10.30 After service, all the kitchen staff sit down together and have breakfast. It’s a good opportunity to get together and have a chat about how the morning went – there’s always a bit of banter flying about so it makes for a good laugh. To work effectively as a team, we all need to get on. I’m quite laid back, but we still get everything done on time and to the highest standards. As Head Chef I don’t really see the need to shout and swear at my staff like certain celebrity chefs do! I’m a northern lad – we’re grafters, not shouters! 

12.00 Once morning service has finished and the prep has been done for evening service I pretty much head off to the slopes for the afternoon. With all that snow outside it’s almost criminal not to! I’m half decent at skiing and snowboarding but with all the practice I get, I should be shouldn’t I? I’ve spent years working the winter seasons. I started out as a chalet host, then worked my way up via a stint as a lodge manager and hospitality supervisor.

15.30 I usually head back from the slopes for a shower and an hour’s power nap if there’s time. It can be quite a gruelling job, but I don’t find it particularly stressful. If you’ve got a good team working with you and you’re organised, there’s no reason why there should be any problems. You can encounter a fussy guest now and again but so far we’ve not had something or someone we can’t deal with!

17.30 I'm back in the kitchen to get everything ready for dinner. All the meals are cooked to order rather than offered as a buffet, which ensures every meal is fresh as you would expect in any good restaurant. My signature dish during the winter season is probably Beef Wellington followed by sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce. You can’t beat that. I like to cook a few traditional Austrian dishes as well, such as Schnitzel (pork strips in breadcrumbs, lightly fried in butter) which we serve with cranberry sauce. That always goes down well.

22.00 Once we’ve finished up with dinner I finally get to have a sit down and am usually pretty tired by now but I’ll still be thinking about tomorrow’s menu. The great thing for me as a chef is that the people who come here for a skiing holiday are generally open to trying traditional food, and are used to fitting in with other countries’ customs. We get the odd request for sausage and chips, but we try and encourage people to experiment. Mind you, saying that I had frogs’ legs a little while ago when I was in France and that might have been an experiment too far. The feet were a little unnerving to say the least. But before you ask, yes, they do taste like chicken!

FLIC CARTER, CHALET HOST 

06.30 Luckily I’m a morning person so when my alarm goes I’m immediately up and in the shower and then on my way to the chalet and my guests.

07.30 I arrive at the chalet to clear up any debris if the guests had a late night. Then I’ll start preparing a continental breakfast, closely followed by a cooked option for up to 12 guests which needs to be ready for 8am. 

08.00 It’s a nice homely environment so people tend to come down in their PJs or thermals having been roused by the smell of breakfast cooking. You get a feel for who’s chatty in the morning and who isn’t – so if someone’s not a morning person, I’ll give them their breakfast and leave them to it. One of the reasons I love the job is the daily contact I have with a wide variety of people. That said, you also need to be able to judge when people would prefer to keep themselves to themselves.

09.00 While breakfast is on the go, I’ll also get to work baking the daily cake for my guests. My lemon drizzle cake always goes down a storm. It’s just one of the things I learnt on the Neilson training course along with menu development, time management and housekeeping. 

10.00 While the cake’s cooling, I’ll get stuck into cleaning, hoovering and making all the beds in the chalet. Once that’s all done, the cake’s cool enough for icing. You see, it sounds like a hectic juggling act but it’s actually all about time management!

11.00 A lot of my friends think I’m weird but I actually don’t find the cleaning all that bad! It’s almost therapeutic. And of course, there’s always the lure of a few hours on the mountain to spur me on! I can’t deny that the chance to enjoy a few hours skiing is a great perk of the job. It really energises you for the rest of the day and evening. Before I leave the chalet, the last thing I do is prepare the tea and coffee things so that the guests can walk straight in from the slopes and enjoy afternoon tea.

12.00 I usually aim to be on the chairlift for midday for an afternoon on the slopes. That’s usually when I think about my mates stuck working back home in England!

17.00 After a quick shower I arrive at the guests’ chalet to freshly prepare the evening meal. Dinner is always a three course meal. We’re given a core menu but we’re allowed plenty of flexibility to improvise which is great for getting your creative juices going. Of course you always get people with different tastes or dietary requirements. I’ve had guests who were dairy intolerant and others who were gluten free so there’s always a challenge. In a job like this you’ve got to love cooking and so obviously it’s always been a passion of mine. But the great thing about cooking for chalet guests is that you get to hear their feedback and compliments.

18.00 My most popular meal is a starter of home made cream of leek and potato soup, followed by honey roast pork with apple sauce, in a pork gravy, balsamic roast potatoes and honey roasted carrots. Then a chocolate fondant with home made praline ice cream. It sounds like a tall order but the trick is to do as much of the preparation in the morning. 

18.30 Of course I get stressed if things start running late. That’s when you need to calm yourself down, explain to the guests it’s going to be a bit late and open some more bottles of wine and get some more nibbles out. People always think that it must be even harder work if you’re looking after children within the party but it’s actually the opposite. Kids are great because they’re always willing to help you out. You can always get them to lay the table for you because they think it’s a great game.

20.00  After I’ve cleaned up and put everything in the dishwasher, I’m not in the mood to cook for myself so I’ll usually grab a sandwich at home later. I’m the same when I go back to England. My mum ends up cooking every night so she still doesn’t believe me when I tell her I’m a great cook!

21.00 Depending on what the group’s like I might sit down and have a chat and a laugh with them or quietly slip away. Obviously some groups are more sociable than others so it’s a case of adapting to them. But that’s when I think what a great job this is – I’m being paid to socialise and ensure guests have a great time. Brilliant! A lot of guests become good friends and send little thank you notes and we keep in touch through the Neilson website.

22.00 Sometimes guests might sit down and invite me to play poker with matchsticks till stupid o’clock with them. It’s all part of the job – honest! It also helps to be able to think on your feet. I had some guests last year who really wanted to go to a karaoke bar but had missed the night so I got some CDs together, used a hairbrush for a mic and organised their very own karaoke night. Unfortunately, by way of thanks, they insisted I sang a number! 

LIAM KIDD, SKI REP 

06.30  I live a ten minute drive away from the hotel so I’m usually up at 6.30am for breakfast as I don’t like to eat in front of the guests. The guests need to see that I’m available and approachable to sort out any problems or queries– and you can’t do that if you’re sat there shovelling a cooked breakfast down your neck.

08.00  I usually arrive at the hotel about now. Though if it’s a Saturday, which is our transfer day, I’m here earlier to get all the guests on the coach to the airport. There’s another bus at 1pm and I go on the 2.30pm bus to the airport and pick up the new arrivals. Then it’s back for a welcome meeting and to hand out ski passes. Saturdays aren’t a normal day though. Which is lucky because they’re often a 22 hour day!

09.00  On Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays I offer a ski guiding service. So if any guests want me to show them the local slopes and the good runs for their level of skiing, I can act as a guide – mornings, afternoons or all day depending entirely on what the customer wants. Obviously if you love skiing like I do then it’s a big perk of the job. But even when I’m out guiding I’m still contactable by phone. If there’s an emergency then I’ll head back but usually it’s something the hotel can deal with.

11.00  If I’m not out guiding then the mornings are a good time to sort out ski passes, organise the social events like ice skating and sleigh rides and get all the banking done. 

16.00  Skiing finishes late afternoon so I make sure I’m always around reception from now until 6pm. Guests like to see you’re around and know where you are if they have any problems. I don’t always rely on guests coming to me. If I haven’t seen someone for a few days I’ll give them a knock or phone their room or leave a note just to check they’re fine. You need to be able to judge people. Some want to be left alone – so I’ll just make brief contact to let them know where I am should they need me. Others will say hi and leave it at that while some will want to socialise with you after hours. 

17.00   A lot of the problems you deal with are easily sorted but you do get some odd quibbles. One family complained to me that EastEnders wasn’t on the telly! Now, everyone has different priorities on holiday so I’m not here to judge but if you come to Austria on a skiing holiday, then EastEnders shouldn’t really be your top priority. That said, I’d have loved to have made it happen for them. Alas, that was a bit out of my capabilities.

Some problems, like aircraft delays, will always be out of your control too. I had a baptism of fire because in my first week out here I had the MD of Neilson and all his family and friends staying at the hotel just before Christmas. All went well until I took them to Salzburg airport and discovered their flight home was delayed by 8 hours because of a technical fault on the outbound flight. I had 60 guests on my hands, including my boss, with nothing but an 8 hour wait at the airport to look forward to. Luckily, I used to live in Salzburg so know it inside out. So I got them all back on the bus and took them to the Salzburg Christmas market. All of them told me it was the best delay they’ve ever had! That’s the really rewarding part of this job, when you manage to turn a negative into a positive.

18.30   I’ll usually be in my civvies in the bar area of the hotel during the evening, socialising with guests. The great thing about this job is the interesting people you meet. One guest last week was a lovely mild mannered chap who turned out to be a close protection officer for some heavy duty personnel in Iraq which often entailed him having to disguise himself as a woman! The stories you hear are priceless.

20.00   The most important part of being a rep is to just be available to guests should they need you.  So I’m usually to be found around the hotel bar most evenings. Not drinking I hasten to add! You simply couldn’t do this job if you got involved in drinking games with guests. Besides, I’m usually driving. And in bed by 10.30pm completely exhausted.

07.30am - I get up to the sun shining through my window and arrive at work in time to start my shift for 8am. I get into my chef whites, pop on my chef hat, say calamara ( Hello in greek ) to the other chefs then set up my showcooking station ready to feed up those hungry guests looking for a delicious omelette to start them off for a good day in the sunshine!