Food-loving skiers flock to this Alpine resort – and it’s easy to see why
There’s something slightly surreal about watching Italy’s top Michelin-starred chefs squeezed into a corner of a mountain hut cooking over portable gas stoves – even if the result is world-class comfort food.
But every December in Alta Badia, deep in the Dolomites, a gourmet safari on skis kicks off the resort’s A Taste for Skiing festival, a winter-long celebration of South Tirolean food and drink. The opening event sees skiers tour the resort’s high-altitude huts sampling dishes from the region’s culinary stars, who leave the comforts of their restaurant kitchens for more basic facilities.
This winter marks 15 years since the three-Michelin-starred chef Norbert Niederkofler of the St Hubertus Restaurant in San Cassiano’s Rosa Alpina Hotel conceived the idea of this unique culinary tour and the season-long festival. The proposal was as such: he and other chefs would take the refined cuisine they served in their illustrious restaurants and adapt it to suit the relaxed atmosphere of a mountain hut, which would then add these dishes to their menus for the season. With a portion of the proceeds going to a local children’s hospice, chefs were quick to sign up and, as such, the quality of the food on offer on the slopes in the region has skyrocketed.
“A recurring issue was that the food offerings in the mountain huts differed too much from what we provided in our restaurants,” said Niederkofler. “Today, thanks to A Taste for Skiing, the culinary offerings in the mountain refuges have significantly expanded. It’s wonderful to see this project is still thriving after all these years.”
Not just thriving but growing. The newest addition to the season-long event calendar is Delights on Ice on January 30, when the frozen Lake Sompunt in La Villa turns into an enchanting setting for the evening aperitivo with sommeliers on skates. That’s in addition to other events including Sommelier on the Slopes, which is hosted on seven occasions throughout the winter, when a guide and sommelier accompany guests from hut to hut as they sample Alto Adige wines, and the end-of-season Wine Skisafari, another wine tour without the sommelier.
Even without these special events hosted by the festival, between the restaurants in the six villages that make up the resort of Alta Badia and the 47 mountain huts scattered around the ski domain, the choice of places to eat in this part of Italy is enormous.
Although the Rosa Alpina Hotel and Niederkofler’s St Hubertus restaurant are closed for renovations until summer 2025 (with the chef focusing on his three-star Atelier Moessmer, a 45-minute drive away in Brunico), one-starred La Stüa di Michil in Corvara’s Hotel La Perla flies the Michelin flag with its creative menu (further afield across South Tyrol there are 24 Michelin stars, among 21 restaurants).
Head chef and Calabria native Simone Cantafio arrived in Corvara three years ago after working in France and Japan, and was instantly beguiled by the beauty of the Dolomites. “I chose this place because I must have a strong contact with nature to get my best inspiration,” he told me. “This place has something magical, and my heart is so in harmony with it.”
There was pure harmony on the plate when I sampled Cantafio’s contribution to a recent Gourmet Ski Safari – the seemingly humble cauliflower transformed into a silky soup with teriyaki cockerel sauce (a hint of Japan), mountain mushrooms and potato churros. He’s taking part in the event again this year, working wonders with typical mountain ingredients of potatoes, wild herbs, graukäse cheese and bacon. His restaurant, too, relies on river trout, mountain leeks and farmhouse chickens.
Andrea Israra, the head chef at Gourmet Hotel Gran Ander in Badia who returned to his family’s hotel after years working abroad, also found inspiration in the beauty of the Dolomites, but said the appeal goes deeper. “The connection to our gastronomic tradition, the warmth of the people who live here and the great hospitality that is offered are the reasons Alta Badia is so special,” he told me. “We realised it was time to take a step back in time by offering more of our Ladin culture on the plate.”
It’s this culture of the Ladin people from the Dolomites, with their own language that predates Italian and hearty mountain cuisine, that also sets Alta Badia apart. You can see it in the names of the popular mountain huts, including those on the Gourmet Ski Safari route – Ütia Bioch (which has a superb wine cellar), Ütia I Tablá and Rifugio Alpino Pralongiá.
Then there’s Las Vegas, which, despite the name (bestowed by a previous owner who had American friends come to visit), is as authentic as the other slopeside restaurants, with an emphasis on mountain dishes (think grilled venison, or polenta with mushrooms and cheese). Its owner, the irrepressible Ulli Crazzolara, likes to be generous with the grappa, so be warned.
If there’s one place that captures the energy and exuberance of Alta Badia, it’s Club Moritzino, at the top of Piz la Ila at 2,100m. Not only does it have a restaurant, wine bar and buzzing après-ski, but it also holds one of the best parties in the Alps.
Every Wednesday and Saturday evening, visitors take the cable car from La Villa up to the restaurant, where an enormous buffet awaits (tickets from €120), including heaped plates of Tirolean meats, cheeses, oysters and porchetta. And that’s just the aperitivo. After the first course, the Italian national anthem blares and that’s the cue for everyone to join the dance floor between courses – and then long into the night, before a snow cat (or their own skis) returns them to the village.
Essentials
A Taste for Skiing runs until March 2025 with various events throughout the season. For more information visit altabadia.org.
Inghams offers seven nights’ half-board at Hotel Col Alto in Corvara from £1,118pp, including flights and transfers. Hotel Sassongher in Corvara has doubles from €450 a night, B&B. Fly to Innsbruck with easyJet from £140 return including hold luggage, or SkyAlps to Bolzano from €423 including hold luggage.
