fraiche.  

When selecting the dessert to include in a menu, work around the following dessert flavours / textures as they provide a nice selection across the week:

A chocolate dessert;  like a chocolate fondant

A fruit based dessert; like roasted stone fruit, pain d’epice, passion fruit sabayon

A cream based dessert like a hibiscus pannacotta, strawberry gel

A traditional dessert, like a sticky toffee and ginger pudding with toffee sauce

A pastry based dessert such as a like a cherry frangipane tart

A cheesecake; maybe baked white chocolate and blueberry

Avoid Popular Mountain Dishes

When creating your menu plan, I recommend that you try and avoid using popular local mountain dishes.  A couple that you might choose to avoid are tartiflette and fondue.  Most people who have spent a few years on holidays in the mountains will probably eat their favourite lcoal dish during lunch or on the night you're not on duty.  To avoid people eating the same thing on more than one occasion during the week, the popular mountain dishes may be ones to avoid.

A Healthy Menu

It is very easy in the mountains to get carried away with using lots of butter, cream and cheese! Heavy dishes are fine a few times a week, but a consistently high fat diet is hard on digestion and is not the best way to replenish energy stores after an intense day on the mountain.  With a combination of light and heavy dishes, you will develop a menu that is better able to meet a person’s nutritional and calorie requirements.

Try to include a number of healthy dishes in your menu plan; for example harissa and yogurt marinated lamb, with roasted vegetable couscous and confit cherry tomatoes.  Dishes like this contain less fat and the larger portion of vegetables are ideal mid week or towards the end of the week when people have adjusted to mountain life and fancy something a bit lighter.

Create Memorable Dishes

People pay a lot of money to go on their annual ski holiday, so it is important to provide the guests with impressive meals to accompany their boarding and skiing activities.  But remember that being an excellent chalet chef is not about simply trying to enhance your own ego!  A chef I worked with a few seasons ago served his guests a starter of “sweet breads with truffled marshmallow”.   Obviously, this went down like a lead balloon due to the fact that only a handful of people actually eat sweetbreads.  He did not impress his guests very much with that particular dish!  

Also avoid serving dishes that are too common or domestic.  Serving a beef bourguignon or chicken wrapped in bacon is equally just as unimpressive. Steer clear of dishes that your guests may be able to confidently cook at home.

Guests react the best from dishes that are quite simple to prepare, look good on the plate, and taste delicious - but equally are not too wild and outside of their normal diet. 

Costings of Menu

One thing to keep in mind when creating your weekly plan is to consider cost as chalet companies have a set food budget they ask their chefs to work to during the season.  Anyone can cook well with an unrestricted budget.  If you can afford to purchase fillet steak, foie gras and langoustines, you would be guaranteed of a fantastic menu.  In all reality, in a chalet you will hardly ever be able to afford to use expensive or hard-to-find ingredients, so take this into account when planning a menu. For example, instead of duck breast, use confit duck leg instead.  Instead of pork fillet, use pork belly. Using these much cheaper cuts will enable you to create more interesting dishes as well as keeping your chalet budget down.

Sample daily menu at the Mountain Chefs cookery school

Breakfast

American style thick pancakes, caramelized banana’s, Greek yogurt

Afternoon tea

Triple chocolate and raspberry brownies

Canapé

Spiced arancini, saffron aioli

Evening menu

Chicken liver and Madeira parfait, cumin toast, caramelized onion jam

Roasted sea trout, soft herb and pea risotto, cafe de Paris butter

Apple tart fine, star anise ice cream