UAE hospitality group first in region to launch Slow
Food Initiative; follows on from success of group-wide hotel stay carbon offset
programme and heralds next phase of pro-sustainability action for
forward-thinking hotel group
Dubai headquartered hospitality
group, TIME Hotels, has unveiled its latest sustainability-focused drive with
the launch of a Slow Food Initiative at its flagship TIME Oak Hotel &
Suites property.
An international movement founded
by professional gourmet Carlo Petrini in 1986, slow food supporters are
committed to sourcing and using food that is produced and prepared as per local
culinary tradition, and using high quality locally sourced ingredients.
As
a Green Globe-certified hotel, the team is working in partnership with the Slow
Food Dubai Chefs Alliance to promote the benefits of this unique culinary
direction across the hotel’s restaurants and banqueting facilities.
“We are the first hotel in the region
to introduce the concept into our mainstream food and beverage offering, and
are extremely excited about taking the message to our guests. We are strongly
committed to introducing sustainable practices across all elements of our
operation, and with around 85% of food items imported from around the world,
this is a key area where we believe positive changes can be made, to reduce our
impact on the environment even further,” said Bernard Fantoli, Corporate
Director of Food & Beverage at TIME Hotels Group.
Led
by Corporate Director of Food & Beverage, Bernard Fantoli, TIME Hotels has
laid out a number of guidelines for the rollout of the initiative, which
include using 100% homemade products with no GMO, MSG or other artificial
flavour enhancers; local sourcing of all ingredients/products up to a radius of
3,000 kilometres ;
and a focus on sourcing organic wherever possible.
“We
would love to say that we could source everything we need within a radius of 3000 kilometres ,
but that simply isn’t possible for climactic and economic reasons; however,
this isn’t a case of simply paying lip service or a nod to the global trend for
natural and healthy cuisine, we are going all out to ensure that where we can
go local or regional, we will,” notes Fantoli.
“We
will also make sure that all our recipes are pre-approved by Slow Food Dubai,
who have trained our chefs as part of the initiative, and that we demonstrate
our commitment to our diners by featuring the Slow Food seal of approval on specific
menu dishes,” he added.
The
programme will initially be launched at the group’s TIME Oak Hotel & Suites
property, located in the Tecom area of Dubai
“This
isn’t just hands-on practical training, we have dedicated a significant amount
of time to sharing the slow food message with our purchasing team, F&B
managers, chefs and waiting staff so that they have the buy-in from day one, and
can communicate this message to our guests and spread the movement
organically,” he said.
The Slow Food menu
will include dishes such as labneh cheese with extra-virgin olive oil served
with heirloom tomatoes and organic arugula; baked local shari fish with
cucumber, carrots and beetroot in a zaatar-black olive sauce; free range
chicken machbous with Emirati rice and a secret herb mix; and a delicious cream
soufflé made with khidri dates, nuts and mountain
honey.
“As
part of our environmentally-friendly meeting packages we have also incorporated
this concept into our daily delegate offering, so that our banqueting menus now
include a balanced mix of healthy catering options
using produce from local
suppliers; so that the chain of continuity will cascade down into the local
community and hopefully engender more support for the movement in the mid-term,”
said Fantoli.
TIME
Hotels’ pro-sustainabilty meetings packages also include re-usable
centerpieces, are scheduled during daytime hours to maximise on natural sunlight,
and feature filtered water dispensers and eco-friendly fair trade coffee.
The
hotel will also ask for AED10 per delegate to contribute to the group’s Hotel
Stay Carbon Offset programme – TIME Hotels recently announced that it had
already offset 326 tonnes of carbon emissions by contributing AED37,000 towards
African environmental initiatives.
Photo:
From left to right: Bernard Fantoli, Corporate Director of
Food & Beverage at TIME Hotels Group, Mohamed Awadalla, CEO TIME Hotels
Group. 
