FROM GARDEN TO TABLE; SOME HOTELS ARE GROWING VEGETABLES FOR USE IN THEIR RESTAURANTS PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE FLAVOUR AND QUALITY
By Chin Hui Wen and Valerie Wang

Carefully tended herb and vegetable gardens are springing up in and around high-end hotels and restaurants here.

At least two hotels and two restaurants are growing some produce to complement what they are getting from their suppliers.

The Four Seasons Singapore started a garden patch last June to grow a variety of herbs and fruits. Already, the hotel has begun harvesting chili, pandan leaf and various herbs. Bananas are next, when they ripen around October.

The 400 sq ft plot outside the hotel's staff entrance is part of the Green Thumb project by its in-house green committee. It is aimed at teaching the staff about sustainable farming.

Each department in the hotel has been assigned a crop to tend to. For instance, the food and beverage department takes charge of the Thai basil while the marketing department looks after the pandan plants.

Mr Maswan Kahalit, 56, the dispatch driver and handyman for the hotel, is passionate about gardening and gives the plot any extra tending it needs.

Stefano Andreoli, 34, senior sous chef at One-Ninety restaurant, says: 'Another reason we started the patch is for the quality and flavour. The food we cook is simple and fresh organic herbs really make a difference.'

The chef, who joined the hotel in June this year, says: 'It influences menu planning. When we have something nice and natural, we make daily specials with it. For example, right now we have a lot of basil and we use that a lot in the Sunday brunch.'

Some of the dishes at One-Ninety include a spaghetti in basil sauce and a pan-seared Tasmanian ocean trout with thyme, dill and basil.

The Fairmont Hotel Singapore also has a green initiative called the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Green Partnership.

Its herb garden is located on the fifth floor of the hotel and was started almost a year ago by the hotel's general manager, Mr Ian Wilson. It hopes to minimise its footprint on the planet by growing some of its own produce.

Currently, the herb garden is being tended by the hotel's green committee and kitchen team, headed by Chef Salvatore Silvestrino, 40, from the hotel's Italian restaurant, Prego.

Fruits and herbs such as lime, lemon, Italian and Thai basil, laksa leaf and mint are grown in the garden and used in some of the hotel's restaurants, including Prego and Plaza Market Cafe.

Basil, for instance, is used in various dishes at Prego including its caprese salad of buffalo mozzarella with Roma tomato and basil, and its spinach gnocchi tossed in a light tomato sugo, basil pesto, cherry tomato and arugula.

The Fairmont hotel group has 13 garden plots world wide, with most of them located in North America.

Spruce, a cafe-restaurant in Phoenix Park, devotes a fifth of the restaurant's grounds to growing herbs and vegetables. This includes mint, basil, rosemary, lavender, tomato, long beans and lemongrass.

The basil has been thriving and Chef Travis Masiero uses it in a Japanese tomato salad and a bolognaise sauce for pasta.

He hopes the garden plot will teach the cooks and staff to better appreciate and understand how vegetables are grown.

The plot is tended by a restaurant staff member who volunteered to be the in-house gardener and the vegetables are grown as organically as possible, with no chemicals, fertilisers or pesticides.

Executive chef Pramote Klabtalang from royal Thai cuisine restaurant Thanying, also stresses that his garden's produce is organically grown.

The 1,000 sq ft plot, which is located at the restaurant's Sentosa outlet, is planted with a variety of herbs, vegetables and fruits.

He says: 'We grow herbs that are staples in Thai cuisine much like betel leaves, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, mint leaves, basil. We also grow some vegetables such as long beans as well as fruits.'

The garden's produce might not be enough to meet the needs of the restaurant, but he says that if he could, he would use only the herbs he has grown.

He says: 'It really makes a difference in the dish. It is so much fresher and more fragrant. The food we cook is simple and fresh organic herbs really make a difference.'


Source: HMC

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