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Finest ski cuisine
The world’s best ski resort restaurants
 | In the old days, stagecoaches used to call in at the site of this classy Killington restaurant, considered among New England’s finest. In keeping with Vermont’s timeless appeal, Hemingway’s puts tradition over trendiness. |
Jon Gilbert Foy |
Apart from a bubbling hot tub with a champagne bucket chilling in the snow, few things can coax winter weary bones into another day on the mountain like a soul-warming feed.
In North America, ski food has long meant comfort food: steaming bowls of chili. Platters heaped with pasta meant to load you with carbs for the afternoon’s runs. And plates of messy nacho goodness enjoyed après-ski.
Over the past decade, however, ski towns across the country — from Killington to Lake Tahoe — have seen a food revolution with an eye on bringing classier fare to the slopes that’s evocative of the region while drawing on a European sense of refinement.
All that creativity in the kitchen is really upping the mountain-town ante. Forbes.com recently named Salt Lake City an up-and-coming culinary capital, putting the spotlight on the city’s local farmers and artisan cheese makers, bakers and chefs for “remaking the city’s culinary image.”
Not surprisingly, the trend toward innovation paired with homegrown goodness has spread to Utah’s ski towns, too, with some of the state’s top restaurants found at the Park City-area resorts.
“We do things a little bit differently in that we combine a classic ski town sense of taste with a bit of whimsy that still has the fine dining element,” said Zane Holmquist, Executive Chef at the Glitretind Restaurant at Deer Valley’s posh Stein Eriksen Lodge. “We want to make that link between the people’s memories of ski food from childhood.”
Comfort food
The Glitretind draws a stylish après-ski crowd for feel-good comfort food such as hand-cut garlic French fries, and fondue made to the classic recipe (kirsch and Swiss cheese) or with a Wasatch slant, combining white cheddar with local Captain Bastard’s Oatmeal Stout. Dinner’s offerings, further refined, might be Rocky Mountain lamb T-bones or squash blossom risotto with Utah goat cheese.
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And while chili is on Holmquist’s menu too, his version is far from classic. “Our wild game chili has no beans,” he said, “It’s all buffalo, elk and boar meat — there’s even some coffee in there.” Tying in Western elements such as game and local wild mushrooms, said Holmquist, gives the food a sense of place.
In Telluride, Colo., sense of place is wrought from several worldly sources at Honga’s Lotus Petal, a Pan-Asian restaurant in the historic part of town that’s home to the clean, fragrant cuisine of Korean-American chef, Honga Im Hopgood.
“Typically, when I think of ski towns, I think elk, and more heartier fare. If there’s fish, it tends to be trout,” said Hopgood, “So it’s a definite balance having an Asian restaurant here at 8,750 feet, and trying to be conscious about the food I provide — trying to source things locally, where they’re available, and working with high altitude farmers.”
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Stein Eriksen Lodge Upscale comfort food in an uber-cozy European lodge setting will put a glow on your cheeks faster than a cup of gluhwein at this Deer Valley restaurant inside the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah. |
“Everything’s got a yin yang element. And I think especially after skiing you crave more yang foods — more hearty foods that are going to warm you and sustain you,” said Hopgood, citing her Vietnamese pho, lemongrass shrimp soup and coconut chicken curries as perennial favorites. “Your body needs to rejuvenate,” she said, “And at the same time that these foods are hearty and satisfying, they’re also clean and will leave you feeling good so you can sleep well at 9,000 feet.”
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