Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 3rd Quarter 2019 | Page 27

MAMAS COOK SLOW FOOD AT THE ANAM When it comes to cooking, nothing is as sacrosanct as a home-cooked meal. That’s why the Anam has recruited a half-dozen mothers of its staff to serve up an authentic slice of Vietnamese culture every Friday evening. Drawing on centuries-old recipes handed down the generations, the mother cooks serve up timeless Vietnamese classics, as if they were cooking for their own families. As part of the Anam’s “Mama’s Cooking” culinary experience, the mothers plate up fresh, healthy and delectable Vietnamese fare at cooking stations. As the resort’s executive chef Peter Ye points out, Mama’s Cooking is very much the definition of slow food – food that’s produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions typically using high-quality locally sourced ingredients. The Anam has also introduced separate vegetarian and vegan menus in all of its four restaurants, sources its fruit and vegetables locally, and the seafood on its menus is SASSI-friendly (the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative supported by the WWF). The resort will also soon start growing its own herb garden. Mama’s Cooking PALACE HOTEL TOKYO PARTNERS WITH ALAIN DUCASSE ON NEW SUSTAINABLE, ORGANIC RESTAURANT ESTERRE by Alain Ducasse at Palace Hotel Tokyo (rendering) The iconic Japanese property is teaming up with DUCASSE Paris, founded by world- famous chef Alain Ducasse, to unveil a brand new restaurant on its premises – scheduled to open on November 1, 2019. Chef Ducasse and his team will be overseeing the new restaurant, where patrons can look forward to a new contemporary approach to French haute cuisine – an approach which aims to re-establish the connection with nature not only by bringing out the original, natural flavors of ingredients, but also by promoting the procurement of sustainable, organic, local ingredients. ILHA 27