Enterprising Meribel ski chalet company, Fish and Pips, have come up with the definitive answer to all those guests who want the recipes for the delicious dishes they had on holiday. They have put all their favourite recipes in a cookbook. The cookbook, A Portion of Fish and Pips, came out late 2009, and inspired them to then enter The Times chalet chef competition, which saw them walk away as winners.
Holly Fisher, one half of the Fish and Pips partnership, has been kind enough to answer a few questions:
What made you decide to publish a cookbook – and when did you first have the idea?
We have been thinking about doing it for a while now, probably 2 years ago or so.
It’s something that I have always wanted to do. The final decision was prompted mainly at the request of so many of our guests and also by one of our staff members who said we’d be mad not to. The more we thought about it, the more we thought that it wasn’t such a bad idea not only would it be a new challenge, but also a great piece of marketing and no one else in the chalet industry had done it before.
We’re really proud of the final product, but never in a million years could we have predicted how much work would be involved and I take my hat off to anyone would publishes a book! I think taking on a new resort will actually be less work than producing a cookbook, but that hasn’t put us off and we’re looking to bring out ‘A Second Helping of Fish&Pips’ next year. It has been worth it though in so many ways and really enjoyed working with our fab little team on it.
Did winning The Times chalet chef competition inspire you this season – and did many guests comment on it?
Actually it was the other way round, the cookbook inspired us to enter The Times chalet chef competition! If it wasn’t for the cookbook then the journalist from The Times would never have prompted us to enter the competition. It’s amazing what a little 120 page book can do.
I hope people have really enjoyed the book, we’ve had good feedback on it so far. They made really good Christmas presents especially for people who have stayed with us or worked with us, we had some guests buying up 10 at a time!
Who is actually responsible for the recipes in the book?
It was an almighty team effort. The recipes are representative of the food we produce in the chalets and are a combination of mine and Philippa’s, the chefs and even some of hosts who often make better cakes than the male chefs! We couldn’t have done without the help of the team.
A Portion of Fish and Pips is available to buy from their website at just £20. So why not get hold of a copy and try out some of those fabulous recipes!
