Three dining experiences your clients will not forget
These properties are in the premier league when it comes to serving locally-sourced, seasonal menus that are also incredibly appetising – the kinds of meals clients will still be talking about years down the line.
Greek feasts
Aristi Mountain Resort
Every meal served at Aristi Mountain Resort & Villas in the mountainous Zagori region of northern Greece is proudly prepared using the finest local produce. The hotel has its own kitchen garden and typically sources all other ingredients from a 50km radius, whether that’s wild boar, river trout or cheese from local villages.
Food grown within the Greenhouse adjacent to the residence includes spinach, broccoli, parsley and celery from November to February and tomato, cucumber, peppers, basil and coriander from March to October.
Furthermore, guests can learn to prepare an authentic Greek meal using these ingredients – think handmade tzatziki, a traditional Greek salad and the legendary Zagori pie, before sitting down to enjoy an al fresco lunch, while soaking up the magnificent scenery.
Book it: Sunvil offers seven nights’ B&B at Aristi Mountain Resort from £1,298pp, based on two sharing. Walking, rafting and wine tasting are just some of the experiences available; sunvil.co.uk
Irish breakfasts
Hastings Hotels
Northern Irish Hastings Hotels (with six hotels) launched a new breakfast menu earlier this year that showcases local suppliers and producers. The menu comes with the Hastings Book of Breakfast, which tells the stories of the local food heroes responsible for supplying the ingredients.
For example, the provenance is traced of the tea (Thompson’s Tea, Belfast born and blended since 1896) and the apple juice (from County Armagh family business P McCann & Sons, which sources apples from 40 local farmers).
The fascinating stories continue… the honey comes from Waggle Dance, founded by Lyndon Wortley, who sources honey from four apiaries, all local to his Portadown home where he decants the honey in his kitchen. And should your clients fancy a drizzle of whiskey over their porridge, it comes from Bushmills Distillery, next to the Giant’s Causeway and dating back to 1608.
Book it: Suites at Culloden Estate & Spa start at £650 per night and Garden Rooms at £350 per night, including breakfast; cullodenestateandspa.com
Green Japanese cuisine
Palace Hotel Tokyo
Even if a hotel is located in one of the world’s biggest metropolitan areas, it can still prioritise sustainability, as shown by Palace Hotel Tokyo. The Forbes five-star property has introduced a two-night Sustainable Tokyo package, which includes a fixed-price dinner at Wadakura, the hotel’s signature Japanese restaurant, for which high-quality ingredients are sourced with full traceability including seafood from nearby Tsukiji Fish Market. An unmissable dinner here is the popular multi-course kaiseki menu, which focuses on eating what’s in season. Additional package elements include an in-room mini bar stocked with sustainably-sourced, made-in-Japan refreshments.
The hotel has invested in a food-waste management project that turns compostable kitchen refuse into biodegradable fertiliser for use by local farms, and the resulting crops and rice are used in the hotel’s staff canteen. The culinary team also work with Food Loss Bank, incorporating imperfect but entirely edible produce into their desserts and veggie bread loaf.
Book it: The two-night Sustainable Tokyo package is available until 31 May, from £2,048 (based on double occupancy). Operators including Inside Japan and Abercrombie & Kent feature the hotel; en.palacehoteltokyo.com
*Find contact details for featured operators in the TTG Travel Suppliers Directory
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Place of registration: England and Wales.
Company number 08723341.
Registered address: 6th Floor, 2 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU
