Clean cuisine

As Six Senses Destination Spa, Phuket prepares to open its doors, Gemma Greenwood speaks to F&B director, Hunter Reynolds, about the science behind raw and spa cuisine and the challenges of growing and sourcing ingredients.

There are very few restaurants, let alone entire resorts that can claim their facilities are entirely spa-cuisine orientated.

But the new Six Senses Destination Spa, Phuket is just that, and is a good example of how spa cuisine works best when a holistic approach is adopted.

 

The entire resort, which is located on a private island, just 25 minutes by speedboat from Phuket, is focused on health and wellbeing and also aims to be carbon neutral and to eventually grow as much of its own produce as possible in a biodynamic environment - a principle that goes way beyond the organic school of thought.

When the wheels were set in motion to open this property, which represents the first of several destination spas planned for the Bangkok-based Six Senses group, it was imperative that the F&B director not only boasted spa cuisine experience, but would buy into the holistic destination spa concept.

This was no mean feat given that there is little formal training in the spa cuisine field.

Fortunately, Six Senses Destination Spas brand manager Ana Maria Tavares, who is known for her role in establishing one of Thailand's original true destination spas - Chiva-Som in Hua Hin - had someone in mind.
 

The man in question was Hunter Reynolds, who worked at Chiva-Som from 1998 to 2000 and, as executive chef, learned many tricks of this specialist trade.

"I started my career in Adelaide in South Australia where I worked for quite a few restaurants," he explains.

"From there I moved to London, where I worked for a large events catering firm - Admirable Crichton - and then worked my way through every city on the way to Turkey. I travelled across Europe and worked in several restaurants, which was a good way to experience different lifestyles and food."

After Turkey, Reynolds worked at Chiva-Som before moving to Cyprus where he opened a boutique hotel called Thalasso in Paphos.

"The cuisine focus there was local - Cypriot - with an international twist," he says.

"Our signature restaurant was a fish restaurant, which was very much based on local traditions and local cuisine but updated to create a healthier spa cuisine version."

His next stop was the Per Aquum resort in the Maldives where he developed the property's ‘Raw‘restaurant that served 50% raw cuisine and 50% seafood.

Reynolds' last stop before joining Six Senses was The Fortress Hotel in Galle, Sri Lanka, where he was responsible for food and beverage operations during the property's opening phase.

The Chiva-Som experience, says Reynolds, stood him in good stead for his current role, but Six Senses Destination Spa, Phuket, will take spa cuisine to a "different level" he claims.

"We are keeping everything as local and as organic as possible and we are also focusing on being more dynamic with the food," he says.

"We have a pizza oven and a tandoor, for example. This proves to clients that you can still eat a tasty pizza without it needing lashings of cheese. Our pizzas have a different impact on the palate to a normal pizza."

The challenge, says Reynolds, is to get "a consistent product" that appeals to a range of people.

"It's not that we are only catering to you if you are vegetarian or fishertarian (the resorts' two restaurants serve vegetarian and fish dishes only, with no meat in sight)," he says.

"We have to be innovative with our cuisine - it shows people that there are ways to eat without consuming three- to five-thousand calories per day."

Sourcing issues

Before Reynolds and his team can even think about creating spa cuisine dishes, the ingredients must be sourced and this is one of the biggest challenges, but sourcing certified organic producers isn't always the priority.

"If I go out to find a farmer, I ask if they use pesticides and growth enhancers. If he isn't certified I would rather go with him than fly food from overseas," Reynolds explains.

In addition, Reynolds ensures producers adhere to strict criteria and would rather that produce was local.

"We go to the local growers and the markets and see how things are packed sealed and 95% of our fresh produce is sourced locally," he says.

"Things like organic flour, which isn't grown here, we ship from Australia."

"I also source raw produce like seaweed from Singapore. I try to stick to one source country to reduce carbon emissions."

Reynolds says there are no raw produce companies in Thailand that can provide the ingredients he needs, such as agave nectar - a cactus plant used in the production of tequila.
 

"It has a low glycaemic index and it's used in raw foods as a sweetener, rather than sugar," he explains.

The aim at Six Senses Destination Spa is to grow 100% of the herbs and leaves on site and as many vegetables as possible.

The resort has adopted an edible landscaping theme throughout, which means that everything you see, you can eat.

This includes lemon grass, which has been planted close to the individual pool villas at the property as it doubles up as a mosquito repellent.

"At the moment we are growing crops in the nursery," says Reynolds.

"We have some organic produce, but at the moment, 85% of herbs are from two organic suppliers in Thailand."

Reynolds says that it's more difficult to grow all the fruit that is required, but points to a patch of pineapples that are currently being nurtured.

"We also have lime, nutmeg and bay trees," he adds.

"We make sure the plants don't get sprayed by chemicals and we use natural pesticides."

Ton-Sai

The resort's main restaurant, Ton-Sai, is where breakfast, lunch and dinner is served and adheres to strict spa cuisine principles.

"This means no cooking in oil," says Reynolds. "Instead, we use vegetable stock in a non-stick pan."

"There is nothing really wrong with cold-pressed oil in its natural state, but olive oil is the only oil that doesn't start to turn carcinogenic when it is heated. Most oils will start to turn at 60°C, whereas olive oil has a flash point of 170°C."

Despite the rigid spa cuisine stance that Ton-Sai champions, Reynolds is quick to stress that the resort's philosophy is "moderation, not starvation".

"We eliminate oil, refined and canned products and we cook the natural way - with gas and fire. We don't use microwaves," he explains.

"We use a minimal amount of sugar, but it's unprocessed, and we only use sea salt. With things like butter and oils, guests can have them cold and, rather than butter, we offer steamed garlic bulbs."

Reynolds has also devised a salt substitute - "a mélange of dried herbs and spices" that include oregano, cayenne and mace.

"I have made two versions - one Mediterranean-influenced and one Asian," says Reynolds.

Ton-Sai also serves some deserts that compromise on calories but not taste.

"Coconuts and nuts are the fundamentals of our desert menu," says Reynolds.

"The cheesecake we make is based on nuts - macadamias, almonds, as well as fruit and lemon. The base is dried coconut that is desiccated at 42°C and prunes and dates are used to bind it."

Getting the right balance

When Reynolds assesses a menu, his first priority, is not the cost but the nutritional values and balance.

"I look at the quantities of carbohydrates and protein and what elements there are to aid digestion," he says.

"We look at the recipe and analyse it in a computer programme to find out the full nutritional value. It's hard to put a dish together to fit everyone so it's better to put it together to ensure it's balanced."

Reynolds is a firm believer that a spa cuisine restaurant should be just that - an outlet that serves spa cuisine only.
 

"I would never believe that true spa cuisine would come out of a kitchen that serves other types of food. It's got to be done in a place where people are trained to do it."

He laments that there is no formal spa-specific training that he knows of - instead, chefs, of which there are 20 at Six Senses Destination Spa, are trained on the job.

"Most of them I have trained from scratch," he says.

"Our bakery chef had never baked the way I wanted him to - with no improvers or chemicals. Bakery is one of the hardest areas - you are trying to re-train a chemical process that you aren't sure of yourself. It's all about trial and error."

The raw deal

While spa cuisine might be a specialist field, raw cuisine is even more niche says Reynolds, so the resort employed an experienced chef to work at its raw cuisine restaurant, Dining at the Point.

"As far as I am aware, we are the only place in Thailand that has taken raw to this level," he says.

In layman's terms, raw cuisine refers to food that is heated to no more than 42°C.

"The food is therefore still living - there are no nutrients killed off, which means the flavour is unchanged. The enzymes and the quality of the food are still there."

Reynolds says that the energy levels of people who only eat raw cuisine are much higher than those who eat conventional food.

"It's not just a calorie issue anymore. Your body uses the raw food in a different way," he says.

"A calorie is a calorie, but if you eat raw foods they contain catalysts to break down those calories. They burn calories in a different way. It will use the fat to burn off calories.  "You get instant energy from a can of Coke but your body needs to work to burn off a carrot juice."

Now that's food for thought.