EARLY BIRD PROMOTION

BOOK ON TO ANY OF THE ALPINE COOKERY COURSES FOR 2010 BY THE 1ST OF APRIL AND RECEIVE £25 OFF THE PRICE.

Even though the Winter is in full swing and we are skiing our socks off we are already thinking about next season. If you fancy a working a Winter season get ahead of the game and start planning now. Companies start recruiting any time from May onwards so, go on book your place on The Alpine Cookery Course and receive an early bird discount.

The Alpine Cookery Course is the leading chalet host training course for ski season workers.  We teach you everything you need to know to successfully run a ski chalet, cook delicious, nutritious meals with minimum hassle & maximise your time on the slopes.

www.thealpinecookerycourse.com  ‖ info@thealpinecookerycourse.com

Join the Discount Revolution

Get your privilege alps card

What is it?
A handy credit card sized fold out card packed full of discounts for shops, bars, restaurants and outdoor activities for those living and working in the resort of Chamonix. 

How does it work?
Pick up your card from one of the on-the-ground distributors in Chamonix or online via their site http://www.privilegealps.com/ or pop into their office in Chamonix.   It costs just 10 Euros and has up to 100 Euros of available discounts.
1 Privilege Alps card = 1 discount per person per transaction.

Get your card HERE to take advantage of the great offers on every Privilege Alps card.

The Alpine Cookery Course is the leading chalet host training course for ski season workers.  We teach you everything you need to know to successfully run a ski chalet, cook delicious, nutritious meals with minimum hassle & maximise your time on the slopes.

www.thealpinecookerycourse.com  ‖ info@thealpinecookerycourse.com

Photo courtesy of Tom Greenall  www.idriskis.com

Since the start of the 2009/2010 ski season I have been out enjoying the snow.  So far we have had a pretty good amount of snow across the Alps inter-dispersed with some very cold weather before Christmas as well as some warmer days too.

In Chamonix we now have excellent snow after a big snowfall on Monday on 4^th Jan, we got approximately 40cm of beautiful cold fresh powder and the skiing all this week was amazing.  I managed to sneak out of the office for a few hours on Wednesday to do my first run down the Vallee Blanche of the ski season.

I joined some friends and we headed up the Aiguille Midi cable car to the summit at 3842m, the sun was out, very little wind and great snow conditions.  We decided on the Envers du Plan route down the glacier, which is a spectacular route but this time we had to make the route down as it had yet to be skiing.

Negotiating the crevasses and overhanging seracs was interesting to say the least, its intimidating heading down a route such as this with no prior knowledge if your route will suddenly be barred by an un-crossable crevasses.  It certainly tests your navigation and terrain reading skills!

Fortunately my good friend Stuart MacDonald was with us, who is a IFMGA Mountain Guide, so is very capable at the route finding.  The snow was fantastic, at least half a meter of beautiful cold powder snow, lots of face shots and fresh tracks were had.

If you want to ski the Vallee Blanche then you need to be a good skier with some off piste experience and its essential you have a Mountain Guide with you.  To book one check out http://www.mountaintracks.co.uk/winter

Photo courtesy of Tom Greenall  www.idriskis.com

I have also enjoyed some great skiing on New Year’s day on the Glacier du Toule in Italy, some tree skiing at Le Tour and some steep skiing with my friend Roger Knox on the Brevent ski area in Chamonix.  We skied the ENSA couloirs last Sunday which is a 45-50 degree couloirs on the south face of Brevent, with the view of Mont Blanc in front of you and the town of Chamonix 2500m straight below you.  It’s an exciting ski for sure especially when you get in powder snow all the way down.

The weather forecast is good for next week, some sunshine but with the air temperature staying cold which will mean the snow will stay good.  I am sure Emma will update you with her skiing antics in Verbier since Christmas when she can.

Don't look down, ENSA Couloirs

The Alpine Cookery Course is the leading chalet host training course for ski season workers.  We teach you everything you need to know to successfully run a ski chalet, cook delicious, nutritious meals with minimum hassle & maximise your time on the slopes.

www.thealpinecookerycourse.com  ‖ info@thealpinecookerycourse.com

Well me neither. Actually I can but it did take me years of practise to get it right, even after watching colleagues demoing it at cookery courses. I do remember being taught a method at cookery collage involving a large pan of hot water a splash of vinegar and a whirlpool! Fortunately egg poaching day had no bearing on the pass or fail as mine turned in a soggy scrambled, stringy mess.

After many attempts of poach an egg I finally got it sussed out – the temperature of the water is the most essential point to get right – hot, steaming water but not boiling or even simmering, when you can see a few little bubbles just forming on the bottomof the pan, that’s the right temperature. Then have an egg at room temperature, not straight from the fridge, make a small whirlpool in the centre of your saucepan and crack the egg into it.

Hopefully the lightly swirling water will assist to keep the egg white together ish. Now you need to wait and keep an eye on the water temperature, if it starts to look like it might boil, take the pan off the heat and the water is more than hot enough to keep the egg cooking. Try to resist the temptation to poke or agitate the egg as you can so easily cause the yolk to break.

You know when it is cooked as all the white should go white and no longer be a clear/opaque colour. Using a slotted spoon or spatula, gently lift the egg off the bottom of the pan and remove it from the water onto a plate, dry it slightly with kitchen roll and its ready to serve.

To make your life even easier you can invest in a Poach Pod, this is a silicon pod that you crack your egg into, then place the pod into a pan of very lightly simmering water. Father Christmas gave me 2 this year and they are absolute genius and work a treat, especially if you are trying to do more than 1 egg at a time. The egg cooks perfectly in the pod and they are really easy to remove by running a spoon around the side and you can just pop it out.

Try them out, you can buy them in any good cook shop like http://www.lakeland.co.uk/and they cost around £4.99 each. Here’s what they look like:

The Alpine Cookery Course is the leading chalet host training course for ski season workers.  We teach you everything you need to know to successfully run a ski chalet, cook delicious, nutritious meals with minimum hassle & maximise your time on the slopes.

www.thealpinecookerycourse.com  ‖ info@thealpinecookerycourse.com