F & B
Kitchen gardens
GROW UP
A resident goat at Zighy Bay ' s farm
Some
S hotels boast of rooftop gardens where chefs make use of a single ingredient in a dish , but other hotels are
Sta taking gardening seriously , planting plots that are one
Sacre or larger . Being in remote areas helps . Six Senses Zighy Bay Oman has a
6-acre farm and is a two-hour drive from Dubai , while Angama Mara , which has a
1-acre garden , is nestled just above the Maasai Mara in Kenya . For both hotels , the farms serve a dual purpose of providing produce and guest experiences . Tyler Davis , regional director at Angama Mara , says s the shamba , as it is called , specializes in growing the tender salad greens that t would wilt during the weekly supply truck ’ s seven-hour , one-way commute from Nairobi . Guests can harvest their own greens in the shamba and lunch there under shade trees overlooking the Maasai .
Six Senses ’ farm raises s livestock and produce , and one of the guest experiences is to learn how to make cheesee from the milk produced by the farm ’ s cows and goats , says s Aaron
McGrath , general manager .
Farming comes with its own challenges , they say , particularly from
Mother Nature . Guy Rigby , president of Octopus , a Toronto-based food and beverage consultancy , says the gardens offer great public relations for hotels , but because they require intensive , specialized labor to produce good quality crops they don ’ t necessarily offer a significant return . Collins Randiga ,
Angama Mara ’ s executive chef , concurs . “ More than anything , it is an added value ,” he says , allowing the hotel to add nice touches like nasturtiums to salads .— D . C .
An aerial view of the 6-acre garden and farm at Six Senses
Zighy Bay Oman
36 hotelsmag . com June 2018