 Poster: A snowHead
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Every year I organise a bunch of people who like me would like yummy vegan food in a chalet and lovely people to ski and board with.
We're soon off on the 2008 trip (29 people), so I'm looking for ideas and interest for 2009. It's be great to hear if you are interested in coming along and if you have any recommendations of catered chalets (particularly ones you can get near to by train) or just good places for veggies to eat out in resorts. Potentially interested in small chalet hotels too. Places that have attention to detail with special diets and speak good English is usually a great starting point. Also say which resorts I should look into generally for large groups and good snow.
Thanks!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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SophieFP, welcome to snowHeads. Just out of interest, where do you normally take your groups? My girlfriend is vegetarian and struggles with menu choice in France.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Welcome. I opened this expecting to read about someone looking for a vegan-free trip.
Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder. 
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As a general observation from lots of holidays (not just skiing), Italy seems to be pretty good for vegetarian menu choices, when compared with France/Austria/Switzerland etc. Always lots of meat-free pasta and rice options.
Obviously not useful to you in looking for a chalet or hotel, but might be something to consider!
D
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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SophieFP, Speak to a chalet company at the non budget end of the market. I can recommend Silver Ski and Ski Olympic both of whom have chalets big enough for your needs. They employ some good people and I am sure they could work out a menu for you lot for the week.
I like my steak hache medium BTW.
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SophieFP, Would be interested in places that you have visited in the past as well as I have one vegan, and 2 vegetarians in the family and its always a struggle to cope with on holiday. We usually go self catering for that reason but would love to go somewhere catered as a nice change.
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SophieFP, Hello, I've come across your site before, I think it's a great idea 
I agree with Deliaskis, the selection in Italy is always very good.
I've put together a vegetarian/vegan guide to Chamonix here
http://www.chamonixchalet.info/features/chamonix-for-vegetarians-and-vegans/
which might be handy for you or anyone else thinking of going there. Might be a good option - it's accessible by train (if a bit fiddly) and has a big international population, so veggies are less unusual than other parts of France. You can get veggieburgers in the supermarket now!
I can't think of any veggie-specialist chalets there, though I have looked. There's one that used to do it as a speciality, but it doesn't seem to do it now.
Auberge de Montagne
http://www.auberge-montagne.co.uk/
in St Foy might be woth looking into, the chef is vegetarian himself and it's a nice place to stay.
I haven't been on that many catered holidays but have had lovely food at Chalet Shufu near Morzine
http://www.lechaletholiday.com/
I guess you're trying to steer clear of long haul but for what it's worth, I had the best food ever in Whistler...
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My daughter, who is vegetarian and wheat-intolerant just returned from Flaine. She struggled, and was glad she had taken a big bag of muesli and plenty of Ryvita. All the potatoes had flour in (eg potato cakes with breadcrumbs, a low-budget version of dauphin gratinoise, thickened with flour) except one baked potato. The mayonnaise had wheat flour in, the tortilla chips had wheat flour, all the (delicious selection of) salads had bits of meat - chicken, tuna, whatever) stirred through them. She had plain boiled rice twice a day.
Some French places might be OK if they promise in advance to cater specifically for your needs, but I suspect you'd be better off elsewhere. And it helps if you have enough French to grill the chef about ingredients (my daughter has rather little, but learnt "farine de blé" and "amidon de blé" so it did improve her vocab).
Welcome to Snowheads; hope you find something good. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Last season (Christmas 2006) we stayed in Vaujany in Franrick Lodge with a company called Kickski (www.kickski.co.uk). Darren, who owns the company, is a vegetarian (as were several of the staff that year) and has, I believe, organised trips in the past for veggies. We are not veggies and I don't think many of the other guests were during the week we were staying, so the chef cooked meat and fish dishes as well as veggy, but the food was superb, so I am sure they would do full veggy menus for you. Chalet was great and very close to the cable car linking to Alpe d'Huez and the bubbles up to Vaujany ski area. All round experience was very good, private transfers from Grenoble, very well equipped chalet. Transfers from Grenoble airport are quite short, alternatively you could get train to Grenoble and I am sure they would collect you from there.
Chalet set up was great for families - it is basically one large lodge divided up into several apartments, so you each have your own sitting area with TV/DVD, board games etc with kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom and big balconies, then a communal dining area. This meant the children could eat earlier than the adults, and have a separate area for playing/relaxing in.
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pam w, I'm wheat-intolerant too and find France much easier than Italy. I usually self-cater though in France and know which supermarkets have good wheat-free stuff.
For a vegan, pasta will be out as it contains eggs.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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pam w, wheat intolerance as well must be a pain on holiday! I'm sorry to hear she had to eat plain rice, how grim 
Once you start getting into vegan cooking, it probably doesn't really matter which country you're in - so much is down to a good chef who knows what they're doing, and ideally a resort that's big enough to have shops/restaurants that know what it is. It's probably one of the instances there a less traditional, bigger place really has an advantage.
I kind of suspect that, in Europe, vegans and indeed anyone who had specific dietary needs, may find smaller places tough. I can't think of many traditional European mountain cuisines that favour vegans (polenta, perhaps, but getting them to cook it with no dairy could be difficult).
I'd imagine the best thing is exactly what Sophie's doing, and getting a veggie-friendly chalet, or self-catering. It's great to get some more recommedations.
One of these days, I'd like to go to Japan - noodly apres would be the best!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I wouldn't consider the otherwise charming Austria, they seem to struggle with the concept of vegetarian never mind vegan, for example they clearly regard speck ham as a non meat "garnish" much as the Spanish regards their jamon.
Good luck, I fear you will need it.
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Wow you lot - thanks so much for all your ideas and responses. Keep them coming! 
For the past 5 vegan snow trips we've been to various resorts in the Tarantaise Valley in France (eg La Plagne this year), as that's great for the train and British chalet companies who do understand what vegan means.
For places that are great for veggie and special diets that I have heard about anywhere in the world (including Austria) in the snow see: http://www.veggiesnow.org/index.html I'll certainly be adding a few of your recommendations there, and KickSki is already there, gamekeeper, as Darren contacted me directly last year - great for veggies for sure.
Thanks so much firebug - I hope you don't mind me quoting you and referencing your site on VeggieSnow! Please tell me more about the good places in Whistler as I get a lot of Americans interested in my site for snowy veggies.
It's amazing what you can achieve with the pulling power of 30 veggies, so as a group we get excellent food, with a lot of background work from me before the trip, though I like to start with an accommodating company so it's not an uphill struggle.
Most dried pasta is vegan rjs, and this is what most restaurants and chalets use already. Most cheese in the Alps is not vegetarian and woe betide you if you try to ask, though that doesn't really concern our group, being dairy-free.
I'd really like to try Austria or Italy if we can find a good place to stay and can get there by train. I'll look into the companies you kindly mention Frosty.
Any more recommendations gratefully received!
Happy skiing and eating!
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You know it makes sense.
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That is a very good point about rennet, I am afraid I'm a bit lax about that  . I will do some checking and editing. You can get vegetarian cheese here, in the supermarkets as well as the wholefood shops, and I think one of the small cheese producers in the market uses veggie rennet. Also, I think the soft goat cheeses are made without it?
Whistler... it's hard to single any one place out! I heard that very sadly, the mountain restaurants have stopped doing their chilli in a hollowed out small bread loaf, which I loved.
The big main food court at Blackcomb had noodles, stir fries, baked potatoes, mexican - loads and loads of choice, and the Japanese restaurants were outstanding. I don't know if they still do this, but Citta, which was one of our favourite apres spots, did fantastic latkes with spinach, sour cream and chili jam, which I still make myself. The GLC by the lifts also had good veggie tex-mex.
Please do link and quote the article! If it would be possible to link the chalet site in there at all, I'd be really grateful as it's so helpful with google.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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[quote="firebug
One of these days, I'd like to go to Japan - noodly apres would be the best![/quote]
Japan's surprisingly difficult, actually - avoiding dairy is easy, but they do use a lot of eggs, and even ostensibly vegetarian noodle dishes will frequently use meat broths. I went on biz with a vegan a few years ago - he was much slimmer at the end of the week...
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Poster: A snowHead
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| firebug wrote: |
One of these days, I'd like to go to Japan - noodly apres would be the best! |
Japan's surprisingly difficult, actually - avoiding dairy is easy, but they do use a lot of eggs, and even ostensibly vegetarian noodle dishes will frequently use meat broths. I went on biz with a vegan a few years ago - he was much slimmer at the end of the week...
Please excuse re-post, was trying to get the quote to display properly!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Any quality chalet operator should be able to give you honest feedback re whether or not they can accommodate your dietary needs.
Beauty of this solution is that with your kind of group you can take over a whole property and be sure that your needs are the sole focus of the chef for the week.
You'll want to have a good old rummage in the bottom of that "vegetable" soup when having lunch up the mountain though....
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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vetski, Interesting! Over here it's always a good standby, I guess it's less authentic to make it without meat stock, then. Thinking about it, there's dried fish in a lot of the stocks
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firebug, it stretched what little Japanese I had to the limit - and I always got puzzled looks, the concept didn't quite compute over there. Some meals I almost felt guilty as I ripped my way through yummy dead things, and this poor chap forlornly nibbled at salad which we had managed to get without bonito flakes after a lot of to-ing & fro-ing.
There is a bit more vegetarian food in Austria now as well, but a few years ago I was most amused to see "Pflanzenfressen" on the menu for vegetarian dishes - literally "Plant-eaters", but "fressen" is the word for animals eating. Humans "essen", so it was meant in a mildly derogatory fashion! 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| SophieFP wrote: |
Every year I organise a bunch of people who like me would like yummy vegan food in a chalet and lovely people to ski and board with.
We're soon off on the 2008 trip (29 people), so I'm looking for ideas and interest for 2009. It's be great to hear if you are interested in coming along and if you have any recommendations of catered chalets (particularly ones you can get near to by train) or just good places for veggies to eat out in resorts. Potentially interested in small chalet hotels too. Places that have attention to detail with special diets and speak good English is usually a great starting point. Also say which resorts I should look into generally for large groups and good snow.
Thanks! |
I'd be interested for 2009. e-mail David_Campbell@ml.com. Would like to go in the New Year but may be too late to book or organise.
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I need a gluten free diet, and went to la rosiere in 2007 and stayed with snowcrazy who coped really well with it. THe food was brilliant. The only day i was ill was the day after we went out for a meal in a local restaurant on the chalet hosts day off!
www.snowcrazy.co.uk
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One of my favourite quotes from the Simpsons...
"I'm a category 5 Vegan - I don't eat anything that casts a shadow."
Facetious I know, but it makes me laugh... 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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welcome sophiefp. mountain sun (who are running the chalet for the skiandboardcamp in tignes) have a "special dietary requirements" option on their booking form. they're based in one of the smaller places in the tignes area (la boisses), so the chalet is accessible by eurostar for those of you who are "green" as well as veggie/vegan.
joanne of mountain sun is a member of snowheads and she may be able to assist you or point you in a helpful direction. you might be better off calling or emailing her instead of pm'ing as she is currently (really) busy with all the snowheads going on the camp above. see the link for the chalet here: http://www.mountainsunltd.com/french.html
hope you find what your group is after. 
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I think getting in touch with independent chalet owners is your best bet - that way you can have a chat directly with your 'chef to be' and be safe in the knowledge that you won't get any surprises in your veggie soup! They can also give you the best advice about what to eat or where to avoid on the chalet night off seeing as some restaurants I have experienced seem to have an interesting interpretation of 'no meat'.
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