The votes have been counted, the mathematical formulae applied and brows scratched by our judging panel. We have now come to a decision.

From a list of scores of excellent contenders, we have come up with a list of six companies who will go through to the final round of The Times Chalet Chef 2010. So how did we get here? First of all, we created a long list of 12 companies: six from the mass market and six from the upmarket sector. These 12 were chosen on the basis of the number of votes they received from our readers, weighted according to the size of their chalet operation.

Our judging panel then whittled this long-list of 12 down to a short-list of six, three in each category. This filtering was done on the basis of comments received from readers, reviews on independent review websites as well as claims made by the companies on their own websites regarding flexibility, use of local produce and inventiveness.

The six chalets/companies that will contest the next stage of Chalet Chef 2010 will be (in alphabetical order):

Mass market

Chalet Fiona

Fish and Pips

Maison Jaune

Upmarket

Alpine Evolution

Purple Ski

Ski Verbier

[Note: Classification is based on the average cost per person to stay over New Year with adjustments made for those companies that include flights and transfers.]

The companies now have a week to nominate a chef or host to take part in a cook-off at Food at 52 cookery school in London on Monday 16 November. The nominated chef or host will be asked to prepare a menu comprising a cold canapé, a main course, a kid’s spaghetti Bolognese and an afternoon cake or cakes within a fixed budget of £20 (mass market) or £30 (upmarket).

Next week, we will learn a little more about the six companies and chalets that only just missed out on making the final shortlist and hear what their guests have to say about them: Chalet Chasseur, Chalet La Luge, Chalet Rozov, Kaluma, Venture Ski and YSE. Sorry guys, maybe next year.