Italian ski holidays offer more for skiers than just zipping and carving for hours on freshly groomed slopes. In fact, it is Italy’s rich food culture that attracts an elite group of gourmands to Courmayeur each year, during the Mountain Gourmet Ski Experience. Here, celebrity chefs behave as culinary alchemists, experimenting with powerful flavour combinations from traditional British and Italian cuisine. Each evening offers bespoke tasting menus, paired with local wines as guests dine amidst the awe-inspiring scenery of Italy’s Mont Blanc.

The quaint town of Courmayeur is modest in size but full of history, charm and style. Beneath the towering Mont Blanc mountain, the cobbled streets are lined with gastronomic restaurants, buzzing bars and chic boutique shops. There are a vast range of ski slopes for different level skiers, ranging from off-piste, mogul runs to guide-led ski excursions through the Aosta Valley, which are guaranteed to work up an appetite for the evening gourmet experience.

The resort is overflowing with mountain restaurants serving beautifully cooked, authentic food, accompanied with local Italian wines that distinguish Courmayeur as a gourmand’s dream. Each meal gives a nod to the local specialties from the Aosta Valley, such as hearty soups, an assortment of cured meats, cheeses and decadent gnocchi and hand-spun pasta. Since mountain restaurants are easily accessible by cable car, tourists can enjoy the Alpine epicurean lifestyle without even touching a pair of skis.

The Mountain Gourmet Ski Experience was the brainchild of celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal OBE and Amin Momen, founder of Momentum Ski, who specialise in curating bespoke ski holidays. The event was designed to fuse the best of traditional British cuisine with authentic Italian cuisine, in the setting of their favourite ski resort, Courmayeur. Previous years have seen Clare Smyth, Claude Bosi, Jason Atherton, Marcus Wareing and Heston himself take over the kitchens of stunning Alpine restaurants to cook up an exclusive feast for their guests. This years’ headliners will be celebrity chefs Tom Kerridge of The Hand & Flowers and Phil Howard of Elystan Street, Chelsea.

From the beginning, guests will realise this is not any ordinary Michelin-star dining experience. In fact, it is the mountain dinners, a rustic sharing dinner at Rifuglio Maison Vieille and the tasting menu at La Chaumière, which stand out as the most extraordinary part of the experience. The evening adventure begins with a memorable cable-car ride featuring panoramic views of the moon-lit peaks and ridges of Mont Blanc. At the top, guests are met by a fleet of purring snowmobiles, where they begin a 10-minute electrifying climb up barren ski slopes and darting through the forest, where patches of the star-lit sky are seen in glimpses through tree breaks.

In pursuit of the Rigufio Maison Vielle, the procession of snowmobiles snake down the slope through a candle-lit pathway leading to the quaint restaurant, glistening with fairy lights which mirror the star-filled sky. A glass of champagne appears in each hand, as guests are led to a canapé reception, where they gather around the crackling fire pits. The restaurant’s charismatic Tuscan host, Giacomo, welcomes everyone into the iconic hut with walls coated in sports memorabilia, flags and posters.

On this evening, the headlining chefs bring their families, to dine amongst the guests, creating a relaxed environment. The four-course dinner features Rifugio Maison Vielle’s house chef Abdul Rahmi’s signature dish ‘Spaghetti alla Bottarga’, which boasts a rainbow of colours with the red of the tomato, the yellow of the grated bottarga roe (fish eggs), the green of the parsley and artichoke with the delicate scent of lemon rind blended in.

After dessert, DJ Niko de Rohan takes centre stage, as guests drink the restaurant’s signature flaming ‘friendship cup’ cocktail, and party until the last chairlift at 2am back to Courmayeur.

Guests return to the mountains again to reach La Chaumiere, a typically alpine restaurant with a rustic atmosphere of exposed wooden beams and large windows, overlooking the majestic peaks of the Mont Blanc range. The atmosphere is alive with jovial chatter as guests wait in anticipation to be amazed by a combination of unusual flavour combinations guaranteed to make their tastebuds sing. In an instant, the celebrity chefs appear from the kitchen doors, which release an aroma of smoky meats interrupted by moments of truffle – a preview of the courses to come.

The five-course tasting menu will feature a starter and meat main course prepared by Tom Kerridge, the fish course and dessert by Phil Howard and pasta course prepared by La Chaumiere’s own house chef, Claudio Brigati. In the past, Tom Kerridge and his team have created dishes which exhibit originality and creativity in pairing flavours, such as roast quail stuffed with seared foie gras and decorated with black truffle and pastrami sauce.

As with most Italian pasta dishes, there are very few ingredients needed to make the tastebuds sing, but Chef Claudio Brigati brings out a contemporary twist to the traditional Aosta Valley cuisine, with his fresh Monte Bianco Plìn Ravioli, stuffed with minced beef and vegetables cooked in red wine and garnished with a decadent creamy Mont D’or cheese foam.

For excellent drinking, put your trust in the sommelier and patron Alessandra Demos, who compliments each course with a selection of fine local Italian wine. The regional sparkling wine, ‘Cuvée des Guides’ is renowned as being the highest bubbles in Europe, made 7,000 feet above sea level on the slopes of Mont Blanc. During the day, there is an opportunity to visit the Morgex Cave Mont Blanc winery cellar, which is dedicated to the maturation of this beloved sparkling wine. There are local guides who offer tours along the panoramic Skyway cable car route, arranging a group tasting of the finest still and sparkling white wines at the Cave Mont Blanc winery.

For the pinnacle of the dinners, Tom Kerridge and Phil Howard will take over the Petit Royal restaurant, in the iconic Grand Hotel Royal & Golf, at the heart of Courmayeur. The celebrity duo joins forces with the residential Italian Michelin-starred Chef Paolo Griffa, to create a seven-course tasting extravaganza.

In this minimalist-themed restaurant, the food shines, with a riot of colours and flavours, to please both the eyes and the palette. Paolo’s innovative flavour combinations such as his venison, chestnut and blueberry tagliatelle, served on a bed of cocoa egg pasta, are sure to draw attention, due to the creative spin he undergoes on Aosta Valley’s authentic and flavoursome tradition.

In Courmayeur you are spoiled for choice, not just with the 23 mountainside restaurants for long, lazy Italian lunches, but also because of the things to do and see. The resort offers extraordinary heli-skiing and off-piste opportunities to explore the slopes of the Aosta Valley. For less confident skiers, there is an abundance of decadent activities to fill their days such as wine and produce tasting, cooking workshops, trips to the luxury thermal bath and spa or even dogsledding with a team of four huskies.

The Mountain Gourmet Ski Experience is expertly choreographed in an intimate setting where guests interact with the highly talented chefs as they create their gourmet fare. With a unique opportunity to rub shoulders with some of Britain’s culinary legends and sample their bespoke culinary creations, the Mountain Gourmet Ski Experience is the epitome of foodie retreats for epicurean skiers. What better place to be in than the resort where there are more mountain restaurants than ski slopes?