Plant to platter

hotel last September. The hotel’s organic initiative,which began following a shortage in cherry tomato and lettuce supply,has now shown the potential of turning into a sustainable eco-friendly model in the coming years.

After taking care of the back-up supply of lettuce and cherry tomato,the hotel currently boasts 60 vines of passion fruit. “These are the sweet and sour black passion fruits you get in international markets,” says Cropp,with a hint of pride. With a large garden and multiple patios available to them,The Oberoi also grows herbs like basil,thyme and six kinds of mint apart from lemon. “There is a big difference between the produce that has spent two days on a truck,and the fresh ones that we pluck from our own gardens,” he says. “In fact,we now have such a huge supply of basil on the property that we haven’t bought it in the last three months.”

The Oberoi is not the only hotel in the city that values and nurtures an in-house kitchen garden. The ITC grows herbs like wheatgrass and mustard cress in regular food platters and displays them on the buffet. “It’s an experience for guests. They want everything to be 100 per cent fresh,” says Rajdeep Kapoor,Executive Chef at ITC Maratha,Mumbai.

This organic and eco-friendly initiative isn’t restricted to five-star

hotels. Nikhil Chib,owner and

executive chef of Busaba,has a full-fledged kitchen garden at his Colaba home where he grows kaffir lime,lemongrass and Thai ginger — all these ingredients are intrinsic to the restaurant’s signature South East Asian cuisine. “The homegrown ingredients enhance the quality of food in ways that wholesale lemongrass or kaffir cannot,” says Chib. “That apart,being sure of perfect quality of one’s ingredients is essential for complete satisfaction from the chef’s point of view.”

While this idea does appeal to other restaurant owners of the city,they have not been able to start such a project due to various reasons. “We’d love to to grow our own stuff but there just isn’t enough space,” says Mishali Shanghani,Director of Pali Village Cafe in Bandra. The Leela Kempinski,too,despite it’s sprawling property and percentage of land under their in-house green mandate,has managed to grow only basil at the moment.

“I wouldn’t say you need too much space to grow your own ingredients,” Chib says,when asked what it takes to start a kitchen garden. “If you really want to make something work,you will find the space and the resources for it.”

The upsides of this initiative have Kapoor looking forward to seeing how it pans out in the coming years. “We face a lot of challenges,monsoon being just one of them. But this could really set some culinary trends in future.” Soon,the chef hopes to grow bonsai guava plants,and Chinese oranges,which are “perfect for fish marmalade.”