Hello and welcome to the Mountain Utopia Blog,
We won’t lie, it’s been a while since we have written one of these. Not that we don’t enjoy writing. We simply never had the time! Sure, we know that running catered chalets keeps you busy. And if you want to give the best personal service to all your guests in two chalets, something’s got to give.
The price we had to pay to fulfil our ambition and deliver what we offer, was our time. With the chalets full every week of the season, we found ourselves spending more and more time in the office. Working out the logistics, writing menus, rotas and schedules, book keeping and responding to countless emails. If you met us, you know we don’t mind admin work, and that we’re pretty good at it. Ensuring that each and every guest experiences a holiday that runs smoothly and caters to their every need gives us kicks, no doubt about it. It was our busiest winter, and judging by all the 5* reviews we received from our guests, it was also the most successful one. We are very thankful to our team, partners and all our guests, it is you who made it so.
At the end of April we were so tired, we both knew that something had to change. I missed spending time talking to the guests in chalet Adonis, as I was tied to chalet Azalee as the head chef most hours of the day. Toby didn’t get to cook at all, and really missed the creative time in the kitchen. We both missed skiing.
But that was last year. Since then a few things changed. A shift in direction, and simple maths – we’re reducing the quantity to increase the quality. This winter, after six years of running Mountain Utopia, we decided to go back to just one chalet. With myself and Toby being the chefs, hosts and drivers we can do what we do best – look after you. We also have a new, awesome assistant Emma, who will help with day to day chalet operations and shuttles, enabling us all to get our fill of the snow and the sun on the slopes.
Long story short: for some businesses to grow is to get smaller and it turned out to be true for us. We are super excited about the coming winter. Our heads filled with ideas of how to make your holiday even better. Just to give you a taste: we’ll be baking breads, making ice cream and yoghurt in house, making some great changes in our environmental policy and launching our own IPA. And that is just the beginning. We have had an amazing time traveling south-east Asia and have brought back some incredible, fresh flavours to our menu, but more about it in our next blog…
Thanks for reading, lots of love. Tamara