Grow Your Own Way

Aware of a growing demand for transparent sustainable culinary narratives, the palace hotels of Paris are increasingly growing their own produce close to home.

Words: Nicola Leigh Stewart

It’s not just a garden, it’s about creating a better place,” says Chef Simone Zanoni. “The garden is part of a world we are creating at the Le George restaurant.” Italian-born Zanoni, who was raised by his grandmother on a farm whose fresh produce inspired his passion for cooking, is referring to the kitchen garden located in the greater Paris region by the Palace of Versailles that supplies his Michelinstarred restaurant Le George at Four Seasons Hotel George

V. Zanoni has become something of a sustainability pioneer after launching the project back in 2018, but increasingly finds himself one of a growing number of Parisian palace chefs who are choosing to grow their own produce to supply their restaurants – some of the most revered in the French capital – with bona fide local produce.

Also buying into the trend is The Peninsula Paris, whose 350m2 rooftop aromatic garden supplies chef David Bizet’s illustrious Michelin-starred eatery L’Oiseau Blanc with around 20 types of herbs and select seasonal fruits and vegetables ranging from strawberries to peppers. “Having respect for our land and its bounty, using homegrown local and seasonal produce, has always been a passion of my culinary work,” says Bizet. “We are very fortunate to have our own small oasis to grow fresh vegetables and herbs for use in L’Oiseau Blanc’s kitchen.” And since April, The Ritz Paris (which can’t claim palace status but whose enduring prestige makes it a favourite with local gourmands) has also been taking delivery of fresh produce from its own kitchen garden located 30km from the city centre, having set itself the goal of cultivating 70% of the fruits and vegetables it serves within the next three years. The crates of freshly harvested produce that have so far passed through the hotel’s doors have been destined for its all-day dining spot Bar Vendôme, where they are transformed into the venue’s signature business lunch dishes and detox juices.

Over at the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse, meanwhile, Amaury Bouhours is also championing the movement. When the culinary heavyweight took over as Executive Chef of the venue in 2020, he expressed a clear intention to revamp the menu and work more sustainably with local producers. And behind the scenes he had already set the wheels in motion – establishing a relationship with the artistic collective Parti Poétique, whose

© Maki Manoukian

At Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse, Amaury Bouhours is championing the growyour-own movement, using produce from the hotel’s own urban garden in his dishes

founder Olivier Darné had previously produced honey for Le Meurice on a patch of land in the multicultural and industrialised inner-city neighbourhood of Saint Denis, just 500m from the nearest metro station. That land is now Zone Sensible, a one-hectare urban garden and community project managed by Parti Poétique, which cultivates more than 200 different vegetables and supplies Bouhours’ kitchen. “Ecology is a vital subject for us now and as a palace hotel, and as a restaurant, we have a role to play in the future of food,” says Bouhours, explaining that when Darné approached him and Ducasse with the idea of collaborating on a garden, developing the relationship further felt like a natural progression.

With both Zanoni and Bouhours working in their respective kitchens, a team of specialised gardeners have been charged with overseeing each space, establishing procedures to grow the high-quality produce expected of a palace hotel. For Zanoni, this means taking a “more than organic approach” to growing his vegetables, which include different varieties of tomatoes, baby cucumbers, beetroot, cabbage, leeks, and herbs like mint and lemon basil. He uses no chemicals on the land – going above and beyond France’s regulations on the matter of organic food, which still permit the use of certain products. “It’s a challenge, but it’s possible,” he insists. Some of the all-natural methods he favours are less than conventional – like the practice of playing soundwaves to plants from the garden’s music box. Research has pointed to the possibility that plants responding to sound waves might promote growth, and Zanoni swears by the efficacy of the approach.

Over at Zone Sensible, Head Gardener Franck Ponthier has taken a permaculture approach to planting and welcomes animals into the garden to eat pests and unwanted vegetation. “Instead of putting chemicals in the soil, we put in two or three ducks,” explains Bouhours.

Although neither garden is particularly large, both proffer a surprisingly bountiful harvest for their respective restaurants. In spring and summer, Bouhours is able to source around 20-25% of the seasonal fruit and vegetables used in the kitchens of Le Meurice from Zone Sensible, where the produce he grows seasonally includes blackcurrants, raspberries, rhubarb and courgettes, as well as a raft of plants and herbs such as verbena, thyme, rosemary, chocolate mint and purple basil. Zanoni gets an even bigger haul from his 0.2-hectare kitchen garden, which provides him with 30-40% of the vegetables that feature on his Mediterraneaninspired menus. “This isn’t a few plants on a rooftop,” he stresses. “This is a real situation and a considerable amount of vegetables.”

As for the difficulties of working with urban gardens, both chefs cite grey Parisian skies and the city’s cool climate as challenging. Bouhours admits that during the winter very few of his ingredients come from the garden, with the chef relying on his network of French producers to stock the kitchen shelves in the colder months. “We have to be realistic. We’re not in the south of France,” agrees Zanoni, who recently lost a batch of lemon trees imported from Lake Garda due to inclement weather, and will now have to wait around another five years before finding out if he’ll get any fruit from those that survived. Predictably, climate change is another issue, with Bouhours citing the recent summer heatwaves as a difficult period – “It can burn the plants,” he explains – and the unexpected frost of spring 2021 as another. “We know the climate is changing from year to year and it makes things complicated,” he concludes.

These seasonal fluctuations in the volume and variety of produce naturally influence what arrives on the plate. At Le Meurice, the menu usually changes once a month but there is no set rhythm; Bouhours simply follows the natural cadence of the garden. Dishes are designed to showcase the season’s produce and highlight each flavour at its fullest – before summer, for example, a bounty of blackcurrants led to the fruit popping up across the menu and in digestive drinks. “For me, the garden is like my laboratory,” he says. “Its proximity to the hotel allows me to go and see what’s growing, to visit the team, taste things together and see what is working. The space allows me to think, to advance and to construct.”

Zanoni has a similar process; he and his team of Le George chefs head over to Versailles two or three times a week with no set idea of what they might return with for the lunch service. “We can’t always control what grows well so we adapt to the garden and let nature tell us what to put on the plate,” he explains. “This year we have a lot of courgettes, for example, so we needed to find a way to use them and not waste them. Whatever I have, I put on the menu, if I don’t have it, I don’t.” Getting the whole team involved also forms part of the chef’s commitment to sustainability, in educating the next generation on the importance of knowing where their food comes from. “The gardeners grow the produce but they don’t pick it – that’s the job of the chefs,” says Zanoni. “I want them

“The garden is like my laboratory. Its proximity to the hotel allows me to go and see what’s growing, to visit the team, taste things together and see what is working.”

AMAURY BOUHOURS

“We can’t always control what grows well so we adapt to the garden and let nature tell us what to put on the plate.”

SIMONE ZANONI

Chef Simone Zanoni offers guest experiences at the gardens of Four Seasons Hotel George V

to get their hands dirty, to understand that green beans aren’t straight and tomatoes aren’t perfectly round; that’s not nature.”

Back at the hotels and in the kitchen, both chefs are building on their work by implementing additional environmentally-friendly initiatives. From zero-waste policies at Le Meurice to oyster mushrooms grown from used coffee grounds at Le George, both hotels are leading the way in changing how Paris’ palace restaurants operate in terms of sustainability. “There was a time when we took the best and threw away the rest,” says Bouhours. “Now we try to optimise the product and use it to the maximum.” Zanoni’s commitment has earned Le George a Michelin Green Star – which recognises establishments that hold themselves accountable for their ethical and environmental standards – while Le Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse has received the highest award possible from Écotable, a French organisation that rates the country’s restaurants on their commitment to sustainability. Zanoni’s work has also caught the eye of those further up the corporate chain at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, with the group now looking to its only Paris address as a model of sustainability in terms of practices that could potentially be rolled out to properties in additional locations.

The changes haven’t gone unnoticed by diners either, who are becoming increasingly curious about the story behind their food. Bouhours has wondered about organising garden visits for Le Meurice guests, although for the moment he prefers to concentrate on their experience within the hotel and restaurant itself. Zanoni, however, has created a client experience that begins with an early morning drive to the garden in an electric Porsche and finishes with a private cooking lesson and lunch back at the hotel. There are also plans to install a kitchen in the garden, in order to be able to move the full experience outdoors. Guests have been so enthusiastic that Zanoni’s calendar regularly fills up, forcing him to occasionally pause the programme. “We have very loyal clients who are interested in what we are doing,” he says. “They know this is going to be the future.”

© Anne Emmanuelle Thion