It’s been a while since I last updated our blog and ohh we have been busy at the Alpine Cookery Course.  We ran a really successful course in late September with 8 eager participants all joining us in Chamonix to get the low-down on chalet cooking and working a ski season.

With a group of 7 girls and just one man, Julian, who fared well under the circumstances!  All got off to a flying start with some great cooking on the first few days.  The evening meal performances by each successive dinner team put the pressure on the next to produce something even better.  No one disappointed and by Friday night we were enjoying another fantastic meal.

Our daytime cookery sessions give each person a chance to practise new recipes and learn new techniques and pass and learn ideas from each other.  For the first time ever we have 4 perfect cakes produced in our baking section on day 1, an amazing feet!  This reflected everyone’s previous experience and attention to detail in following the recipe and producing fine cakes, cookies and muffins.  This also signalled the start of non-stop eating all week!

Everyone that was going on to work in a resort this winter had already secured their dream job and Francesca got a job offer on the penultimate day of the course from Crystal to work in a chalet in La Plagne.  So we have another successful batch of chalet hosts off to live the dream for 5 months of fun and hard work in the Alps this winter.

We have a selection of photo’s from the course on the gallery page on the website showing all the mouth-watering food we cooked on the course, they are also on our Facebook fan page.  Join up if you are not already a fan of ours to make sure you catch the latest news from the Alps this winter and all the hot gossip on jobs, courses and much more.

If you’re thinking of doing a ski season then sign up for one of our courses to make sure you get the head start on the rest.  Our training courses are well established in the industry and chalet companies employ our students as they know they have received some of the best training available.

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

Roast Loin of Pork with Roast Potatoes and Apricot and Hazelnut Stuffing.

Stuffing serves 2

• 100g of bread to make into breadcrumbs
• 50g of dried apricots
• 4 to 5 whole hazelnuts
• Sprig of fresh rosemary
• 4 or 5 fresh basil leaves
• 1 clove of garlic
• Salt & pepper
• 1 medium egg beaten

Place all the ingredients except the egg, into a magi mix and blend until everything is made into breadcrumbs.  Don’t mix it so much its really fine. 

Beat the egg in a glass and pour in half of it to the breadcrumb mixture and mix it well.  Add more egg if necessary, you are looking for a slightly sticky consistency but not soggy.  Then shape the mixture into balls around the size of a large golf ball.  Place them on a plate until you are ready to cook them in the oven.

apricot and hazelnut stuffing

I have roasted a piece of pork loin, it’s quite a lean cut of pork and nice and easy to roast.  Place the meat in a roasting tin and grate over some fresh pepper and sprinkle with salt and rub in a little vegetable or sunflower oil into the meat.  Place it into a pre-heated over at 180 C and cook for the right amount of time according to the weight of the meat; this should be 20mins per Lbs and 20 mins extra. 

About halfway through the cooking time I added 3 or 4 whole garlic cloves with their skins on, a sprig of fresh rosemary and half an onion.  All these ingredients help flavour the meat and the onion will make the meat juices taste good for gravy later on. 

Once cooked allow the meat to rest for 10 – 15 mins before carving and serving.

I am serving my roast with roasted potatoes, which I have par-boiled first before adding them to the roasting tin, basting them in some of the meat juices and allowing them to cook for around 1hr.  At the same time as adding the potatoes to the roasting dish you want to add the stuffing balls.

I am also serving fresh peas which I found the in the supermarket the other day, it’s nice to buy them in their pods and shell them yourself, along with carrots and some home grown courgettes.

Fresh peas and homegrown courgettes

        Potatoes and roaster garlic                                                                                                                                                                          

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

A veiw that is hard to beat?

All these great activities are enjoyed by our students on the courses each year, there is enough free time during the week to walk, run, bike and much more while you are on the course.

There are also many great things to do and see around the town of Chamonix, there is the Adventure Film Festival from the 20^th – 22^nd August, that showcases many small but inspirational film makers and  their stories and travels around the globe.

There will be a summer version of the Nissan Outdoor Games from the 14^th July in Chamonix, this is an amazing few days were teams of 5 have one week to shoot, edit and present a 5 minute film showcasing their different sporting disciplines: Mountain Biking, Mountaineering, Kayaking, Paragliding, BASE-jumping and wingsuit flying.  The winning team will be chosen by a panel of judges including the skiing legend Glen Plake.

The outdoor swimming pool has just re-opened at the sports centre after a full refurbishment, you can enjoy a lovely dip in the water of the Olympic sized pool to cool off.

With many more events taking place all the way through the summer and autumn, Chamonix really is a great place for your chalet cookery course.  Not only is it conveniently located just a 1hr drive from Geneva airports, it’s at the foot of Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest mountain and enjoys staggering views of the mountains.  It’s a busy vibrant town with lots of great shopping, bars, cafe’s and sports facilities.  Do you need any more good reasons to book your place on our course in October?

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

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