Something Special: a gourmet ski weekend

It’s fair to say that it hasn’t been a classic season so far for skiers across Europe. Families visiting the Italian resort of Alta Badia over Christmas pulled their crackers under sunshine so bright and warm that it felt strangely like a late spring day. But with more typically crisp and snowy conditions now setting in, there's a good reason to book a last-minute jaunt. Nothing quite matches a long weekend on the slopes when it comes to blowing away the winter blues.

Especially when the break in question combines two of Northern Italy’s greatest passions: skiing and eating. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Italian Dolomites are renowned for their culinary credentials – the Alta Badia region boasts three Michelin-starred restaurants – and every year the tourist board devises a gourmet experience, dubbed A Taste for Skiing, to showcase its bountiful wares. Continuing until early April, this season's concept is “South Sweet South”: 14 Michelin-starred chefs, hailing from Southern Italy or South Tyrol (where Alta Badia is located), have each devised a recipe that reflects their region’s culinary traditions. Dishes are paired with a wine from the opposite region and served in one of 14 mountain restaurants dotted around the pistes, allowing skiers to sample the best of both on their very own “gourmet ski safari”. Haute cuisine at 2,000m: it’s a far cry from a self-service spag bol.

The Alta Badia itinerary is pretty much eat, drink, ski, repeat. Guests can enjoy a hearty South Tyrolean breakfast on the mountains: whisked up via skidoos to Las Vegas lodge at 2,050m, with unbeatable views over snow-capped peaks, they'll have the added bonus of being first on the slopes afterwards. Skiing is punctuated with visits to various eateries, sampling mussel linguine at one, smoked spare rib pralines at another, washed down with a local sauvignon or Gewürztraminer. For lunch, we settled in for suckling pig and buttery handmade gnocchi at Piz Boè alpine lounge, one of the so-called “mountain huts” which is more like something out of a James Bond film: a contemporary fine-dining restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows out of which are some of the most breath-taking views in Europe.

The skiing is vast – Alta Badia is part of the Dolomiti superski, Europe’s largest ski area with 1,200km of pistes – and, thanks to snow machines on 90 per cent of the pistes, ample even in warm weather. It’s an intermediate skiier’s paradise, with plenty of wide, scenic blue runs, and skiing tends to be a relaxed, rather than adrenaline-fuelled affair – just as well, after all that sauvignon. Après ski is more likely to consist of a few bombardinos than a few magnums of Moët, although DJs and dancing on the outdoor terraces at scenic spot Club Moritzino prove that the Michelin-star crowd can let its hair down too.

Accommodation is similarly foodie-focused. We stayed at the four-star Ciasa Salares, a family-run hotel on the outskirts of San Cassiano. Built in the 1960s by the Wieser family, the Salares is immaculately preserved rather than tarted up with a modern makeover. Cast aside thoughts of outdoor hot-tubs, subterranean dance floors and gleaming chrome fixtures found in the super chalets of Europe’s ritzier resorts; this isn’t that kind of town. Instead, you’ll discover traditional Tyrolean décor and family-focused hospitality: chalet-style rooms are spacious, wood-clad and comfortably, rather than flashily furnished, and throughout the hotel there are charmingly old-school touches such as a room for “smoking and flirting” and, in one of the restaurants, a table for la famiglia Wieser surrounded by their family portraits. Nonna helps serve breakfast.

Ciasa Salares’s gourmet credentials are, however, anything but old-school. Yes, fondue is served in the wine cellar – a cavernous, atmospheric vault which stores 23,000 bottles of wine and where Stefan Wieser, an expert sommelier who chose them all, holds wine and cheese tastings. But there are also three other dining choices within the hotel, including La Siriola – the intimate downstairs restaurant where Italy’s youngest Michelin-starred chef Matteo Metullio presides over a kitchen producing some of the region’s most technically accomplished fare.

At La Siriola, aperitifs are served with ceremony from a cocktail trolley, five courses are each paired with a wine from the encyclopedic list and, pre-dessert, guests are led to the separate climate-controlled chocolate room, complete with fountain, to sample a few of 120 varieties of fine chocolate. Guided by the principle of “zero kilometre dining” (using the most local ingredients possible), the menu ranges from twists on Italian classics, such as hay linguine with morel mushrooms, to more experimental dishes like wasabi risotto with lobster, liver mousse and peanuts. Desserts – such as coffee crème brulee with lemon granita and banana soufflé with yoghurt ice cream – are particularly delectable. It’s a good job all the skiing had worked up our appetites.

A weekend on the slopes may seem overly lavish to some – “will it really be worth it?” is the frequently asked question. And it’s a fair one; a skiing holiday comes hand-in-hand with a certain degree of “faff” not associated with less active breaks. The key lies in being prepared – and luxury tour operator Powder Byrne is a specialist in this area. “Time is a precious commodity for our clients, amplified even further when trying to squeeze in as much fun as possible on a ski weekend,” says the company's director Simon Meeke.

So resorts are chosen wisely – Alta Badia is just 4.5 hours from London, via private transfer from Innsbruck – and ski-hire and lift passes are sorted in advance, waiting for guests on arrival. Ultra-professional in-resort ski guides sort everything from the day’s ski itinerary – no messing around with mittens and piste maps – to lunch reservations and ferrying guests between après ski venues. They’d probably even fasten your ski boots for you, if you asked nicely.

Blue skies, mountain air, impeccably seamless service and some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. Is a weekend ski trip worth it? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes.

Powder Byrne offers a three-night ski weekend at Hotel Ciasa Salares, San Cassiano from £1,395 per adult sharing a double room on a half-board basis, including Powder Byrne concierge service, return flights and private transfers to and from the airport