Friday, April 18, 2008

Hotels Getting into Organic Cuisine

"An increasing number of hotels are touting restaurants that offer organic and locally grown foods, much in the same way they would promote pillow-top mattresses and in-room wireless Internet.

Blue on Blue, a poolside restaurant at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills, celebrates Earth Day next week with a $55 prix fixe menu showcasing organic and sustainable food from local farms, paired with flights of biodynamic and organic wines for another $25. Early risers can enjoy the Beverly Hills Breakfast, consisting of fresh fruit, bee pollen, wildfire honey, an organic muffin and banana soy smoothie.

How California. But hotels eager to please health-conscious and environmentally aware diners stretch beyond the Golden State.

Chef Ryan Hardy, a 2008 James Beard "Best Chef" regional finalist, oversees Montagna inside the swank Little Nell in Aspen, Colo. Last year he purchased a 15-acre farm outside the city and now supplies Montagna's vegetables, pork, eggs and some of its chicken. He also makes his own cheese."


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