Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 4th Quarter 2019 | Page 23

Camel Journey in Culinary Adventures at the Chedi Muscat The ‘Caravan of Taste’ experience at The Chedi Muscat starts with a five stop, three-and-a-half-hour tour of the hotel’s contemporary interpretations of cuisines developed in Arabia, India and Japan, with a local dromedary as your guide. The journey starts with a briefing of the evening’s routing, glass of Prosecco in hand, before the camel sets of to the beat of a drum, pausing for Japanese appetizers at the 103-meter Long Pool’s cabana. Guests then follow a sandy path to the hotel’s Beach Restaurant for a seafood extravaganza, touching on the Seraj Pool at the end of the evening for shisha and dessert. Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine Recreates Organic Vegetable Garden Worked by the Monks 900 Years Ago Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine are using the same sustainable techniques and methods used by the abbey’s original monk residents in the 12th century to provide the property’s restaurants with locally sourced and organic produce. This year they are testing more than 90 vegetable varieties, studying how well the crops do. The outcome will determine what they will choose to plant going forward. “We have resurrected the monastic model of working the land at Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine with an organic, sustainable and biodynamic vegetable garden that is in tune with the natural environment of the estate,” said CEO Enrique Valero. “We already have an abundant harvest of lettuces, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, beets and much more that our chefs are turning into delicious dishes for our guests.” They follow the biodynamic monastic model, planting in conjunction with seasonal patterns, traditional crop calendar principles are applied, and farming tasks are aligned with the phases of the moon and location of the stars, all in harmony with the rhythms of the universe. The garden is organized into six sections, the first with aromatic and medicinal plants, the second grows flowers for the hotel and help maintain the balance of the garden and prevent disease. The next section has large raised beds with vegetables and next are four rows of soil where the crops are planted in greater density and rotated. Lastly, there is a mixed area with flowers, fruit trees and crops that need more space, like pumpkins and watermelons. ILHA 23