Have it Your Way: is fairmont’s lifestyle cuisine plus the future of hotel food?
Although the actual obsession fluctuates with the season, the year and what’s on prime time tv (kidding… maybe), Americans love an obsessive relationship with what they eat-or in some cases, won’t eat. Often the latest trend is sparked by a new scientific report or a celebrity bringing their previously unknown intolerance to the national spotlight. Occasionally, it is quite simply provoked by some diet guru’s marketing campaign.
Hotels have always tried to keep up as best they can with the trends but for an international chain to attempt to appease the latest allergy, diet or phobia is quite a task to undertake brand-wide. Especially when it is understood that although many follow the trend for better skin or slimmer thighs, there are those on these anti-allergy, reduced intake plans that for whom, one slip by a chef can literally kill, (or at the very least, put them into a hospital bed instead of the heavenly bed booked in their name).
In order for a hotel group to successfully promote their ability to meet any dietary need, there is much necessary education required of the culinary staff. That’s why it is incredibly impressive (not to mention brave) of Fairmont to announce their new Lifestyle Cuisine Plus program. The Plan includes a menu available on request for guests with diabetes, heart disease and gluten intolerance, among other conditions. The menu also addresses allergy-specific dietary conditions (guests with particularly serious allergies are invited to speak directly with the chef to plan their meal) and offers options for those eating macrobiotic and vegan diets. Options are available in every food and beverage outlet on every Fairmont property including bars and room service. (We aren’t sure if this includes banquet facilities and although we sympathize with our dietary restricted friends, dread the day we are forced to sit through a gluten-free, macrobiotic banquet.)
We understand the importance of eating well-it is one of the principals on which EatSomethingSexy is built. We are proud of Fairmont and are thrilled by this gastronomic undertaking to help educate their kitchen staffs and help guests on the road. But when we first heard about this program we worried that it would homogenize hotel food with a few basics available around the world at any time of the year. But when we heard that the menu would change by chef and destination, to reflect regional cuisine, tastes and preferences, we knew that Fairmont’s new program would be hard to beat.
We’ve yet to try one of the menus but you can bet we’ll be booking into a Fairmont soon and we will be requesting Lifestyle Cuisine!