Clean cuisine

F&B manager Hunter 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.
 

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"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.