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People pay a lot of money to hire ski chalets. The last thing they want to see when they come
back after a hard day on the slopes is some clown merrily spooning beans onto semi-burnt toast.
But follow our golden rules and you should have 'em singing your praises and begging for more…
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Ski operators will not only ask you to produce a menu plan, they may actually require you to
cook it in front of them too, so stick to what you know. If your cooking skills don't stretch
much beyond making a cup of tea you're going to need to get yourself off to a cooking school.
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The less time you take to cook it, the more time you're going to have to yourself. All very true,
but if you cut corners too obviously you're also going to end up unemployed. Efficient
cooking needs practice but will ultimately be your most valuable skill. A few weeks in the
kitchen of your local café/restaurant will teach you how to actually cook, as
supposed to just pottering aimlessly around the kitchen nibbling at the cooking chocolate.
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You're going to have around six hungry people who want a filling, tasty three-course meal, NOT a
challenging culinary adventure. Your 'ten-chili tikka massala' may be a hit with your mates, but
is unlikely to reflect the tastes of your chalet guests (and remember you clean the toilet). Stick
to something, tasty, hot (ie oven hot) and full of carbohydrates.
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Special diets. Whether down to personal taste or medical necessity, you'll still have to cater for
them. You should have a vegetarian option to go with every main course on your menu (it's worth
noting the closer the veggie option is to that night's meat course, the easier it'll be to make),
and having a few nut-free recipes up your sleeve makes you look like a culinary pro when it comes
to the interview.
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If you're going to cook pasta, don't cook spag bog unless you're Italian and using the
family recipe learned on your wise old grandma's knee. Instead, bung it in the oven. You
can then add the suffix 'al forno' (Italian for 'bunged in the oven') thus giving it an
air of sophistication and besides, it's inbuilt to the human psyche to like lasagne.
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If you can cook tasty, filling food you're going to be fine. However, you can make fairly
normal food feel like gourmet masterpieces with a few simple tricks. If a dish has a
foreign name, use it, and little extras like side salads, extra sauces and even garlic
bread makes it look like you've put in extra effort. Above all, be confident in your food.
Be enthusiastic about your cooking and give the impression everything you're cooking is
your to your own 'special recipe'.
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Finally, make sure you tell your guests in the morning what they're going to be eating in
the evening. If they have all day to think about it, they'll be clamouring for it by the
time they stumble in from the slopes 12 hours later!!
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