Holiday itinerary
This 2 night/3 day luxury cooking weekend caters to all levels of culinary expertise, teaching guests skills from deboning a chicken to preparing classic French dishes and crafting indulgent sweet treats. Each day, you’ll prepare your own delicious lunches and dinners before sitting back, savouring them and toasting your achievements with drinks and new-found friends.
Run by former restaurateurs Steve and Lindsay, the luxury cooking weekend includes 13 hours of baking and cooking tuition. With a maximum of four people per group, you can be sure to get all the attention and guidance you deserve while cooking in a relaxed and sociable environment.
You’ll learn how to make a variety of breads, get sticky while making cinnamon buns and pain aux raisins and master the tricky art of crème patisseries during the weekend.
Later in the course, things get all Italian as you learn the best way to make pizza dough. There’s also a chance to make tortellini, ravioli or pasta and craft sugary, colourful (and über-trendy) French macaroons.
As well as a ballotine of chicken, evening meals include succulent duck filet with Dauphinoise or boulangère potatoes: a classic French dish that never fails to impress. Each night, dinner is served from food prepared during lessons in the day. When it comes to the evening, you can involve yourself with the cooking as much as you like, choosing to assist Chef Steve in the kitchen, simply observe or, alternatively, sit back and relax with a pre-dinner drink.
During the evenings, enjoy free time to sit on the terrace and soak up the great views, work up an appetite with a pre-dinner stroll along the river or through the mountains, take a trip to nearby Morzine or take a soak in the chalet’s hot tub.
Each lesson is focused, fun and packed with skills, tips and ideas that can easily be used back home. As well as sharing all their tricks of the trade, Steve and Lindsay also provide cards detailing each of the delicious recipes featured in their classes.
A luxury mountain chalet provides the perfect setting for the weekend. Designed by its owners Steve and Lindsay specifically to host luxury cooking weekends, it features a huge, modern kitchen and relaxing ensuite rooms. All rooms come with a bath or double shower, luxury towels and linen, and thoughtful extras. Each also has a balcony or terrace allowing you take in the spectacular panoramic views of the French Alps.
Alternatively, enjoy the scenery from the chalet's relaxing outdoor hot tub. Set high in the mountains, the school is surrounded by beautiful walks and fresh mountain air and is just a five-minute drive from the charming and traditional Savoyard town of Morzine.
Suitability
- Cookery holidays are suitable for all levels from complete beginners to experienced cooks
- Minimum age 18
- Your hosts are British so all cooking classes are taught in English
Travelling Solo?
- These cookery holidays make great singles holidays
- Please note this holiday runs for a minimum of 2 people and singles are welcome to join an existing group
- Solo travellers will be allocated private room with ensuite bathroom for NO SINGLE SUPPLEMENT
Luxury Cooking Weekend Start Days
- All arrivals are on Friday afternoons on set dates between June and September
- Luxury cooking weekends are for 2 nights/3 days
- If dates appear ‘on request’ please email us and we’ll check availability for your preferred date of arrival as quickly as possible
Luxury Cooking Weekend Itinerary
The itinerary is for guidance only and is subject to change depending on the group’s needs and wishes but is typically as follows:
Day 1- Friday – Arrival, first cooking class and dinner
- You are welcome to arrive at the chalet at any time after 9am on day 1, and will be free to settle in to your surroundings and relax in the chalet or explore the local area before starting your first cooking class
- At 2pm, it is straight to the large airy kitchen to begin your first cookery class
- This afternoon’s class focuses on some basic knife skills which will help you throughout the weekend
- You’ll also learn how to debone, ballotine and poach a chicken as well as how you can use the carcass for different stocks to use in other dishes
- Around 6.30pm you’ll finish the class and have an hour or so free to explore the chalet surroundings, unpack, or even relax in the hot tub
- At 7.30pm pre dinner drinks will be served before you sit down to enjoy the dinner you prepared in your earlier class, finished off by your talented host, Steve
- Guests are more than welcome to head back to the kitchen and assist Steve with dinner preparations if they’d like even more hands-on time in the kitchen, though sitting back and observing with a glass of wine is also an option
Day 2 – Saturday – bread making preparation, 2nd cookery session, lunch at the chalet, 3rd afternoon cookery class and dinner
- At 8:30am, a brief half hour kitchen class is on offer today as you begin the first stage of break making, the fruits of which you’ll enjoy later with lunch
- At 9am after bread preparation, settle down to enjoy a delicious French breakfast, before heading to the kitchen at 10am for your cookery class, where you’ll spend 3 hours learning the art of Viennoisserie (pain au raisin, sticky cinnamon buns) and the famous French crème pâtissière
- You’ll break for a leisurely lunch where you can enjoy a variety of freshly baked breads which you helped prepare earlier, accompanied by local cheeses and charcuterie
- This afternoon’s cooking class will focus on making fresh pasta, such as ravioli and tortellini, as well as preparation for the evening meal including duck fillet and boulangere or dauphinoise potatoes
- After the 3 hour afternoon class, you’ll have some free time between 5:30 and 7pm where you can soak in the hot tub, relax in the cinema room, play pool in the games room, admire the view or read a book
- For the keen chefs, there’s also the chance to gain some more hands on experience should you want it, helping Steve in the kitchen
- Aperitifs are again served before sitting down with your fellow guests and sharing the meal you’ve learnt to cook together earlier over a glass or two of wine
Day 3 – Sunday – Departure day
- Breakfast today is served at 8:30am in time for you to begin your 5th and final cookery class at 9:30am
- This morning’s 3 hour class will see you preparing pizza dough along with its toppings and also the beautiful and famous French macaroons
- You’ll stop for lunch around 12.30pm and sit out in the garden to enjoy your own handmade pizza
- After lunch it’s time to say your farewells and check out of the chalet as guests leave with new recipes, tips and a weekend’s worth of memories that will stay with them long after the weekend is over
About Your Chef And Hosts
- Your British hosts are couple Steve and Lindsay
- Between them, Steve and Lindsay have years of experience as restaurateurs, hosts and Steve was also a former head chef
- They were so inspired by a cookery holiday they took with GoLearnTo.com they decided to start running their own luxury cooking weekends!
- Steve escaped the corporate world in 2003 and together with Lindsay set up a vibrant restaurant in Eltham, Kent
- Their radical transition was profiled in Channel 4’s series Risking It All, however, their venture turned out to be little of a gamble
- They made a huge success of the contemporary restaurant, where Steve worked as head chef, before selling up to renovate and run a catered gîte in Charente, Cognac
- From there, they brought all their cooking and hosting experience to Montriond where they designed and built their chalet specifically to provide luxury cooking weekends for budding foodies
- Lindsay will show you her passion for desserts and Steve, who trained commis and sous-chefs in his own restaurant, is a natural at teaching what he loves
- They will make you feel at home straight away and cannot wait to share their love of cooking with you during your stay
What Will I Learn?
- Your weekend gives you a fantastic mix of basic culinary skills that will help in all meal preparations as well as some French classics to impress friends and family back home
- You’ll start with some basic knife skills and how to debone, ballotine (stuff and roll), and poach a whole chicken
- Skills to prepare and use the tastiest chicken stock – a valuable ingredient that will aid you in a variety of dishes
- Bread making
- You’ll cover pastry work learning to cook a variety of French pastries and crème pâtissière
- How to make fresh pasta including tortellini and ravioli
- Pizza dough and toppings
- French macaroons
- How to make dauphinoise potatoes and duck fillet
- The style of food will not only include classic French dishes, both savoury and sweet, but also some Italian favourites too
Sample Menus
Dishes vary according to the season and what food is available but may include:
-Duck filet
-Dauphinoise potatoes
- Chicken ballotine
- Boulanger
- Freshly made Pizza
- Fresh ravioli and tortellini
- Variety of freshly made bread
- French pastries – cinnamon buns, pain au raisin
- Crème pâtissière
- French macaroons
- Please note that if you do have dietary requirements (including vegetarians), some food replacements may not be readily available in France so this must be discussed before booking
The Chalet Accommodation
- Stay in a luxury, purpose built chalet during your cookery weekend
- The chalet has all of the comfort of a boutique hotel but the warmth of being at home
- The chalet has 5 twin/double bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms
- All bedrooms have hotel quality beds, Egyptian cotton bedding, luxury cotton towels, separate towel for use of the hot tub, bathrobes, slippers, toiletries and hairdryer
- Each room also has 1 UK plug socket and tea and coffee making facilities in the bedroom
- The five bedrooms are as follows
- Chambre 1: Super king / twin room with bunk beds situated on the ground floor at the back of the property with French doors opening out onto the terrace, complete with a small table and seating area. The bathroom has a bath and double shower.
- Chambre 2: Kingsize bed, also on the ground floor at the back of the property with French doors opening out onto the terrace complete with a small table and seating area. The bathroom has a double shower.
- Chambre 3: Super king / twin room with bunk beds and is also on the ground floor at the back of the property with French doors opening out onto the terrace, complete with a small table and seating area. There are also bunk beds which are separated from the main bedroom on the other side of the bathroom with a double shower.
- Chambre 4: Twin room situated on the 2nd floor at the front of the property with a private balcony complete with a small table and seating area. The bathroom has a double shower.
- Chambre 5: Super king / twin room with bunk beds situated on the 2nd floor at the back of the property with French doors opening onto a private balcony complete with a small table and seating area. The bathroom has a full size bath and double shower
- The chalet also boasts underfloor heating, a log fire, free wifi, ski/boot room, free laptop use and free satellite TV
- There is a large cinema/games room to chill out in during the winter nights
- There is also a fabulous hot tub and sauna to relax in after your cooking classes
- The kitchen is spacious and very modern, equipped with everything you’ll need to make your delicious dishes
- Accommodation is included for 2 nights / 3 days
- Every guest can have a private twin/double room with ensuite bathroom for no additional supplement
- Check in any time on day 1 and check out after lunch (after 2pm on day 3)
Meals
- Breakfasts are included on days 2 and 3
- Lunches are included days 2- 3
- You will enjoy an aperitif, and 3 course dinner with wine and water on days 2 and 3
- If you have dietary requests these must be communicated to us at the time of booking, and can be added to the Special Requests box on the 3rd page of the booking
Free Time In France
- There is a spacious dining area and alfresco seating, a games and cinema room and laptops at the chalet so you have plenty to do indoors!
- You can also sit back, soak and look out at the mountains from the chalet's hot tub
- Take a walk through the luscious greens hills and the pinks and reds of wild flowers contrast against sparkling white peaks of the mountains
- The area of Montriond offers brilliant opportunities for hikers and mountain bikers and is just five minutes' drive from the pretty market town of Morzine, where many residents still travel by horse and cart
- Steve and Lindsay are happy to drop you in Morzine over the weekend so you can explore its unique charm, relaxed atmosphere and range of activities
- The huge and picturesque Lake Montriond is also close and reachable in 20 minutes along a pleasant river trail
- The sleepy Savoy village of Samoëns, the spa town of Evian and Les Lindaret, where goats roam free in the village during the summer months, are also nearby
Learn to create a range of culinary treats during fun and interactive cooking and baking lessons with former restaurateurs, savour your achievements during relaxing meals with new-found friends and sink into the serenity of a first-class mountain chalet set in the beautiful Alps.