Fairmont's Herb Gardens

Fairmont's Herb Gardens

For more than 20 years, the chefs at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts have brought their own garden fresh herbs and vegetables to the plates of Fairmont guests around the world. Many of these innovative chefs led the way by creating the first restaurant gardens in their communities. Fairmont’s 28 gardens are special places where produce is grown organically with no herbicides or pesticides. Small birds and butterflies flit between the bushes and flowers. In many of our gardens, Fairmont chefs have added beehives from which they harvest their own organic honey.

Guests may delight in a homegrown herbal experience at the following Fairmont properties:

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MOUNTAIN CANADA

Despite its location high in the Canadian Rockies, The Fairmont Banff Springs manages to maintain a dedicated space for herbs including Sorrel, Lemon Thyme, French Mint, Chocolate Parsley, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Grass, Pineapple Sage, Pansies and more. The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge’s Greenhouse has been put to good use growing micro-greens, which are essentially miniature versions of greens such as arugula. The Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s herb garden grows 46 varieties of herbs and other plants, including chervil, curry plant, perilla, and edible flowers such as nasturtiums, lemon gem marigolds and calendula.

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WESTERN CANADA

The Fairmont Vancouver Airport has partnered with the Terra Nova Sharing Farm to produce an abundance of fresh, organic herbs and vegetables for the 100 Mile Menu at the hotel’s restaurant, Globe@YVR. Also in Vancouver, more than 60 varieties of herbs, edible blooms, fruits and vegetables are chef-harvested daily for use in The Fairmont Waterfront kitchens. The Fairmont Empress in Victoria has a rooftop herb garden located directly above the front lobby which features an eclectic mix of sustainable Vancouver Island bounty.

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EASTERN CANADA

The Fairmont Royal York’s high-rise herbarium is in bloom 18 stories up - perfectly poised to catch all the summer’s sunrays and rainfall. Summer guests at Fairmont Le Château Montebello in Quebec enjoy their dinner on the terrace overlooking the Ottawa River, amid wafting scents of rosemary, thyme, lavender, hyssop and verbena. An impressive rooftop herb garden at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac gives Executive Chef Jean Soulard a wealth of fresh herbs to complement his culinary creations, and in Montreal, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth uses innovative container horticulture, where the plants are watered and fertilized automatically with a drip system.

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EASTERN UNITED STATES

The Fairmont Washington D.C. features an herb garden located alongside Juniper, the hotel’s unique urban eatery, while at The Fairmont Copley Plaza the rooftop garden includes herbs such as parsley, chives, sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender and a variety of basil. The Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park has joined forces with Amlings Landscapes to take a conventional decorative flowerbed and make it an urban herb garden. Comprised of over 100 herb plants, the garden is as attractive as it is functional.

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WESTERN UNITED STATES

At The Fairmont Orchid in Hawaii, fresh herbs along with green onions, rosemary, pineapples, coconuts, papayas, and bananas contribute to the hotel’s bounty. The rooftop terrace at The Fairmont Dallas is home to a 3,000-square-foot organic herb and vegetable garden and greenhouse, while the pool deck of The Fairmont San Jose is the setting for an herb garden producing thyme, rosemary, sage and other herbs for the hotel’s restaurants. At Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, chefs are sharing their herbs with the bartenders to create house-made organic infusions, and at The Fairmont San Francisco the iconic hotel’s 1,000-square-foot onsite culinary garden is filled with lavender and herbs.

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MEXICO

At Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, the Chef’s Garden grows many tropical fruits such as pineapples, bananas, prickly pears, agave and a variety of chilies; but there are also bananas, oranges, tangerines, lemons, tomatoes, zucchini and more. The Fairmont Acapulco Princess also has an onsite herb garden, which supplies the resort’s fine dining restaurant, TAVOLA.

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BERMUDA

The Fairmont Hamilton Princess in Bermuda has planted fresh herbs throughout the resort’s lush grounds. Much like an arboretum, each tree and herb is marked so that guests can explore the fauna on their own or through a guided tour and learn to identify the different species. Joining its fellow Bermudian property, The Fairmont Southampton has also incorporated rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano to its dishes served in the five-diamond Newport Room under the leadership of Executive Chef Christopher Chafe, who maintains a variety of zesty herbs.

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EUROPE

The luxurious Fairmont Monte Carlo cultivates its own gardens in the fertile countryside just outside Monaco. Executive Chef, Maryan Gandon, is committed to providing locally-produced food and growing his own fruits and vegetables. At The Savoy in London, a stunning herb garden has been created in partnership with the management team of Westminster’s Victoria Embankment Gardens. The gardens, adjacent to the Savoy’s river side, have a seasonal harvest of herbs from Thai Basil to Lemon Thyme.

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AFRICA

Group Executive Chef Hubert Des Marais oversees the extensive gardens at Fairmont’s three East Africa properties. At Fairmont Mara Safari Club, Chef cultivates an herb and vegetable garden adjacent to the kitchen and is planning to install fruit trees as well. At Fairmont The Norfolk, Nairobi, Chef has already has planted numerous tropical fruit trees and is upgrading the herb garden so that it can provide fresh produce year-round. Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club is in the process of building an extensive formal herb garden as well, but already has a large organic vegetable garden supplying lettuce and vegetables for the hotel. There are also citrus, passion fruit and mangos planted on the property.

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ASIA

Fairmont Singapore’s distinctive herb garden is located five floors up the Singapore skyline and, to avoid pesticides, the hotel uses an innovative composting system that provides natural fertilization, relying on the abundant waste produced by garden worms. In China, Fairmont Yangcheng Lake has developed 200 acres as a private, organic herb and vegetable garden along the resort’s namesake lake. Fairmont Beijing supports The Special Commune, which is working with local, organic farms to develop a training structure for intellectually challenged youth to build the necessary skills to help harvest the farms which supply fruits and vegetables to the hotel.

For information on Fairmont Bee Hives click here