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Why Michelin-starred chef Phil Howard traded the streets of London for the slopes of the Alps

Phil Howard is the London-based chef behind La Plagne's Union restaurant - Pierre Augier
Phil Howard is the London-based chef behind La Plagne's Union restaurant - Pierre Augier

Phil Howard is known as the chef’s chef – a solid and dependable chef who built up his revered reputation at Mayfair’s The Square, which he owned for 25 years and secured two Michelin stars.

Now in charge of the more relaxed Elystan Street in Chelsea, he’s mixed things up even further and last winter opened a restaurant, Union, in unassuming La Plagne, in the French Alps.

We caught up with the talented chef to talk about the merits of Alpine food and early-morning ski touring.

What attracted you to La Plagne?

About 12 years ago, when the kids were still young, my wife and I wanted to buy a chalet in the Alps and by the time we took all our wishes into account we ended up with not a huge list of resorts. La Plagne wasn’t somewhere we’d skied before but it met all our requirements (huge terrain, high-altitude skiing, French speaking, affordable), and we saw a chalet in Montalbert, one of La Plagne’s 10 villages, that we loved enormously so we bought it.

How did you meet Martin, the co-owner of Union?

Martin runs the ski shop in Montalbert. He’s a hugely experienced ski technician and coached the French slalom team. Montalbert is very modest but his passion for skiing and the mountains is huge. We met through ski rental and became good mates. He introduced me to ski touring, which we’ve done a lot together, and we’ve just taken it from there.

phil howard - Credit: 2015 Getty Images/Alan Crowhurst
Chef Phil Howard has worked in some of London's top establishments Credit: 2015 Getty Images/Alan Crowhurst

And does he have any restaurant experience?

No, he has no useful restaurant experience, at all! People might have questioned my judgement, but the truth is I liked the idea of opening a restaurant and he was really into the idea of doing it. It makes life a lot easier and is massively beneficial having someone on board who is a prominent figure in the local community.

When did you start skiing?

I started when I was about 10. I grew up in South Africa and left there when I was about eight. We came over to live in England and did the classic one week a year ski trip until I was about 20. Then life, work, kids and other commitments took over and I didn’t ski for about 10 years. When I was about 30 we joined some friends for their annual ski holiday, then someone invited us for a weekend and introduced me to that whole concept of skiing more than once a season – and that was the beginning of the story.

What would your dream day on the slopes involve?

On the whole I’ve actually done all sorts of lovely things in terms of skiing – from heliskiing in Alaska to bashing around on a blue run with kids – and I still enjoy it all, but if it’s a beautiful morning and it snowed the night before I like to put my touring skis on and head out first thing in the morning.

union - Credit: Pierre Augier/Pierre Augier
Union is a million miles away from the streets of London where Phil works full time Credit: Pierre Augier/Pierre Augier

That whole thing of chasing fresh tracks and trying to get to the right place before anybody else is so unattractive and self-seeking, but if you’ve got a pair of touring skis you just put them on at 6.30 in the morning, you get to see the sun rise, and it’s a really beautiful way of guaranteeing some epic skiing.

The chalet we bought is right on the boundary of the whole ski area – so we’ve only got to walk up the hill and turn right and the mountains are all there, it’s great. I like the wilderness and the mountains, especially as I spend my life in a basement kitchen – hiking up a mountain in the morning on your own or with a couple of mates is just really good therapy apart from anything else.

So quite often that’s how my days in the mountains start, then if I’ve had my skiing needs met by nine o’clock I’m happy to bash round and do anything with anyone. I’m not someone who needs to ski powder all day every day but if the conditions are great then I’ll go out and get my fill before breakfast then it’s done.

Where are your favourite spots in La Plagne?

I really like the skiing over on the Montalbert side and down through the trees – when the snow is good, the conditions are good and the visibility is good (which keeps everyone else dispersed throughout the whole terrain), then the slopes around Montalbert are very empty and they’re great. I really like the bowl off the back of Aime la Plagne down towards Montalbert too.

I either stay close to home or, if it’s cold and sunny then I head to the Champagny side because it’s south-facing. And we often head over to Les Arcs because the skiing there is great, particularly over the far side around Villaroger.

Is there any particular ski fitness you do to get ready for the slopes?

No but I’m super active – my job keeps me generally fit and I run a lot, I do triathlons through the summer and I do lots of spinning.

What’s your favourite alpine dish?

I too – like the rest of the world – love all those rich, cheesy alpine dishes. I love a great fondue, I love a great burger, I love a great tartiflette. I enjoy all those things and I’m certainly not a health freak but once I’m into my second or third week or trip that record begins to wear thin, and it was this that fuelled the desire to do something different with Union. Not that our menu is radical at all, it’s just not the classical repertoire.

The sort of thing I don’t like is a salad with tomatoes, peppers or sweetcorn – mid-winter that just doesn’t work. That’s one of the key things with Union – we absolutely stick to the seasons, we don’t buy fresh tomatoes in the middle of the winter because it just doesn’t make sense.

What’s the signature dish at Union?

What is a signature dish? I haven’t really got a signature dish, but we do a cashew nut hummus with roasted vegetables, light curry dressing and lime that if we were to take off the menu at Union there’d probably be a mutiny. We do a hand cut Strozzapretti [hand-rolled pasta] with chicken stock, butter, black truffles and Parmesan, which is fantastic, we do a really lovely cured salmon dish which is very clean, and our double baked Beaufort soufflé with a truffle emulsion main course is epic.

Union dish - Credit: andrew hayes
Union's daube of ox cheek Credit: andrew hayes

It’s all about tapping into local ingredients but doing them in a slightly more refined way. And we always have a great slow-cooked dish on – this year it’s going to be slow-cooked pork cheeks with smoked green potato. So a lot of the menu at Union is food that suits the cold environment and hungry people, but equally we serve lots of lovely green things. We’ve got a fantastic salad of green beans and salsify with hazlenut pesto; it’s the kind of food that is a lovely healthy option if you’re sick to death of cheese and chips.

Do you get the chance to get in the kitchen much at Union?

I spend enough time in kitchens in London! I do do some services, and have complete control over the menus, as well as working pre-opening and the opening.

Any plans to open more restaurants in the Alps?

Not necessarily more but I think Union might evolve. However, Montalbert is my bolthole, it’s where I like to go and escape, so I don’t want to create a massive headache there! But the truth is it’s a small restaurant and I think probably it needs to grow if it’s ever to be a financial success. Not that that’s what it’s all about but it’s got to at least make something.

la plagne - Credit: Philippe ROYER
La Plagne is a popular resort with British skiers Credit: Philippe ROYER

And is there room to expand there?

There are certainly opportunities there. And the nice thing about being in La Plagne is it’s not one of those fancy European resorts with Chanel and Hermès down the high street, it’s a very run of the mill resort so there are opportunities to do things well and be noticed. For example, you could do a great little coffee shop – there’s nowhere to get a decent coffee – that serves amazing sweet things in the afternoons, or a fantastic deli with takeaway food, so there are ways we might expand but I don’t think I’ll do another restaurant as such.

You described yourself as a part-time ski bum, is the plan one day to spend the whole winter in the Alps?

I think so. I do feel that I robbed myself of one of life’s great things by not doing a season when I was younger, but having said that I don’t know if I could go out there on December 15 and not come back until the end of April, because I have responsibilities and family in London.

Ideally what I’d like to do is feel that I’m based in the mountains rather than based in London, and just come back to the city when I’m needed, rather than it be the other way round.

Are there any ski resorts on your bucket list?

I’ve only done one trip to the States – I skied in Beaver Creek and really loved it, but my one big bucket list resort is Jackson Hole. It’s somewhere I’d love to ski and I like to think that I’ll launch myself down Corbett’s Couloir, or at least I like to think that while sitting in my chair in my office! Whether I would do it or not it’s a challenge I’d at least like to stare in the face.