Après-Ski Platters for Your Breckenridge Rental

Private chef guides

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The lifts close, boots come off and everyone is suddenly starving. In town, the bars at the base fill fast, and a table for ten with kids in tow is a long shot. With apres ski catering Breckenridge groups get another way: the food is waiting at your rental, the fire is on and nobody has to change out of their thermals.

This guide is for groups who want apres at home. You will find what makes a good spread, how it compares with heading to a bar, how to time it against dinner and how to keep platters safe through a long afternoon. It draws on what The Mobile Chef has learned feeding visitors in Summit County since 1998.

Why apres ski catering in Breckenridge works best at the rental

Apres is about the hour or two after skiing, when the day’s stories come out. At a bar, that hour often goes on finding seats, ordering in rounds and watching the clock for dinner. At the rental, it starts the moment you walk through the door.

Staying in also suits groups that are hard to move. Toddlers can nap, teenagers can disappear to the games room and anyone with sore knees can put their feet up. The food comes to you, which is the whole point of a ski trip that already involved enough logistics.

Staying in vs heading to a bar

Both have their place over a week. Here is how they compare for a group of eight to ten.

A good rule: stay in on the big ski days, and go out once for the buzz when the snow is soft and the group has energy left.

Building the spread

A satisfying apres spread balances textures and temperatures. Think in three groups rather than one big board.

Something cold and fresh

These go out first, because they are ready the moment people arrive:

• Brie cheese and fruit platter, for the cheese lovers and the kids
• Shrimp cocktail platter, light after a heavy ski lunch
• Hummus with vegetable crudité, which keeps vegetarian and vegan guests happy

Something warm

After a cold afternoon, warm food disappears fastest. From the dishes The Mobile Chef already makes:

• Stuffed mushrooms, with a choice of sausage, crab or spinach
• Steamed dumplings with satay sauce, easy to eat standing up

Something sweet

A small dessert tray, such as fruit tart or tiramisu, turns apres into an occasion without spoiling dinner. Keep portions bite-sized.

Mixed diets on a shared table

Shared boards are where dietary needs get overlooked, because everyone helps themselves. Keep gluten-free, vegan and nut-free items on their own trays with their own serving spoons, and put them out first so they are not crowded by everything else. Hummus and crudité is a simple anchor for many needs.

If anyone in the group has a serious allergy, mention it when you order, not when the food arrives. Our guide to gluten-free and allergy-friendly private chef dining in Breckenridge covers how to plan for it.

For the full range of starters, salads and desserts, see the menus. To work out amounts for your headcount, our guide to how much food per person to plan for a mountain group does the arithmetic.

Timing: a bridge to dinner or the whole evening

Decide early what apres is for, because it changes the order.

1. Bridge to dinner. Keep it light: one cold platter and one warm item, set out as people come in. Dinner follows a couple of hours later.
2. Apres as dinner. On a lazy night, double up. Add more warm items and a bigger dessert tray, and nobody has to sit at a table at all.
3. Apres before a chef dinner. Go very light, perhaps just the hummus and crudité, so appetites are ready for four courses.

If your group is mixing platters with full dinners over the week, our group dinner ideas for a Breckenridge ski house show how to plan the nights around each other.

Keeping a platter safe through a long afternoon

Apres can stretch for hours as people trickle in. That is fine for crackers, less so for cheese, shrimp and dips. The University of Florida extension advises keeping cold platters at 40°F or below and discarding perishables left out over two hours.

In practice, that means:

• Put out small trays and refill them from the fridge instead of one huge board.
• Nest dips and shrimp over ice if they will sit for a while.
• Note the time the first tray went out, and retire it after two hours.
• Keep warm items warm in a low oven and bring them out in batches.

Planning apres across a ski week

You do not need platters every afternoon. A rhythm that works for many groups looks like this:

• Arrival day: a cold platter waiting at the rental, so nobody shops before the first lift ride.
• Big ski days: a light bridge-to-dinner spread, then a proper meal.
• The lazy day: apres as dinner, with extra warm items.
• The night out: skip apres and enjoy the bars in town.

Spreading the effort this way keeps the week from feeling like one long catering job for whoever drew the short straw. If you are still deciding whether to bring in help for dinners too, our guide is a private chef worth it on a ski trip lays out the trade-offs honestly.

Frequently asked questions