Kids' food in a Chalet Company chalet

At the Chalet Company, we love hosting families in our chalets in Méribel. There’s a real magic to a snowy ski holiday with kids around. One very important thing, to ensure our smaller guests have the best ski holiday everrr, is the food. Grown-up food sometimes just won’t cut it. We make sure that kids food in our chalets is never an after-thought and will work worth you/your family to plan a week’s-worth of delicious food. We’ve been doing this for a few years now and, each year, gather as much feedback from children and adults alike. The former can be brutally honest sometimes – but we love it! In line with all the home-truths we’ve gathered, from our young food critics, the following system is what we’ve come to think of as the best solution.

Feeding babies and toddlers in the chalet

For the littlest guests, we can provide highchairs to help with mealtimes. We’re also happy to puree food for you and you will have access to a microwave. If there are specific foods, accessories, crockery that you use, please bring them with you. Get in touch with our team before your trip to ask about specific items – we may be able to get hold of them for you and save on packing!

Kids' breakfast in our chalets

We wake up one day wanting the full English, a pancake stack or omelette with all the fillings… some days we’re satisfied with a yoghurt. Kids are no different! We’re always happy to serve a smaller portion of whatever the adults are having, or other hot breakfast items like scrambled eggs or bacon. More often than not, we find that they’re happier with an exciting French cereal, some porridge and honey or croissants and jam. We’ll always have yoghurts and fruit available too for the optimistic and healthy! All of this we can make sure is served in time for the ordeal that is dressing your children in ski kit and schlepping all their stuff to ski lessons!

Afternoon tea for families

Coming home to afternoon tea in a chalet is really exciting – for all ages! It feels like a proper holiday treat! Kids love being able to pick at delicious bits and bobs after a long, exhausting day at ski school or kids club. There will be a plethora of cakes, biscuits, breads and spreads on offer throughout the week (and fruit, don’t forget the fruit!). If you’d like some slightly healthier options, or savoury such as mini-sandwiches, give us a bit of an advance warning and we will happily provide.

Ski holiday kids’ tea

For dinner, we will work with you on timings. Kids could eat smaller, similar portions of the adults’ dinner – at the same time as adults, or in a separate sitting a little earlier. Alternatively, if you’d like something different for the younger ones, we’d aim to serve this at a slightly earlier than the grown-ups’ dinner (our chalet cooks are superheroes, but there are only so many different meals they can concoct at one time). For children’s food in the chalet, we offer a two-course, freshly-cooked menu – chosen by you. We aim to discuss this before your stay, or early on, but it can always be adjusted as the week goes on. Below are a list of suggestions that have gone down extremely well in the past! (Please note that we can only cook one kids’ main and one kids’ pudding option per evening).

Suggestions that have gone down well in the past:

Fussy eaters

We know that some kids are really fussy. Some kids go through phases of what they like to eat, and some kids are nervous eating food in an unfamiliar place. Chat to us in advance if you think this will be the case. A holiday, after all, is where we should all be enjoying and indulging ourselves… so, if a certain someone wants spag bol every night, we will oblige if it’s fine by you!

Eating with the grown-ups

Alternatively, some little humans don’t blink an eye at joining the adults in their meals and are interested and enjoy different sauces, spices and flavours. We’re happy to do smaller portions of grown-ups’ dinners, and put sauces or seasoning on the side.

Allergies and dietary requirements

It goes without saying we take allergies and dietary requirements really seriously in the chalet. We need to know if there are things that a) can’t be in a certain person’s food or b) can’t be in the chalet at all. If there are things you’re unsure about your child eating, or they haven’t eaten before, please speak to us – a chalet holiday up a mountain may not be the best time to find out you child has an allergy!

Top tips for food on the ski hill

We leave lunch and snacks throughout the day up to you, as your ski holiday schedule is your own. However, we have some tips:

• Buy a multipack of little chocolate bars or cereal bars from the supermarket. One of these, popped in a pocket, is a perfect boost when energy levels dip. If it’s really cold, solid chocolate or crunchy bars can get very hard! So we recommend filled bars like Kinder or a chewy cereal bar.
• Whatever you pack for kids to eat on the hill – aim for things that can be eaten with gloves still on or relatively quickly with gloves off. If you’re snacking on a chairlift or picnicking outside, it’s not worth fixing the hunger problem but creating a cold problem!
• If it is a really cold week, a small flask of hot chocolate brought in a backpack can be a lifesaver. Warmth + sugar hit = happy kids. Make sure the flask is definitely water tight if you’re skiing with it in your bag! We find our Chillys bottle actually works really well for this.

With food, it will always be hard to please everyone and cook to everyone’s specific tastes whatever their age! However, we like to think that families are always full and happy on our holidays. We’re always open to working with you on what to cook in your chalet and we appreciate discussions as far in advance as possible. Bon Appetit!