After years of annoying arguing between two old Savoyard families, the Compagnie du Mont Blanc (CMB) is going to take ownership of the Les Houches Ski Area at a cost of EUR 4 million on the 25th Oct 2011.

The current company, Les Houches – Saint Gervais (LHSG) found the only way forward was to partner with the CMB. As coming up with the 22 million Euros cost proved too much for the communal company.

The CMB will own 73% of the company whilst the remaining 27% is made up of funds rom the municipalities of Les Houches, Saint Gervais and the SEM Chamonix Development.

I’m currently on the hunt for waiters/waitresses for both the Délice
and the Kitsch Inn in Les Houches for this winter season, starting at
the beginning of December. Candidates must have at least 2 years
experience in the restaurant trade and speak conversational French.

I’m also looking to take on chefs and kitchen help of varying levels.
From washing up through to a head chef for the Kitsch Inn. Pay will be
related to experience and responsibilities given. All the positions
are for one season minimum but have the possibility of being extended
to a year round position. The job of head chef at the Kitsch Inn will
be an exciting journey. Refining, developing our concept, working in
our open kitchen, running and managing our busy kitchen with a team of
4 staff.

If you are interested in any of these positions please contact me asap
with a cv and cover letter

Either call 0661 87 99 93 to arrange a meeting if you are in Chamonix
and/or email Katy at :

kitschinnbar@gmail.com

Thursday 14th July – Sunday 17th July 2011

Starting with the big party on Thursday the 14th of July, we’ve got several djs (Iye 95, the SoundOfNow aka Corin and Joe) and live bands playing throughout the evening, with free drinks and tasters from 6 – 9pm. Any musicians out there who would like to join in, we’re running an open mic, big band jam between 6 -9pm, all participants will be well watered for their endeavors!

Then in the evening of Friday 15th July, we’re opening the restaurant and our fabulous head chef Emma Lawrenson will be cooking up our first farmhouse meal from 7-10pm. It’s also Sarah Hingston’s birthday and leaving do celebrations so in her honour we’ll be giving a free glass of bubbles to all who eat!

Saturday 16th July’s our bikers n hikers day, kicking off with a full english (10€) with free bloody mary shot or continental breakfast, 10€ BBQ lunch, happy hour 5 -7pm, then in the evening we’ve invited our first guest chef to cook for you, Zoe Smalley, and she’ll be cooking an Italian menu from 7 – 10pm.

Sunday 17th July, which handily happens to be Jon’s birthday, is a true recovery and family day. There’ll be an extended breakfast (till 12) with pancakes on offer as well as classic continental, there’ll be games and drawing for the kids, ploughmans and open sandwiches available all day and then from 2 – 8pm we’ll be doing a traditional Sunday roast. Ski Sundae will be playing their first gig on their very own stage that night from 5pm till, well, they run out of songs and we’ll be introducing and giving away our invented house shot, the ski sundae, complete with it’s own chocolate coated edible shot glass… (don’t worry parents, there’s a non alcoholic ice cream version for the kids!)

It just leaves me to say, you are all invited, as are your friends, and friends of friends. I’ve attached our poster/invite so please feel free to forward it and this email to anyone you think might be interested. We want to share this with all of you and hope you’ll find the time to pop in, take a look around and say hi.

Click here to see the new Chamshaw Facebook page, and like us to keep up to date with all the news

Chamshaw says:

Get your way across and around town the easy way,

“Explore,move and groove”General information:Three wheeled way of moving between Les Tines and Les Houches

After all, sustainability means running the global environment – Earth Inc. – like a corporation: with depreciation, amortization and maintenance accounts. In other words, keeping the asset whole, rather than undermining your natural capital.

Areas we cover

• Chamonix – Mont Blanc
• Les Houches
• Argentiere
• Servoz
• Megeve
• St Gervais
• Combloux
• Les Contamines

We’re back and raring to go. After 4 weeks of calm it’s lovely to see the place buzzing with activity again. Colonel paint (aka my mother) has been beavering away potting plants and generally beautifying the place, in such a thorough way that only mothers seem to execute. Great smells are wafting out of the kitchen and a fabulous team of staff and generous friends are dashing about organising last minute touches I probably should’ve sorted before running away on holiday!

We open tomorrow, Thursday 10th June, at 5pm. The new evening menu will be available from 6 – 10pm. Rich and Doug will be playing music from apero time till 10pm, so fingers crossed our terrace will be sun-drenched not simply drenched!

This season sees the return of our harem of ladies. Jackie and the Claires will be front of house again and Lou will be manning the fort in the culinary hub. There’s two new arrivals on our kitchen team, and one of them may even be male (da da da dah). Although we’ll see how he copes with us overexcitable ladies, maybe I should issue him with uniform ear defenders?!

Our new summer menu is a veritable medley of flavours. There’s twists on French classics, Asian inspired salads, Italian style tapas and some hearty vegetarian dishes. It will be posted on our website, www.le-delice.eu, tomorrow once we’ve had a chance to taste and tweak the dishes later today (poor old us!)

Here’s a summary of what goes on over the summer here at Le D?©lice and don’t forget that our terrace catches the sun all day till it sets (well after Chamonix is plunged into cool shade) so not only are we a perfect spot for lunch but also for sunny aperos and dinner. If you are inclined to linger late then the amazing sunsets are not to be missed too.

Summer Opening Times

Thursday 10th and Friday 11th June 5pm – 1am

Saturday 12th June onwards 11am – 1am

Everyday:

Lunch will be served from 12 Р3pm-Salads, sandwiches, soups, burgers, pastas and plat du jour 9.90€

Dinner will be served daily from 6 – 10pm

International fusion a la carte menu

We have a non-stop service of snacks, tapas, sandwiches, coffee and drinks

Happy Hour everyday from 4 – 6pm

Demi stella, glass of house wine 2€ and Cocktails 5€

Free WIFI for all customers

Live music 3 nights a week from 6 – 9.30pm

• Chamonix – Mont Blanc
• Les Houches
• Argentiere
• Servoz
• Megeve
• St Gervais
• Combloux
• Les Contamines

View The Mountain Garden Company, Chamonix in a larger map

LE DELICE CLOSING PARTY FRIDAY 23RD APRIL 2010

Our closing party is tonight, Friday 23rd April from 4pm – 1am.

- Happy hours from 4-6pm
- Demi stella or glass of house wine 2EUR, cocktails 5EUR
- 1/3 off all remaining food (and yes that includes the cheesecake)

The weather forecast looks good so come and soak up some last rays of sunshine on our terrace and toast the end of a happy and successful season.

Huge thanks again to customers, friends and staff for all your support, both moral and financial, I could’t have done it without you.

Katy x

PS: Check out our new Living Websites website flyer.

It’s official we can smell the grass again. The sun’s melted all the snow in the village and the foliage is creeping through the dirty remains. It’s a huge relief as it has saved the Delice all ladies team from brandishing a pickaxe.

Not that we wouldn’t have got round to it, eventually! To celebrate the arrival of spring and the plethora of sunburnt noses round town we thought we’d dust off the terrace furniture and host a little ray bathed apres at the bar tomorrow, Wednesday 24th march. For your aural pleasure we’ve got Jonny Tarr and Rich playing some soul and motown covers from 4 till 6 and the thirsty amongst you can take full advantage of our daily happy hour on cocktails, beer and wine.

Thursday 25th sees the return of guitarist Jon Dobson accompanying our regular sushi night, so if you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve not managed to make one yet get recruiting fellow diners as there may be only a few left before the end of the season.

And how’s this for a coop, some customers yesterday pointed out after their (delicious!) dinner last night that they’d discovered us after a mention in the Telegraph’s pick of the top 5 restaurants in the Chamonix valley…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/3194632/Chamonix-ski-guide-bars-and-restaurants.html

What a lovely discovery! Nothing like a non bribe induced, unexpected plug to make me feel like a very proud restaurant owner. Huge thanks to my amazing team for running such a fantastically consistent ship this winter, you gals rock!

Katy

Sunday 3rd January. One of the busiest ski days of the season here in Chamonix. The Brits, Germans, french and Russians are all on their New Year break, not to mention the weekend warriors from Geneva and Italy who come here to ski the best lift accessed terrain in Europe.

The forecast was for some visibility for the first time in days. So imagine how eager those skiers felt gearing up in the Grande Montets car park only to walk up to the chairlift, find it closed and realise that the wait for the telecabine would take 2 full hours before they even got to Lognon. That’s 2 hours standing in full ski gear with no water, cigarettes or food in temperatures of -10 degrees.

Rubbish. Would that happen in Verbier? We think not, Fraggels.

So we went to Les Houches instead and it saved the day. Parking up at the fast, efficient Prarion lift, we were skiing 15 mins after parking.

Over the back of the Les Houches ski area towards St Gervais is one of the most beautiful and underrated ski areas in the Chamonix valley. There’s. Maybe it’s not as steep as we’re used to, and certainly the sheer gnarliness factor is low, but it’s just so empty, well groomed and beautiful, with plenty of little sections of powder for those so inclined.

The pictures speak for themselves but one thought comes to mind.

Maybe the company which runs Les Houches had a point with it’s dispute in recent years with the Companie Du Mont Blanc. Who really knows the finer points of the argument, but Les Houches does get tarred with the same brush as the CMB.

http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr