HEALTHY EATING AT THE PARK HYATT IN ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Park Hyatt Zurich, Eating Locally and a Cow Named Tina
By Julie Ryland
Forget creamy pastas and fresh croissants. Snacking at conferences and meetings at the Park Hyatt in Zurich now means business with a focus on healthier eating.
Sauteed spinach, grilled vegetables and cheese made with fresh milk from a cow named Tina – nutritious fare that helps boost blood flow and concentration levels. How’s that for brain food?
Tips on healthy dining while travelling
Traveling, whether for business or pleasure, often takes us to a foreign place. But there’s no reason it should also make us drift away from our healthy routines. Leaving your neighbourhood gym and favourite morning cereal doesn’t mean you also have to leave your sense of wellness behind. Park Hyatt is one of many hotel chains embracing the concept of staying healthy on the road.
”Educating guests and being one step ahead of the competition is part of my job,” says executive chef Frank Widmer. The hotel is only steps away from historic Bahnhofstrasse and financial institutions dating back to 1741, but there’s nothing traditional about the new Living Healthy menus that Widmer put together.
The program not only aims to improve blood sugar levels and productivity at all-day conferences (or sightseeing sessions) - they also wanted to go ”local.”
The hotel teamed up with Swiss dairy farmers – and that’s why guests can now enjoy a cheese plate a-la-Tina.
”Cow leasing was not invented by a business guru,” says marketing manager Caroline Cerny, ”but by an innovative Swiss farmer.” Tina spends her summers on the Swiss mountain pastures, and thanks to her dedicated work ethic, 80 kilograms of cheese were produced last fall. ”Happy cows make good cheese,” says Cerny.
Tina isn’t the only local addition to Hyatt’s food fare. When they revamped their menus, they also wanted to focus on the relationship between the person who prepares the food, and the person who provides it, Widmer explains. So he often visits their sunflower honey supplier in South Tirol, and he went to Canada to meet the farmer/cowboy who provides their Angus beef.
In a five-star hotel, guests expect to get strawberries any time of year, Widmer says. ”Everything can’t always be local and sustainable, but we can educate our guests about the food they eat.”
If you fear that ”healthy living” means that your vacay of decadent Swiss delights and creamy morning lattes will be replaced with tasteless, calorie-deprived meals - think again. Brazilian nutritionist Patricia Teixeira worked with Widmer to create a menu that not only tastes great, but contains ingredients such as aloe vera and pumpkin seeds targeted at specific ailments – such as digestion and sleep deprivation (pumpkin seeds assist in producing the body’s natural sleep hormone - melatonin).
”For a long time it seemed like the only way to impress (restaurant guests) was in quantity served,” says Widmer, but today, thanks to an increasing number of travelers who want to maintain the same healthy habits on the road that they do at home, "we’re seeing a lot more emphasis on quality," he explains.
And that, I am thinking as I dig into a bowl of berries and musli, and pour some Tirol-honey into my loose leaf tea, is how breakfast should be served. Local and with a foreign flare, but just as nutritious as the one I’d have at home.
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Julie Ryland is an editorial intern with Travel to Wellness
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