Stylist contributor Michelle Margherita overcomes her Alpine aversion to dine at Angela Hartnett’s new eatery in Courchevel

Since the time I sprained both my knees after accidentally skiing an icy red run at Chamonix, I’ve stayed off-piste. But the opening of Angela Hartnett’s new Italian restaurant, Cucina Angelina at the Portetta Hotel in France’s Courchevel Moriond, was just the push I needed to give the Alps a second chance. After a quick evening flight from London to Geneva and a pretty two-hour drive along snowy roads, I arrived at Portetta, a wooden chalet-style hotel in what used to be known as Courchevel 1650, now renamed Moriond. Of the four Courchevel villages, Moriond is the quietest and least glitzy, attracting families and a younger, cooler crowd. If you’re wondering why one of Britain’s top chefs, who runs Michelin-starred restaurant Murano in London’s Mayfair, would up sticks to open a casual Italian eatery in a tiny French ski village, it’s because Portetta is no typical chalet hotel, but part of Britain’s Lime Wood group, who own the five-star Lime Wood country house in the New Forest (housing Angela’s HH & Co restaurant) and the much-lauded The Pig chain of restaurants-with-rooms in the UK.

Escape routes: the ultimate winter holiday destination for foodies