Healthy living
Luxury Maldives resort Soneva Fushi features ingredients from their organic gardens in their new plant-based menu.
14 July 2021
Advertisement
Chef Carsten Kyster’s menus feature fresh ingredients from the resort’s organic gardens.
Cleansing hibiscus kombucha, blue potato chips and salted beetroots, and crispy aubergine with rouille, blue potatoes, prickly ash vinegar, amaranth, wild garden purslane and sweet basil flower.
This delectable dish is on the Purple menu at Soneva Fushi, the barefoot luxury resort in the Maldives’ Baa Atoll.
There is a new selection of menus based on the vibrant colours of the fresh produce from the resort’s gardens (think purple, yellow, orange, red and green). Chef Carsten Kyster has fused the flavours and fragrant spices of Maldivian and Southeast Asian cuisine with his own Nordic heritage.
The dishes are prepared using traditional smoking, salting, fermenting and pickling to let the ingredients shine. Each colourful menu features six courses – Cleansing, Crispy, Raw, Grains, Fire, Sweets – with simple yet innovative dishes that showcase the finest seasonal vegetables, salads, fruit and herbs cultivated at Soneva Fushi.
Advertisement
Highlights include: raw pumpkin, orange beetroots, almond ricotta, leek ash, finger lime, garden flowers, carrot chips and herb soya on the Orange menu; the Yellow menu’s grain course, with triple-cooked carrot, fermented black garlic, Maldivian curry, coconut sour cream, black truffle and Japanese spring onions; Fire on the Green menu with grilled pressed portobello mushroom, pea purée, salted lemons, raw asparagus, ramson flower, shitake, morels krapow and crispy holy basil; and the Red menu’s sweets, with chocolate, beetroots, almond cake, porridge ice cream, raw sunchoke, caramelised ginger and garden herbs.
Every meal at the restaurant, which is aptly named Shades of Green, begins with a tour around Soneva Fushi’s gardens. Surrounded by the vibrant colours and heady scents that fill the air, diners are seated at communal tables to inspire conversation with fellow guests and the Shades of Green chefs while they dine.
A focus on organic, plant-based dining is part of Soneva’s Slow Life philosophy, which champions holistic wellbeing and a healthier, more sustainable way of living. Red meat has been almost wholly removed from Soneva menus across its resorts in the Maldives and Thailand, while the use of dairy products, refined sugars and flours has also been significantly reduced.
Founded in 1995, Soneva Fushi has set the standard for all desert island hideaways in the Maldives.
Located in the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the award-winning resort combines barefoot luxury with one-of-a-kind experiences and a mindful approach to sustainability.
Ranging in size from one to nine bedrooms, the 63 private island villas are hidden among dense rainforest, each just steps from the beach. Most have their own pools, and all feature vast living spaces and views toward the sunrise or sunset.
Guests are afforded opportunities to explore the constellations with the resident astronomer at the Observatory or watch a classic movie at the open-air Cinema Paradiso. Also on offer are guided snorkelling expeditions to the vibrant house reef, swims with manta rays in Hanifaru Bay, picnics on a deserted sandbank, or try the art of glassblowing with renowned artists at the Maldives’ only hot glass studio.
The resort is a 30-minute seaplane flight from the Maldives’ capital Malé or a 15-minute seaplane flight from Maafaru International Airport in the Noonu Atoll.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
