Don’t blame every mess on Eton

SLOPE STYLE Longing for the mountains but stuck at home this year? For a taste of the Alps, host an at-home après-ski with Savoyard-inspired recipes, suggests Madeleine Howell

Amale friend in his early 20s tells me he’s taken Eton off his CV. He’s applying for jobs in London and said mentioning his school comes with “too many connotations”. (So that’s £100k well spent by his parents.) Then came this week’s news that Hasan Patel, a bright 16-year-old from an east London estate, has won a £76,000 bursary to Eton. Hasan’s a Corbyn supporter who announced his news online, only to be slammed as “a champagne socialist”. He’s had to take a few days off Twitter, saying the abuse is too tiring. The poor guy’s 16! I know for some it’s tempting to blame every ill on the world’s most controversial school. But let’s not penalise young minds, who we may need to help sort our mess out in the future.

‘Alpine food is comfort food: cheese and potatoes; a hearty refuel after a long day in the mountains,” says Steve Paddock, chef and co-founder of restaurants Raclette Brothers and Alpes in London. “My favourite is tartiflette, a potato gratin baked in a skillet with potatoes, cream, bacon lardons, white wine and reblochon cheese.”

An Alpine feast is a convivial affair: “Classic French cuisine isn’t made for sharing, but the cuisine of the Haute-savoie certainly is. It’s not fancy: it’s about eating socially, enjoying a bottle of wine.”

If you’re not heading for the slopes this year, there’s nothing to say you can’t enjoy such foods here in the UK, not just in restaurants but also at home. If you’re aiming to go the full Savoyard, you could score yourself a mini raclette grill; failing that, the grill in your oven will work.

Simply gather a group of friends and family, stock up on cheese, cured meats, baguette, potatoes and pickles and go wild.

“It’s an unpretentious cuisine,” says Paddock. “You can have whatever you like really, as long as it involves lots of melted cheese. That said, there’s nothing quite like having a proper raclette grill in the middle of the table and scraping the just melted cheese straight off the wheel.”

The cheeses produced in Alpine regions that are easiest to get hold of include reblochon, beaufort, abondance, tomme de Savoie and raclette, available from good cheesemongers online or in store (Neal’s Yard Dairy, Hamish Johnston or Paxton & Whitfield).

In terms of charcuterie, there are no hard-and-fast rules: saucisson is traditional, but Paddock also recommends more delicately flavoured pork charcuterie such as coppa or prosciutto. Anything too punchy, such as bresaola, might overpower some of the more delicate cheeses.

Then there’s the question of what to drink. In traditional Alpine restaurants, guests are only allowed to drink wine or schnapps with fondue. This derives from an old wives’ tale claiming that any other drink, including water, will prevent the cheese being broken down properly and make you ill.

Although there’s no evidence for that, Victoria Moore, our wine correspondent, does recommend taking the opportunity to sample local wines with these dishes: “The tannin and bright acidity of a red such as lagrein, which is found in the Italian Südtirol, pairs well with these foods – the prickle of the tannin and the refreshing acidity gives the palate a bit of a rest in between cheesy mouthfuls. I also like the glacial freshness of whites made from jacquèyre, which is found in the Savoie.”

As a digestif, there’s the absinthe-related spirit genepi, cherry kirsch or pear Williamine, a Swiss eau de vie. Paddock’s favourite is demi-peche (lager mixed with peach syrup)

And for dessert? It has to be an Austrianstyle apple strudel, or a slice of Bavarian Apfelkuchen.