In Alta Badia, lunch is becoming part of the reason to ski

Michelin starred chefs, South Tyrolean wine and traditional Ladin cooking will move onto the slopes of the Dolomites this winter as Alta Badia turns its mountain huts into an ambitious high altitude dining programme.

For most ski resorts, food is what happens between runs. InAlta Badia, it has increasingly become part of the reason for making the journey.

The Italian resort in the South Tyrolean Dolomites will devote much of its 2026 and 2027 winter season to gastronomy, bringing some of Italy’s most accomplished chefs into mountain huts alongside a programme of wine tastings, traditional Ladin cooking and dinners served on a frozen lake.

At the centre is A taste for skiing, which this year turns its attention to plants. Herbs, roots, vegetables, flowers, seeds and fruit will provide the starting point for dishes created specifically for the mountains.

Ten chefs will each be paired with a hut, where their individual dish will remain on the menu throughout the season.

The line up includes Massimiliano Alajmo of Le Calandre, who became the youngest chef in the world to receive three Michelin stars when he achieved the distinction aged 28 in 2002. Fellow three Michelin starred chef Giancarlo Perbellini joins him, alongside Simone Cantafio, Marco Verginer, Tomaž Kavčič, Riccardo de Pra, Alessandro Negrini and Fabio Pisani, Peppe Zullo, Cesare Battisti and Altatto founders Sara Nicolosi and Cinzia De Lauri.

The collection is unusually broad, moving between some of Italy’s most decorated restaurants and chefs concerned with regional cooking, sustainability and plant based food.

Michelin cooking at 2,000 metres

The programme begins in earnest on December 13 with the Gourmet Skisafari.

Rather than arriving at a restaurant and remaining there for lunch, skiers move between mountain huts, encountering different dishes from participating chefs including Alajmo, Cantafio and Kavčič. South Tyrolean wineries will provide accompanying wines, while the chefs themselves will be present to discuss the ideas behind their food.

It is an unusual setting for serious cooking. At around 2,000 metres, the formality of fine dining is replaced by ski boots, mountain terraces and the practical requirement that lunch eventually gives way to another descent.

That combination is increasingly part of Alta Badia’s identity.

On December 21, SunRisa will open lifts on the plateau at 7.20am, allowing skiers onto freshly prepared pistes as the sun rises over the Dolomites. Breakfast follows at five mountain huts, with menus developed with sports nutrition expert Elena Casiraghi and centred on ingredients including eggs, cereals, fruit and milk.

Wine receives its own programme. Seven Sommelier on the Slopes dates will run between December and March, with a ski instructor and professional sommelier accompanying guests between mountain huts for tastings of South Tyrolean wines. Participation costs €45.

Dinner on a frozen lake

The most theatrical dinner takes place away from the pistes.

On January 28, tables and chairs will be placed directly onto frozen Lake Sompunt for Delights on Ice. Local chefs and South Tyrolean sommeliers will serve food and wine on skates, with the surrounding Dolomites providing the backdrop as the mountains change colour at sunset.

March then turns towards the region’s own culinary heritage.

From March 14 to 21, Roda dles Saus will take skiers through the La Crusc area to mountain huts serving traditional Ladin dishes. Recipes passed through local families will sit alongside South Tyrolean wines, placing the region’s older food culture alongside the Michelin led cooking found elsewhere in the resort.

A Wine Skisafari follows on March 21, with tastings across four mountain huts and live music accompanying the route.

There is a charitable purpose running through the season too. For every A taste for skiing dish sold, €3 will be donated to La Miglior Vita Possibile, a foundation supporting paediatric palliative care and the development of a new regional centre for children and young people living with incurable or disabling illnesses.

Skiing remains the reason Alta Badia has a winter season in the first place. But the resort is making an increasingly persuasive case that what happens when the skis come off matters almost as much.