An Alpine week is the most expensive catering product in Europe per day, and the pricing is honest once you see the structure. A chalet chef cooks four services a day for seven days; a chalet host or butler serves them and keeps the house; a housekeeper turns fourteen people’s rooms. That is three salaries, three beds and three sets of meals before a single ingredient is bought.
Why Christmas doubles
Because the crew who can do it lose the rest of the fortnight by accepting your week, and there are perhaps two hundred of them in the Alps. A chef at 700 euros a day in February is 1,200 to 1,600 over New Year, and they were contracted in May.
The line that saves the week
One night out and one late start, written into the plan. A crew running four services a day for seven days without a break cooks visibly worse by Thursday, and the difference costs you a restaurant booking. The chalet season format sets out the whole rhythm, including the fondue night that gives the kitchen its only easy evening.
