The Chalet Chef

Alpine private cooking is the most physically demanding profile in this trade. Four services a day, guests who arrive cold and ravenous at four, flasks to fill by nine in the morning, a shop that closes at seven and a road that occasionally does not open. Altitude changes the chemistry: water boils lower, pastry dries, braises take longer and anything whipped behaves badly.

The chefs who do it well treat the week as a composition. One showpiece dinner, two simple ones, a fondue night that gives the kitchen a rest, proper afternoon tea every day, and a clear evening when the house eats out. They cook food that can wait, because ski days never end when they were supposed to.

Rates are 600 to 1,000 euros a day, with the Christmas and New Year fortnight at 10,000 to 16,000 euros for the week because the crew loses the rest of the holiday by accepting it. Beds and meals for the crew are part of the deal, and work permits matter in Switzerland.