Inside one of Europe’s best restaurants – the 3-Michelin-starred ‘Le 1947’ in Courchevel in France

Fittingly, for a restaurant that serves food that is out of this world, the decor is clearly otherworldly.

I’m in France’s Courchevel 1850 ski resort, dining at the ultra-luxurious three-Michelin-star Cheval Blanc Courchevel hotel.The 1947 a Cheval Blanc‘, the figures refer to the most prestigious vintage of Chateau Cheval Blanc wine (and not, as I mentioned above, the cost of a meal there in euros).

It’s a three-Michelin-starred restaurant that just screams to be pasted liberally all over your Instagram feed. Before serving a single dish.

It’s like the set of a Star Trek episode, to be frank.

Guests sit around striking round white tables on modern white chairs with white faux fur rugs, and under huge porcelain “lampshades” with diameters even larger than the tables.

These are partly decorative, we’re told, partly an acoustic device that helps direct conversation among guests but moderates the chatter, and the inevitable exclamations of joy over the food, across the room.

The staff uniforms, striking white and red ensembles, add to the sci-fi vibe.

Wonderfully, the restaurant, overseen by creative culinary powerhouse Yannick Alleno, has a kitchen so open that upon entering, you practically mingle with the chefs, with guests filing past the end of the kitchen and around a circular prep station to get to their tables.

Head chef (in the absence of Mr. Alleno) Vincenzo Tirelli greets my joking group of four with a warm smile as we walk to our seats.

She looks so young, and we jokingly wonder if her mom knows she’s cooking for people (although, for the record, she’s actually 29).

The table is mostly empty, save for a bewitching cluster of glowing tree-shaped lights in the middle, cone-shaped earthenware glasses for water, and paperweight magnifying glasses, for perusing the paper a la carte menu.

But it’s the tasting menu, presented snow globe style on a square block of Plexiglas filled with sparkling water that needs to settle before it’s readable, that gets our vote.

So it begins, a four-hour culinary odyssey that captivates, surprises, intrigues. And it’s occasionally confusing: there are a few hints of comedy as we reach out to put something in our mouths thinking it’s a plate, only to discover it’s a decoration of some kind.

There is also a hypnotic delight in watching the waiters glide through the restaurant, safely arranging the dishes and explaining the ingredients.

But it’s the food – and the wine – that takes center stage, and there’s a bewildering number of acts.

We are served two bottles of exceptional wine, a Chablis from renowned producer Gilbert Picq and a red Fugue from Nenin Pomerol from 2016, an excellent year.

The menu lists six entrees, but there’s a large supporting cast of additional bites, sandwiches, and trivia.

And the standard? As expected, consistently between very good and absolutely divine.

A delight is a small cup of quince extract and pepper that has an amazingly intense flavor. Then there’s the delicious homemade vanilla butter, the out-of-this-world smoked bread, presented before being sliced ​​on a knobby block of wood, and the dumplings laid out on the table that we’re told will rise before our very eyes and become into brioche bites later.

Meanwhile, the ‘Transalpine Walk’ is amazing – about 40 separate vegetables and fruits brought together over the course of a whole year representing the four seasons in the Alps.

This edible ‘walk in the woods’ looks like a work of art on the plate, and the taste experience is unique to each diner, with the ingredients mixed in countless ways from person to person.

Another ‘sit back and sigh’ moment comes with the ‘Ennobled Consommé’, made with beef, caviar and winter vegetables such as Jerusalem artichoke, beetroot, carrot, celeriac and onion. And it is served in a small bowl.

This is magical-potion-nice, immediately ranking among the best flavors I’ve ever had.

Two main courses follow, and both impress.

There is charcoal cooked with Colonnata lard, placed over the fish like a veil. And there are two lamb chops that melt in Sisteron’s mouth: ‘the pearl of Haute Provence’. They are served with a sauce based on shallots, lemon confit, black pepper and oyster juice whipped with hay butter; more lettuce with basil and seaweed. A waiter tops off the dish by serving two nutty flavored oysters from the Belon River in France, smothered in a Villeroy sauce that has been “breaded” with chopped mushrooms and onions.

Gourmet cheeses come before desserts of caramelized pumpkin ravioli with honey butter and fir extract-flavored gelatin, coffee and warm chocolate cream.

I almost handled the exquisite handmade chocolates before hoisting the white flag and walking past a still perky Vincent in a deliriously euphoric daze, almost as if he really had been in another world.

They are 415 euros (£371) for the tasting menu, 195 euros (£175) for the classic pairing (without cheese) and 230 euros/£205 (with cheese).

Rating out of five: *****

full review of Cheval Blanc Courchevel come. Ted is staying at the hotel.