The kitchen is run by Chef Mahesh, who has been working with Gregory Bazire at the renowned Goa restaurant Le Poisson Rouge for the last five years. Even with limited resources (Ladakh, without a variety of produce, is a challenge for the most versatile of chefs) Mahesh consistently prepares exceptionally tasty and innovative meals, both Indian and French/European, that remain in the memory long after dining.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all provided. Since most guests are out during the day, meals can be discussed each morning. All meals tend to be leisurely, pleasurable affairs, helped in no small part by the various settings.

Breakfast, served on the courtyard outside the main house, is a continental treat: real (French, strong) coffee and tea, pancakes, toast with homemade jam, dark chocolate sauce and butter; eggs cooked to order (the scrambled eggs were out of this world); and apricot and apple juice.

Lunch can be taken at the house or a packed lunch can be prepared. Either way, it’s generally a lighter meal. On one of our days we had a picnic on a quiet stretch of sand on the banks of the Zanskar, with potato and veg salad, polenta quiche and cake in the shade of a wide umbrella.

Dinner is usually served inside the stunning dining room, and accompanied by wine or beer. It normally consists of a soup starter (the banana, apple, spinach ‘yogi soup’ was surprisingly good) followed by an Indian or western main (we had a great mutton masala) and finished with homemade dessert. You can discuss your dietary preferences with the kitchen before and Mahesh will adapt the meal to your tastes.

Though there is no room-service provided, the staff are always at hand to offer you endless cups of tea (green, herbal, masala) and coffee (dark, strong, French).

Ladakh can perhaps appear poor in terms of the variety of ingredients (this is mostly down to the six months of winter where nothing grows and the roads are cut off), but most vegetables are organically grown on small fields and allotments in villages, and when summer arrives, the land is full of fruit and veg. Nimmu House sources most of their vegetables from the neighbouring farms in the village so if you like your food organic, this is the place to be.