Sustainable Cuisine
Food That Promotes Health and Environmental Protection
In our current global food system it has become difficult to know where our food products originated. With more food based scares: E-coli in spinach, tainted seafood from China, mad-cow, etc., our guests have become more concerned about the safety of our food system. This has driven more interest in local and organic foods.
Sustainable cuisine is the practice of using products that are grown, harvested, processed, packaged and distributed with the least amount of environmental impact. Typically these products are local or organic. With its sustainable cuisine program, Xanterra is trying to push the limits of this new, ecologically sound approach to food service.
Since our last report, Xanterra food & beverage directors, chefs, and purchasing agents have increasingly reached out past their normal distribution channels looking for what is available in their local region from farmers, ranchers, and artisan food producers.
Sustainable cuisine purchases continue to grow in volume and at an increased number of locations across the company. Purchases more than doubled since 2004, increasing 120 percent, from $1.4 to $3.1 million, with significant increases coming in 2005 and 2006 from virtually every product category. We realize there is still much room for improvement in this area since this is a relatively small number compared to total food purchases. Still, what began in 2000 with a companywide seafood policy that ensured Xanterra served only sustainable seafood in its 64 restaurants has grown into a nationally acclaimed sustainable cuisine program that includes almost all Xanterra properties.
New sustainable products of note include:
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Sustainable beer and wine purchases have increased substantially with the purchase of local and regional products such as Mojave Beers in Death Valley, Oregon-made beer and wine at Crater Lake, regional brews at Yellowstone and signature, Utah-produced wines at Bryce and Zion, Ohio state wines at the Ohio State Park Resorts, and private-label South Dakota wines at Mount Rushmore.
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Our seafood program has continued to grow with the continued use of the Marine Stewardship Council’s logo on our menus that feature certified sustainable wild seafood such as Alaskan Salmon.
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New local products are in abundance including mesquite flour and Native American Greenthread tea in Arizona; Crater Lake Bleu Cheese from Rogue Creamery and lamb in Oregon; Ohio maple syrup; and whitefish, pork and lamb from Montana.
Xanterra also continues to purchase products such as:
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Montana Legend Beef (natural, no hormones)
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Sustainably-raised Niman Ranch pork
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Organic, shade-grown Fair Trade Green Mountain Coffee
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Roasters coffee
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Silk organic soy milk
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Oregon Country Natural Beef
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Snake River Farms Kurobuta Pork and Kobe-style beef
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Organic and sustainably-produced wines; one-third of the wine list at the Grand Canyon Lodge is comprised of wines produced using sustainable agriculture or organic farming techniques
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Organic produce
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Farm-raised tilapia, shrimp, trout, bison, elk and venison
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Abalone produced by Abalone Farm, a California facility that uses state-of-the-art sustainable practices that grow abalone without harming resources
