I’ve been addicted to watching cooking shows for some time now. In fact, I have been known to sit down for 3 or 4 hours straight watching one TV Chef after another - my favourites being Rick Stein, Hugh Fernley Whittingstall, Raymond Blanc, food scientist Heston Blumenthal and of course that boy from Essex, Jamie Oliver. (I’ve never really been a fan of Gordon Ramsey – he just annoys me for some reason. Where is the love Gordon? And all that swearing in the kitchen can’t result in decent food.) Let’s not forget those reality TV cooking contests which I’m totally obsessed with either – Masterchef and The Restaurant being two of my personal favourites. Anyway, we’ve been traveling the world on a shoestring now for the last 18 months and although I’m addicted to watching these chefs on the box, I’ve only been able to afford to go to one of their restaurants and even that was the cheap trattoria section of Fifteen in London. I’ve heard about Michelin Stars and seen too many potential Masterchefs being thrown into Michelin Star restaurants attempting to replicate their food but never in my wildest dreams had I expected to be awarded that honour!
On our first night in Chalet Angelique, possibly the most annoying mother in the world Suzie, hit the nail on the head when she declared, “Oh, you’ve never cooked in this kitchen before? And this is your first week? It’s like a reality TV show!” Of course having seen so many of these Reality TV cooking shows likely gave us a clear advantage over other would be chalet hosts but what would a reality TV show be without disasters and drama? And in that first week there was plenty of that. Following completely foreign recipes in a 4 star chalet for 10 guests each paying 3000 pounds for the week, was to say the least, mildly intimidating! We managed to keep our head above water ... just ... but I tried to sever my fingers a few times, grab things out of the oven with my bare hands, burn the pastry, make a soup that no-one wanted to eat, overcook the meat ... you name it, the first week with the Riley family was definitely a rocky start. At least they were kind enough to tip – they either felt sorry for us or just liked throwing their money around. Perhaps it was Daddy’s way of answering little Johnny’s question one morning whilst we served breakfast of “What is the difference between a servant and a slave?”
As with every good reality TV cooking show, lows are usually followed by highs and following the first week from hell things had to improve dramatically. The compliments started to flow, I managed to relax, ignore those stupid recipe suggestions made by our employers (clearly they weren’t as well versed in TV cooking prowess as we were), improvise a little and cook things I was more comfortable with. Soon after came the ultimate accolade from the Morris family when they awarded me a Michelin Star for my chicken and mushroom pie. And despite Tilly, their 19 year old gap year/ski-bum daughter (with 3 pairs of skis and 10 ski outfits), who was on a diet of one Danois Big Breakfast a day not eating anything, I think the Morris’s were pretty well credentialed to award this prestigious prize. I mean any parents who don’t mind paying their daughter’s 2500 pound mobile phone bill (wake up to yourselves you morons!) must have graced the inside of at least a couple of Michelin Star restaurants. I’m not sure you’ll find a Michelin Star chicken and mushroom pie anywhere else in Europe, so I’m quite chuffed with this award! Further, they then went on to inform our employers that over 15 years visiting Val ours was the best chalet food they had ever eaten! I’m not sure whether it was just my food or Konrad’s excellent fire making, wine pouring, ski advice and general chit chat (probably a combination of both) but by the end of our 3 week stint, we’d started to find it all rather pleasant and maybe even consider a career change? Chalet Hosting with the Goulaszes! I’m just wondering how we go about selling this concept to the BBC?
With 3 weeks of work complete and ski passes secured, there was even plenty of tip money – except for that last mob of 12 (half vegetarian, half confused, half who ate bacon but no pork and some children who only ate couscous, strawberries and carrots). Their thanks were quite sincere I know but they failed to leave any financial reward behind! Don’t these guys get it, we don’t care for verbal compliments, its all about cold hard cash! I know we should have done it for the love of cooking and great service but financial realities have to be taken into consideration sometimes too. This is likely one of the most expensive places in world and beers don’t come cheap – even when you are best mates with the barmen. Show me the money!!!
Anyway, since we have found solace in the fact that in late March the snow started to fall and hasn’t stopped. It’s now the 20th of April and we’ve had nothing but powder sessions on the mountain! I have skied more off-piste in the last two weeks than in my whole skiing career and I’ve finally started to weight my skis properly in the powder! We won’t mention too much about our near encounter with an avalanche but we are being safe and just playing around in the white stuff while it lasts. There are now only two weeks of the season left and we’re going to try and not let the sore ribs (yes Konrad got on a snowboard a couple of times and has taken a few hits), manky rash on my feet from being in ski boots for too long and other muscle ails from getting in the way of a fantastic end of season here in Val.
We plan to leave here around the 7th of May, before heading up to Scotland to visit John and Emma in Edinburgh and hopefully get in a spot of camping in the Highlands.
I'll leave you with lots of photos of skiing and powder :)
'Til next time ...
