If you think dinner on a mountainside Four Seasons is decadent, look at what you get for your splurge. Enveloped in hardwood, with soaring windows and ethereal lighting, the Megève resort’s new Brasserie Benjamin could very well be in Paris. Instead, it’s elevated 1,850 metres over the French Alps village, with views to Mont Blanc.
The ski-in, ski-out hotel, a collaboration between architect Bruno Legrand and designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, with input from Baroness Ariane de Rothschild, has sited its flagship restaurant right over the piste, with views through full-height French doors. A private dining room can be created for more discreet events by drawing closed a clever set of sliding doors. Original contemporary art is hung throughout over luxurious banquette seating.
Courtesy Four Seasons Megève
Roasted scallops. Courtesy Four Seasons Megève
Tournedos Rossini, pont neuf potatoes. Courtesy Four Seasons Megève
Pithivier of squab and duck foie gras. Courtesy Four Seasons Megève
The hotel’s main lobby. Courtesy Four Seasons Megève
Courtesy Four Seasons Megève
To helm the kitchen, the hotel hired chef Armando Acquaviva from the legendary Lasserre restaurant in Paris’s elegant 8th arrondissement. A former protégé of Anne-Sophie Pic, Acquaviva has become a maestro of lofty French cuisine and comforting — and challenging — winter classics. His debut menu for Benjamin includes sole meunière, pâté en croute and Chartreuse veal chops in mushroom demi-glace, accompanied by a leek tartlet.
Desserts by pastry chef Jonathan Chapuy employ alpine produce and wildflowers, with the exception of a delicate chocolate soufflé. Accompanying are wines from the restaurant’s 14,000-bottle cellar.
An arm’s length from Megève proper, the building sits on a hillside dotted with chalets near the pretty Chapelle du Maz and the striking Belle au Bois waterfall.
