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Home Hotel Grown Gardens Hotel chefs are starting to use their hotel roofs to grow herbs and vegetables. Friday, October 17, 2008 Caryn Eve Murray

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When Executive Chef Laurent Poulain ascends to the roof of the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, he doesn’t care that there isn’t much of a view.

What matters is that there is a vision – and plenty of sun.

The sunshine is, in fact, just what’s needed for the ten varieties of herbs being grown in the pesticide-free, all-natural, not-quite-sky-high hotel garden created with 12 raised-bed boxes and some 200 to 300 pounds of dirt.

“It is,” Poulain said, “just perfect.”

When he stands there, surveying the year’s crop, visions of homemade pestos, chutneys, jams, purees, infused oils, sauces, dressings and soups surround him like a scented cloud.

The garden also leaves a good taste in his mouth for reasons that have little to do – at least directly - with menu selections: The effort also supports Fairmont’s corporate philosophy of being green and the Boston hotel’s commitment to buying locally grown products whenever possible.

“We do a lot here to be green. We do a lot of business with local farms too. And using the herb garden for the restaurant is a step in the right direction,” he said.

The hotel business of growing, it seems, is a growing business. Popular in Europe and at some Caribbean resorts, homegrown hotel gardens that yield crops for kitchen use, and guest enjoyment, are taking root at more U.S. hotels.

Some of it is being driven directly by customer demand, said Katie Davin, director of hospitality education at Johnson & Wales in Providence, RI.

“People are worried about food safety, and also have concern for the environment,” she said. “It might have been a gimmick before for some places, but now it is looking like it might be a better cost alternative too. If you are going to buy organic and pay 20 percent to 30 percent more, why not grow it yourself?”

The next generation of hotel guests is also demanding food quality that doesn’t compromise the carbon footprint – which means reducing the need to truck and transport ingredients so they can be used when they are locally out of season.

Using local food is a trend, and for many a mission; and it doesn’t get more local than a hotel’s own rooftop or back yard.

If it were just a marketing gimmick, said Davin, operations executives at hotels’ corporate level would simply not buy into it and support it as many are.

“On a corporate level, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is definitely committed to sustainable cuisine at all its hotels. While gardens are not a requirement, they are certainly encouraged and welcomed, as it really adds a nice experience for guests,” wrote Suzanne Wentz, regional director of public relations for Fairmont’s Boston hotel, in a recent e-mail.

Guests, it seems, share that commitment.

“The 20-somethings and teens, they really do care,” Davin said. “Sure you can have anything any time of the year, but now people are stepping back and thinking, ‘is this a good idea?’ “

Chefs also feel good about cooking when they can trust the ingredients.

“It can be a challenge,” Davin said. “You can’t necessarily get that baby squash you wanted, with the flower on the end. But the ones who are really embracing this are turning it around and rather than saying, ‘What can I make that would be interesting?’ they look at what they have and say ‘What can I make from this?’ “

Executive Chef J.W. Foster of the Fairmont Dallas doesn’t hesitate to answer that question: “Eucalyptus to steam some fish, lavender and mint for pastry and canning, tomatoes for our own tomato and apricot chutney in the restaurant. Herbs for infusing our own oils and dressings, ice creams and sorbets. In fact, I made a rosemary and watermelon sorbet for the restaurant the other night.”

This past spring, Foster, his sous chef and their families worked together to plant more than 1,000 herbs, mostly perennials, in the 2,000 square feet of growing space atop the hotel’s third floor between towers, a rooftop locale that, because of its height, is virtually bug-proof – though luckily, the honeybees still find their way.

Everything, he said, is grown organically, including this year’s new addition, heirloom tomatoes, which the native Canadian had never grown before. He’s proud of those, as well as his eight varieties of chilis and the watermelons that peaked at 10 pounds.

“They’re my little kids,” he said. “I go up every day and make sure they are OK. I am very impressed with them.”

His staff shares in the hands-on cultivation, which means more than simply stewardship, said Foster, who also cultivated a garden at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York before his arrival in Dallas last year. “These don’t just come in a plastic bag or box. They [members of the kitchen staff] have to go up and maintain and trim the plants, and they are involved, and have more respect for the produce.” Although the crops are hand-watered for now, Foster hopes to complete some plumbing work that will enable the gray water off the hotel’s cooling system to be redirected to the garden.

And he has other plans: adding another 1,000 square feet of growing space, and a pumpkin patch.

Not surprisingly, it has become a tourist draw. “Guests walk through and ask for pictures and it has become part of the hotel, not something just up there,” he said. “It is becoming its own entity. I have seen people lean over and grab some chili peppers; or if they want to eat a tomato; it makes me feel proud.”

Lacking room at its barrier island location, the Sea Island Resort in Georgia has its dining room crops grown 20 minutes away on the mainland at Sapelo Farms, a family-run farm in Brunswick, GA.

Even though the Sea Island chefs aren’t necessarily the ones with their hands in the dirt, it is still a hands-on enterprise for them. Some 90 percent of the produce served year-round at the resort by Chef Scott Crawford, the chef de cuisine, is from Sapelo, said Catherine Klein, public relations manager at Sea Island.

And their involvement at the farm is a daily one.

“Our chefs go out to the farm frequently,” said Klein. “And from time to time they have a harvest dinner at the farm with their wives and the farmers, and have a roundtable discussion about how the produce is used.”

Like Foster, Sea Island is committed to growing and buying locally. And the resort’s decision to work with Sapelo actually saved the local farm from closing three years ago.

Foster has discovered another benefit to having a hotel garden: cost savings.

“That was never the intent,” he said, “but it is helping us now because we don’t have to purchase as much. Waste is lower, because we only pick what we need.”

He doubts he’ll ever be able to complete this down-on-the-farm scenario with animals, however.

“I’d love to put a rooster up there,” he confided, “but he would probably wake the guests.”