Moving In

Training week ended on the 26th with a night out in Saloon, then on the 27th we moved to our new home about 10 minutes up the road- Bellevarde Lodge (not an official address for postage though). Not a bad place to spend 5 months...

(Technically this is two 12 man chalets though- split down the middle. Our accommodation is underneath if you can see a door next to the garage and some windows)

The chalet is really nice, the chalet, decent kitchen for cooking and serving meals for 12 and there's a big open plan dining/ lounge area with this view,

First decent snowfall, 28th November 2012, about 1ft.

This is underneath the chalet where and Charlie sleep, not huge but does the job and has en suite.


Basically the last few days has been deep cleaning the chalet, not the nicest thing to do 8 hours a day (I spent 3 hours with my head in an oven yesterday) but I suppose it has to be done, and if it goes well we've got the promise of skiing on Saturday (1st December) which is when the mountain opens.
If anyone wondered what how much crochery is required to serve up for 12 each day here's a start, and that does include the 4 types of plates and 2 bowls.

Sample of the food I've been Cooking

So during training week we basically have a cooking demo in the morning then a few hours of info on the resort/ company/ stuff we need to know for buying food etc... in the afternoon. We had a rota for cooking in the evening/ preparing breakfast and afternoon tea, here's a sample of some of the stuff we made...

Roasted Red Pepper with lemon and pea risotto

Chocolate Cupcakes

Pain au Chocolat Pudding

Key Lime Pie with Merangue

Canepes

Towel Swans

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Training Week Continued

Training week is still going, haven't cooked a full dinner again yet as we take it in turn. Had Health and Safety/ Fire today along with another cooking demo.

Yesterday we had a day off, and everyone was feeling slightly worse-for-wear after the night before when we got in at around 4.30am from DouDoune (a club in Val d'Isere). When we did rise we had a walk around the town and up one of the black piste's that leads into town, La Face, which is used for all the downhill and races.

A view down the Valley

La Face, the downhill run with snow canon snow on it getting ready for the women's Championship on 8th December

A View of the resort from up on the pistè

The Val d'Isere health club, gym, pool, spa, squash etc... pretty swanky

Training Week

We arrived in Resort on the Saturday 17th, and they gave us the rest of the day off to check out the resort. We're staying in the guest chalets which are pretty fancy and we got cooked for. Also found a bar for the football and rugby on, then had welcome drinks and off to another bar Blue Note.

Day 1 - Sun 18th
First day of training, general bits and bobs about the company and what they offer. Went to play some pool and darts in V-Spot in the evening. 

Day 2 - Mon 19th
Training continued and we had our first food demo.
In the evening me and Charlie cooked a 5 course meal including canapés with a champagne reception.

Day 3 - Tues 20nd
I think me and Charlie got the short straw because we were on breakfast, the table can barely fit all the stuff we served but cereals, yoghurts, hot pastries, bread, pancakes, bacon eggs and tomato cover most of it. Think I might put on weight in the next few months, although apparently boys generally loose weight which would be nice.
More training in the day but not on dinner so nice to be cooked for. Just finished it, and had good guests today with some crazy stories.

This is the afternoon tea we laid out (without the cake because it was still baking, pictures to come at some point)

The Season Begins

16th November 2012

The new ski's arrived ready for the season ahead, Armada AKJJ's for the powder days and AR7's for the Park and Piste. (The benefits of working all summer)

Car Packed (boot still open) and off to the station, Epping >> Bank >> Collier Wood on the underground followed by a 20 hour coach journey to Val d'Isere.