Italian ski resort\'s specialty Tucking into a plate of delicately presented pasta, complemented with a crisp white wine and a side serving of snow-capped views, I am expecting to pay a hefty price for my piste-side extravagance .
But my mouth-watering ski stop-off comes to a total of €16, a positive giveaway compared to most mountain meals.
Why so reasonable? Because the Alta Badia, in the Italian Dolomites, has a special festival in January, offering Michelin-starred meals for reasonable prices.
Actually, providing good value is a year-round policy, South Tyrol is famed for its local produce, and the chefs and restaurateurs that work there are fiercely proud of their hospitality.
But if you descend in January, there is even more chance of award-winning food without the price tag to match.
Despite only just finishing my pasta, I am secretly looking forward to my evening dinner, which will be prepared by six Michelin-starred chefs.
Established in 2004 by Norbert Niederkofler - the chef behind the two Michelin-starred St Hubertus restaurant in the Relais & Chateaux Rosa Alpina hotel in San Cassiano, a small village whose ski slopes form part of the Alta Badia - the Chef’s Cup week is packed full of opportunities to taste some incredible food, including that of nearly 100 other invited chefs.
There are cookery lessons, a gala dinner, an evening dinner in a refuge and a pasta party, among others. And if you can fit it in, there’s also some good skiing to be had.
Not sure my waistband can cope with a full week, I have opted for a long weekend, arriving on the Thursday, in time to get up the mountain for my wallet-friendly lunch at Ütia Bioch, a restaurant that is paired with the St Hubertus.
For those arriving outside the Chef\'s Cup week, fine dining on the slopes is still an option. Another concept, dubbed A Taste of Skiing, organises 11 Michelin-starred chefs to create signature lunchtime dishes to be served in various mountain refuges accompanied by South Tyrol wine.
A fabulous idea, the tortelli pasta stuffed with speck pate and bufala ricotta cheese on a bed of green beans and balsamic vinegar set me up perfectly for an afternoon cruising the slopes with my knowledgeable guide Diego.
The craggy Dolomites form a dramatic backdrop to the skiing in the Alta Badia – sheer pink-tinged rock faces rise vertically up, contrasting with the pillowy white meadows below.
Soft, well-groomed snow on rolling reds and blues is the order of the day – everything we ski is wide enough to carve large Giant Slalom turns on (or at least they are the turns I am doing in my head) and crowds are noticeably absent. Maybe everyone is just enjoying second and third courses at lunch.
A particular highlight is the Hidden Valley run, accessed by cable car from Passo Falzarego. Letting the rest of the skiers from the cable car go ahead, we have the 1,000m vertical run to ourselves. Out on a limb from the rest of the skiing, the red run swoops and swerves through towering cliffs, and as the sun begins to set the views are bathed in a glowing light. I rubberneck the scenery so much I nearly fall over a couple of times.
Back at my hotel, the Rosa Alpina – home to the St Hubertus and one of the three host hotels for the Chef’s Cup – I sink back in the sumptuous Daniela Steiner spa in preparation for the evening event, the Gourmet Safari, it is the part of the week’s programme that had caught my eye in the first place.
I am in for a gastronomic seven-course tour of the three host hotel restaurants in the Alta Badia – the St Hubertus in the Rosa Alpina, La Siriola in the Ciasa Salares hotel near San Cassiano, and La Stüa de Michil in hotel La Perla in Corvara.
Waiting for us diners are the Michelin-starred chefs of each establishment, plus an accompanying guest chef from such celebrated restaurants across Europe as the Mistral on the banks of Lake Como or the Arnolfo in Tuscany.
Two courses are served at each restaurant, paired with a complementary glass of vintage champagne. Favourite courses include peacock ravioli with pioppini mushrooms at La Siriola and goose liver with roasted pumpkin, mugo pine meringue, liver terrine and candied kumquats, from our curator Norbert at St Hubertus.
The final course is a buffet of desserts served in the comfortable lounge of the Rosa Alpina.
The following day there is no escape from the impeccable food – the breakfast at the Rosa Alpina is a lesson in beauty with eggs any which way you want them, and fresh-out-the-oven dainty pastries.
A more extensive ski uncovers an array of charming slopes and even a spot of untracked fresh powder down towards Corvara, La Villa and Badia. Around each of the villages there are welcoming nursery slopes and gentle blues for beginners and early intermediates to progress to. An early intermediate friend particularly appreciates the rolling nature of the slopes – they go up as well as down, so she knows she can always stop, not matter how much food she\'s eaten.
Lunch at Club Moritzino, named after its charming owner, is a more basic affair, due to my food hangover from the night before, but a plate of different cheeses manages to tempt me to tuck in despite my lack of hunger.
A decadent spot, Moritzino’s has hosted parties over the years for everyone from Berlusconi to a select group of Maserati clients, who were partying there until 4am the previous night.
On my final evening, a Bubbles party is held at the Rosa Alpina. Different chefs are installed in its three kitchens and we’re encouraged to wander around behind the scenes, chat to the chefs about what they’ve prepared and take our pick from the dishes. For such exquisite food, I’m surprised by the friendly and welcoming atmosphere. It’s a welcome respite from the snobbishness that can often be associated with good food elsewhere.
Enjoying a last ski on the flattering slopes the following morning, the simplicity of the area is striking. Everyone I’ve spoken to has stressed the importance of enjoying the beautiful things in life, and when things look and taste this good it’s no wonder they want to show it off.