Introducing The Hive Cookery School – Chalet Staff Training in The Alps

Introducing The Hive Cookery School… A message from Christina

After three Winters in the 3 Valleys, the last two as RM for Ski Beat in La Tania, I decided to set up The Hive as a school to train chalet hosts – not just the cookery skills that they need, but everything else that goes with the job – customer service, cleaning, maintenance, budgeting and much more. From my experience training and managing chalet hosts, it’s become very clear that lots of people come out to do a season with little idea of what it actually involves, in terms of the work load, hours, repetition and exhaustion.

The aim of The Hive is to give people a very real idea of what to expect (without putting them off!), and obviously how to minimise their time in the chalet in order to maximise their free time. The more people are prepared for a season, the more they’ll get out of it and enjoy it and the less likely they are to pack it in after a few weeks or struggle throughout. Shazza and Zohi who are both experienced and brilliant chalet hosts, some of you will know from La Tania, will be teaching the courses and passing on their knowledge too.

The school is based in Plan Peisey, near Les Arcs, and The Hive will run one and two week courses throughout July, August and September. Students live and train in a typical alpine chalet which gives them the advantage of learning in exactly the kind of environment they’ll end up working in. Plus they’ll get the opportunity to explore and enjoy the amazing mountains in their down time with excursions for their day or afternoon off so that they can try out white water rafting, mountain biking, paragliding or whatever tickles their fancy. They’ll have a couple of hours free every afternoon when they could go hiking in the Vanoise National Park, play tennis, go for a swim or just chill in the chalet with a DVD.

The Hive are working closely with some of the UK’s leading Tour Ops to help them recruit this winter. All students will be given a detailed reference and we’ll help them to tailor their CVs for the ski industry and give them hints and tips on interview techniques. Whilst we can’t guarantee that a course at The Hive will lead straight to a job, we’ll work bloody hard to try to place each student not just in any job, but with a company and in a resort that would suit them.

There’s lots of information of course on our website, and here are our social media links too:

www.thehivecookeryschool.co.uk
www.facebook.com/thehivecookeryschool
www.twitter.com/thehivecookery

Rgds Christina Hadden