Stars in the mountains

A great day’s skiing deserves an equally memorable meal, but where should one seek out the finest food in the Alps?

U topia is probably a three Michelin star restaurant in a boutique hotel in the Alps. Who wants to stumble around in a snowstorm when they could linger over Armagnac before calling it a night? As France is responsible for both Michelin and Armagnac, it seemed the logical place to start my quest for perfection.

First stop, La Bouitte in St Marcel, the domain of René Meilleur, a Tarentaise local who attended the village school in this tiny hamlet 4km from St Martin de Belleville. Where glitzy Michelin rivals learned derivatively from top chefs in Paris, London and New York, Meilleur developed his own artisan style. No need to learn English, no need to move from his roots.

When he received his third Michelin star in 2015, the world came knocking at his door. Unaware that such an accolade is an irresistible magnet for gourmets seeking firsts, he was astonished when the phone rang off the hook; even more so when two Chinese couples arrived by helicopter from Geneva to eat, quaff, sleep and leave on the first plane back to Hong Kong.

When I visited a few months later, the razzamatazz had subsided, leaving time for business as usual. That morning Meilleur was contemplating a kilo of fresh roe from the ombre (char), the most prized fish in Tarentaise lakes. It arrived unsolicited, a bonus as such a large quantity is rarely offered.

With lunch an hour away, it had to be turned into a starter worthy of its provenance. Meilleur issued precise instructions to his sous chef and returned to his coffee until the man reappeared with a version of the dish, a process that was repeated several times.

I found each rendition exquisite, but Meilleur wasn’t satisfied until he tasted perfection. So that’s how it’s done.

Meilleur issued precise instructions to his sous chef and returned to his coffee until the man reappeared with a version of the dish, a process that was repeated several times

La Bouitte, now a joint enterprise with son Maxime, celebrated its 40th birthday on 4 December 2016. Father and son like to discuss the menu options with their guests, in order to match their dreams. For tables of eight or more there are surprise feasts: the eight-course, top of the range is Extract of La Bouitte, but best ski your socks off first.

The restaurant is built in regional farmhouse style, a décor that is reflected in the rooms and suites that were added a decade ago. In tune with the rustic vibe, cosiness rules, with wooden walls, furs and natural wool fabrics in muted tones with splashes of cherry red.

Winter high life transferred to Savoy in 1924 after Baroness Mimi (Noémie) de Rothschild bumped into Baron Krupp, purveyor of arms and artillery to the Imperial German army during the First World War, in the corridor in the Palace Hotel in St Moritz.

Affronted by such forced contact with the former enemy, she headed home to create a comparably elite resort on a hilltop outside Megève. In 1979, her descendants replaced the original building with the hunting lodge-style Chalet du Mont d’Arbois, whose luxury is ancien régime, with furs on the floors and champagne from the Rothschild estates in the suites. The food, awarded its second star in 2016, is a delight.

Emmanuel Renaut, today’s Megève foodie royalty, was celebrating his birthday with his family at a nearby table in the hotel’s Le 1920 restaurant. The Parisian-born chef fell in love with skiing as a child, met his German wife, Kristine, while training at Claridge’s and opened Flocons de Sel three miles outside Megève in 2007.

His restaurant features cowbells and cowhide, a wall of cuckoo clocks and Zalto glassware. His food is to die for, as confirmed by a third Michelin star in 2012. The hotel is a maze, three loosely linked buildings lost in the snowscape, with log fires in the bedrooms and photos of revered chefs on the walls.

Megève’s easy cruising slopes contrast with neighbouring Chamonix’s more challenging offering, influenced by glacier and serac, chutes and moguls. Adrenaline-filled days deserve taste-suffused nights and these can be delivered by the Relais & Chateaux Hameau Albert I, a railway hotel built by grocer Joseph Carrier in 1903 and run by family members ever since.

Expect a groaning cheese trolley and a Chartreuse soufflé straight from the gods’ top table

Sensibly, fourth generation Perrine Carrier married Pierre Maillet, a chef able to maintain the two stars won by her father, Robert. Maillet’s menus are as outstanding as Perrine’s gorgeous interiors. Expect generous portions of things you love, white truffles or oysters maybe, a groaning cheese trolley and a Chartreuse soufflé straight from the gods’ top table.

And so to Courchevel, the gastro capital of the Trois Vallées, Europe’s largest linked ski area with 150 lifts serving 375 miles of pistes.

My pick from a two-Michelin star list that includes Pierre Gagnaire at Les Airelles, Le Chabichou and L’Oustau de Baumaniere at Le Strato, is 1947 at Le Cheval Blanc, its restaurant named after its prized vintage claret.

Dining involves the kitchen, with canapes among the appliances and invitations to admire your meal on the hob. The hotel, managed by the Louis Vuitton group, is favoured by its chairman, the tycoon and art collector Bernard Arnaud. Reputed to be worth around £24.5 billion, he confirms the fact that no one is accidentally rich: when he’s out of town he rents out his own sumptuous Cheval Blanc penthouse duplex for £27,000 half board per night.

Swiss food has been more fuel than feast, but change was imperative in the face of the worldwide surge in discerning taste buds. Le Chalet d’Adrien, run by the granddaughter of the eponymous 1930s rally driving Baron de Turckheim, stands high above Verbier.

In 2015, it won the Prix Villegiature for Europe’s top terrace, sun-soaked, mountain-ringed and dominated by imposing nudes, one fat white marble, one thin bronze. Inside it mainlines on cosy, with rooms named for mountain flowers, a Nuxe spa and a restaurant where 32-year-old Mirto Marchesi does wonders with grilled lobster, turbot, frog’s legs and sweetbreads. With one Michelin star in the bag, he can expect his second soon.

In Gstaad, the 102-year-old Palace Hotel looms majestically over flattering slopes and a pedestrian street lined with designer shops. Owned and run by its founding family, the Palace is resolutely old school, its string quartet dressed in tails, its diners in formal evening clothes, its former patrons including Liz Taylor and Marc Chagall.

In the days when Austria had a Michelin Guide, Taxacher was the youngest chef to earn two stars

Le Grand Bellevue offers a more jovial interpretation of Swiss five star, its lobby dominated by a giant plaid camel, its front steps by a 1962 Bentley once owned by Roger Moore. The early 20th-century mansion stands in its own park, but its owners, old Etonian Daniel Koetser and his designer wife Davia, daughter of pharmaceutical billionaire Rudolf Maag, are warmly welcoming.

Davia’s furnishings and colours are soothingly contemporary and the underground spa, its facilities ranging from fire-pit to ice caves, is outstanding. The hotel’s restaurant, Leonard’s, has a Michelin star, but the chef’s intractability in serving cotton wool filleted Dover sole at £60 when firm flesh on the bone was requested may hinder a second any time soon. Go for their delicious sushi instead.

Italian food is usually mouthwatering at every level, but the Sud Tirol, which combines Mediterranean flair with Teutonic efficiency, creates culinary miracles on and off the mountain.

Even in such a rarefied environment, Norbert Niederkofler is the undisputed king. He rules in the Rosa Alpina hotel in San Cassiano, close to the Sella Ronda ski circuit in the heart of the Dolomites. As befits the patron saint of hunting, his St Hubertus restaurant focuses on seasonal game. When it’s not snowing, he scours the mountain to harvest his own wild mushrooms, herbs and berries.

Simon Taxacher works similar magic at the Relais & Chateaux Rosengarten in Kirchberg outside Kitzbühel. In the days when Austria had a Michelin Guide, Taxacher was the youngest chef to earn two stars and he keeps up his standard in this gastronomic temple. He prefers blasting his Harley Davidson round the mountain roads to skiing, but the Rosengarten provides rapid access to the huge linked slopes in the Kitzbühel area. Don’t fancy skiing the resort’s vertiginous Hahnenkamm? Taxacher will happily teach you to cook instead.

Dining: hidden gems in the Alps

Driving: the dramatic Bentley Bentayga

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