Chiefy’s Back!!!!
We are delighted to announce the return of our original Masterchef Sharif Gergis to La Ferme du Lac Vert.
On finishing university in 2006 Sharif’s best friend secretly entered him as a contestent to the BBC cooking competition Masterchef. To his great surprise he was accepted and went on to reach the quarter finals. Inspired by this experience and following his other passion; snowboarding, Sharif spent the winter working for a chalet company in La Tania. This proved to be the beginning of a love affair with the mountains and being a Chef. He went on to work for Highlife in Meribel in 2008 where he met his long term partner Elizabeth. After working as Head Chef in an Australian ski lodge they returned to France to work for Ski Morzine where they met Lucy and Rob Mundell when the plans for La Ferme du Lac Vert were hatched. Sharif spent the next two years working as a Personal Chef aboard an Oriental Express luxury barge, for a luxury chalet company in Meribel followed by a few months as a banquet Chef for Millenium hotels in New Zealand. He designed and set up the kitchen at La Ferme du Lac Vert as well as turning his hand to tiling and carpentry in the mad rush to have the chalet open for it’s first guests in December 2010. Sharif established La Ferme’s reputation for innovative chalet catering to an exceptionally high standard creating what has been descibed as a ‘Michelin star’ dining experience. Sharif took a break from seasonal work over the past 18 months and has been working at 2 AA rosette and Michelin guide restaurants in Edinburgh. Working alongside Chefs trained by Raymond Blanc and Michel Roux Sharif has gained new skills and learned exciting innovative cooking techniques which he will bring back to the dining table at La Ferme du Lac Vert.
In addition to the new equipment and food technology he will be bringing out to La Ferme this winter will be his underling and Sous Chef Danny Hobson. Danny has been working in AA rosette restaurants around the UK since the age of 16 and is excpetionally talented in pastry. This will be Danny’s first winter season and he is feverishly excited about creating afternoon tea cakes, desserts and petit fours to die for!
Our sample menu is from winter 2010/2011 and will give you an idea of Sharif’s style of cusine. He is working on an exciting new menu which will be available online shortly to tantalise your tastebuds in anticipation of your stay at La Ferme du Lac Vert this winter.
Alpine path
“Then whisper, blossom, in thy sleep
How I may upward climb
The Alpine path, so hard, so steep,
That leads to heights sublime;
How I may reach that far-off goal
Of true and honoured fame,
And write upon its shining scroll
A woman’s humble name.”
“ “Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ”
La Ferme du Lac Vert’s interior was designed by Lucy Mundell - she also is an artist & created all the paintings within the farm.
The Alps
The sun-beams streak the azure skies,
And line with light the mountain’s brow:
With hounds and horns the hunters rise,
And chase the roebuck thro’ the snow.
From rock to rock, with giant-bound,
High on their iron poles they pass;
Mute, lest the air, convuls’d by sound,
Rend from above a frozen mass.
The goats wind slow their wonted way,
Up craggy steeps and ridges rude;
Mark’d by the wild wolf for his prey,
From desert cave or hanging wood.
And while the torrent thunders loud,
And as the echoing cliffs reply,
The huts peep o’er the morning-cloud,
Perch’d, like an eagle’s nest, on high.
A ski poem…
The Magic of Skiing
And surely it’s there,
The body in motion,
The downhill dare.
The sensual feeling
Of arcing a turn,
The satisfaction felt
The better we learn.
And like a newborn babe
Marvelling at the feat,
Watching its movement,
An extraordinary treat.
Thus it is so,
When the forces we tame,
Ultimate control,
The master game.
And it ends not there,
Not just with a grin,
For powerful feelings
Are retained within.
They reflect in life
A value strong,
To handle the difficult
When all goes wrong.
Rock the Pistes Music Festival!!!!
ROCK THE PISTES FESTIVAL
For 5 days the 12 French-Swiss resorts of the Portes du Soleil will be resonating to the rhythm of these unique concerts, all taking place in outstanding and original settings!
In 2012, the second edition of this radical new music festival takes place from 24 to 28 March. Put your skis on and join us throughtout the Portes du Soleil’s slopes !
Free concerts staged in the wildest settings at the heart of the ski area… The best International and French pop-rock artists… A music festival like no other in Europe, all you need to see the gigs is your liftpass!
The Rock the Pistes Festival is a pure sensory overload!
PURE SNOW TRACKS + PURE MOUNTAIN VIEWS + PURE SOUND = PURE PLEASURE!!
Don’t miss your chance and join us for 2012 !
…. More SNOW QUEEN….. <3
There is a legend that, once upon a time, a beautiful fairy, the Snow Queen, lived on the highest, most solitary peaks of the Alps. The mountain folk and shepherds climbed to the summits to admire her, and everyone fell head over heels in love with her.
Every man would have given anything, including his life, to marry her. Indeed, their lives are just what they did give, for Fate had decided that no mortal would ever marry the Snow Queen. But in spite of that, many brave souls did their best to approach her, hoping always to persuade her.
Each suitor was allowed to enter the great ice palace with the crystal roof, where the Queen’s throne stood. But the second he declared his love and asked for her hand, thousands of goblins appeared to grasp him and push him over the rocks, down into bottomless abysses.
Without the slightest emotion, the Queen would watch the scene, her heart of ice unable to feel anything at all. The legend of the crystal palace and the beautiful heartless Queen spread as far as the most distant alpine valley, the home of a fearless chamois hunter. Fascinated by the tale, he decided to set out and try his luck. Leaving his valley, he journeyed for days on end, climbing the snowclad mountain faces, scaling icebound peaks and defying the bitterly cold wind that swept through the alpine gullies.
More than once he felt all was lost, but the thought of the lovely Snow Queen gave him new strength and kept him moving onwards. At last, after many days climbing, he saw glinting in the sunshine before him, the tall transparent spires of the ice palace.
Summoning all his courage, the young man entered the Throne Room. But he was so struck by the Snow Queen’s beauty that he could not utter a word. Shy and timid, he did not dare speak. So he knelt in admiration before the Queen for hours on end, without opening his mouth. The Queen looked at him silently, thinking all the while that, provided he did not ask her hand in marriage, there was no need to call the goblins.
Then, to her great surprise, she discovered that his behaviour touched her heart. She realised she was becoming quite fond of this hunter, much younger and more handsome than her other suitors. Time passed and the Snow Queen dared not admit, not even to herself, that she would actually like to marry the young man.
In the meantime, the goblins kept watch over their mistress; first they were astonished, then they became more and more upset. For they rightly feared that their Queen might be on the point of breaking the Law and bringing down on the heads of all the Mountain People the fury of Fate.
Seeing that the Queen was slow to give the order to get rid of her suitor, the goblins decided to take matters into their own hands. One night, as dusk fell, they slipped out of the cracks in the rock and clustered round the young chamois hunter. Then they hurled him into the abyss. The Snow Queen watched the whole scene from the window, but there was nothing she could do to stop them. However, her icy heart melted, and the beautiful cruel fairy suddenly became a woman.
A tear dropped from her eye, the first she had ever shed. And the Snow Queen’s tear fell on to a stone where it turned into a little silvery star.
This was the first edelweiss … the flower that grows only on the highest, most inaccessible peaks in the Alps, on the edge of the abyss and precipice …
