Photo: VegSoc

On the Veggie Snow site we tend to list smaller independent ski companies, as with these you get a more personal service. That means the person who you book with tends to speak to your chalet hosts and really makes sure you get the vegan/veggie food you deserve, rather than side dishes as an after thought and soya milk only by the third day.

However, we do sometimes make inquiries with the big ski companies, and so I'm going to put their responses here. Note that one persons idea of catering for vegans is boiled veg and a bit of pasta and another is vegan shepherds pie and lovely cakes. The less detail you get the more suspicious I am. Find out how well they cater for vegans.

It also helps to be one of several vegans or vegetarians, as it makes it more worth their while to make you something decent, especially the cakes.

Note how varying in depth, detail and enthusiasm the responses below are.

Skiworld

These people sound so promising we may well book a Veggie Snow group holiday with them one day to check them out. This is what they told us:

Just to let you know our chalet hosts work to a set menu plan so they they are trained in cooking a two week menu which includes an intersting and substantial different veggie option daily. The recipes they are given include instructions on how to tweak these recipes to make them vegan friendly. It is also no trouble at all for us to put guests in touch with their chalet hosts and resort managers in the weeks before arrival so that dietary requirements can be discussed.

The person in charge of our menu plans informs me that she furnishes all our staff with her own list of recipe and shopping ideas for vegan travellers.

If you have any questions about this please feel free to call or email.

Yours Sincerely

James Ferguson Sales Team Leader Skiworld 3 Vencourt Place London W6 9NU Tel: 0208 600 1648

and:

Please find attached an extract from the menu plan that we give to all our chalet staff which details catering for vegans and people with other dietary requirements. I’ve also attached one week worth of our standard menu plans so you can see how for every meal we detail how it can be adapted to suit any dietary need, or if that’s not possible, where a substitution for another recipe is required.

I hope you can see from this and from the information James has already provided that we are committed to ensuring that we are able to deliver top quality food to all our clients, regardless of their dietary requirements.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if there’s any more information you need.

Best regards Ali Smith Marketing Assistant

Thompson - TUI

09/04/08

Thank you for your email. I am sorry for the delay in responding to your email. I can advise that it would be possible to arrange for Vegan catering at our Chalets.

Kind regards

Heather Hawkes Show email address.

Pre-departure admin executive Ski , Lakes and Active division TUI UK

Silverski

This is a compilation of what I got back from Silverski after a bit of email questioning and encouragement when thinking of booking a whole chalet for vegans:

As long as we have prior notice as to how many vegans of other special requirements that a group might have, that is no problem at all.

If there was a group of vegans and they wouldn't mind helping us out by taking out some supplies that are easier to get hold of in England than in the Alps, then yes i couldn't see that ((vegan cakes)) being a problem. But of course this would depend on the chef as well.

Hazal and Emma

hazal@