WINTER ACADEMY – CHAMONIX MONT-BLANC FRANCE
Working a winter season in the Alps is particularly popular with young winter sports enthusiasts wishing to hone their skiing or snowboarding skills. However very few can afford the high living expenses without taking on employment, usually with a tour operator as the infamous ‘Chalet Girl’ or Chalet boy’. Anybody, of any age, with the correct attitude and ample energy can become a chalet host given good training and guidance.
Our staff have over 10 years experience within the winter holiday industry and our parent company ‘High Class Cookers Ltd’ has designed a training course to be run in the vibrant resort town of Chamonix under the shadow of Europe’s largest mountain, Mont Blanc. The aim of this course is to train enthusiastic candidates to the required cooking and organisational standard to win a placement with tour operators across the Alps and, of course, to enjoy themselves. With our extensive knowledge and strong links to many companies, trainees demonstrating the correct attitude and successful completion of the course may be placed in jobs suited to their wishes and filling the positions on offer by various tour operators and smaller chalet businesses. As any winter chalet guest knows, the Chalet Host is an integral part of their holiday and can really make the difference. Luckily, unlike snow conditions, we can have some control over the quality of the staff.
Although food is a huge influence on the course we do touch on other areas of chalet operations that a host is expected to be proficient in; such as the basic food hygiene certificate, food budgeting, front line customer service and even indispensable notes on specific French language used for cooking and the chalet environment.
The programme runs on a very limited capacity of just 10 trainees per week so we can focus more attention on individuals. Unfortunately this means not everybody will have the chance to attend our academy, we advise early booking to avoid disappointment
COURSE ITINERY
Sunday
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Arrive at Geneva airport, transfer to Chamonix. A short welcome and receive your course notes. Settle into the chalet and enjoy a 3 course meal with wine prepared by our chefs
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| Monday |
Food preparation, food presentation, stock rotation and food storage
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| Tuesday |
Food preparation, organisation, list and time management
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| Wednesday |
Basic food hygiene certificate, presentation and wine tasting
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| Thursday |
Food preparation, balanced menu writing, special dietary requirements
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| Friday |
Food preparation, budget control, correct food service
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| Saturday |
Paint ball and dinner in a local restaurant
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| Sunday |
Transfer to Geneva airport to fly home
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On receiving your initial 25% deposit we will despatch an assessment paper which the trainee should fill out honestly and thoroughly to give us an indication of their ability, likes, dislikes and expectations of the season they are to embark upon. Also, a list of tour operators and resort information will be sent so an idea of both resort and tour operator can be formed from an early stage to enable us to assist you in obtaining the right winter placement for your requirements.
Eight weeks before the commencement of the course a further 25% of the course fee is payable and at that time we will send through pre-course notes for you to read and complete, where necessary, in preparation for a short test on arrival in resort; don’t be worried, these are very basic and once again are to assess your level of ability.