On April 22, the world will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. The day is a reminder for everyone to be conscious of their eco-impact, and that making a difference is easier than you might think. For years, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has been encouraging its properties, employees and guests to help preserve and protect the environment, and our in-house experts have an arsenal of simple tips that individuals and families seeking to live a greener lifestyle can apply at home.
Become a Backyard Gardener
Redefine “locally grown” by transforming the travel distance of your produce from kilometres to steps. Executive Chef Brooke Vosika of Four Seasons Hotel Boston recommends planting a garden in the backyard so you can enjoy the freshest ingredients with the least impact. City dwellers need not worry. “We tend to associate gardens with the suburbs, but there are several ways to grow organic vegetables in an urban environment too,” says Vosika. For people who don’t have an outdoor space, one option is “windowsill gardening,” which is ideal for growing salad greens and tomatoes.
Make the Grass Greener
Follow in the footsteps of Philly’s largest composting programme, which takes place at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia (the Hotel has been providing farmers with rich compost for the past three years). Marvin Dixon, the Hotel’s director of engineering, says composting is easy to do at home, requiring only a simple compost bin and a bit of planning ahead. “When composting, you need something to balance your food scraps. This fall, when you are raking leaves, bag them and save them. Then layer them with your food scraps to create a compost pile.” Dixon suggests letting this compost for about a year before using it as rich fertiliser for your lawn.
Clean House
Going green can begin easily with spring cleaning. Revamp the products you use by taking a cue from the green housekeeping programmes at many of our properties. Suggestions include:
Switching to using energy efficient light bulbs
Using biodegradable and environmentally friendly cleaning supplies
Using old linens and towels as rags
About Chef Brooke Vosika:
“You can judge the characters of chefs by their passion and creativity. If you’re not pushing the envelope, you’re not much of a cook.”
Four Seasons Tenure:
Since 1982
First Four Seasons Assignment: Cook, Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC
Employment History:
Four Seasons Hotel New York; Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta; The Olympic Hotel Seattle (formerly a Four Seasons Hotel); Four Seasons Hotel Chicago; Four Seasons Hotel Washington, D.C.
Birthplace:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Education:
Associate in Occupational Studies (AOS), The Culinary Institute of America
Languages Spoken:
English and French
With two restaurants, multiple kitchens and 65 chefs to oversee at Four Seasons Hotel Boston, you’d think Executive Chef Brooke Vosika might wash his hands of culinary pursuits away from the office. On the contrary, Four Seasons longest tenured chef prefers to keep them busy. “Gardening is a way of balancing the artistic side of my work with something functional,” he says of his off-property passion. “For me, it’s about learning and preserving history. I want my children to know this is how you grow asparagus, this is when it comes up and this how good it can taste.”
When not overseeing the “choreographed chaos” behind The Bristol lounge, Vosika can be found tending his organic garden and orchards in Upstate New York. He inherited the property from his grandfather, a founding member of the Woodstock art community who fled New York City for artistic freedom in the early 1900s. “I spent summers there and just fell in love with the freshness and abundance of food,” he recalls of youthful days spent cooking with his grandfather.
These days, Vosika delights in the historic and social aspects of his harvests, inviting friends to feast, boil sap into maple syrup and press apples into cider. He also has a taste for fine wine and a knack for scoring enviable bottles, as his collection that includes European vintages dating from 1847 and American boutique releases from Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estates reveals. Vosika’s personal label, Sawkill Creek, is now in its third vintage, and his learning curve is levelling out. “My plan is to create a bottle that can be appreciated right next to the expensive ones, with no regard to labels.”
In Boston, Vosika is doing his best to satisfy guests’ growing desire for local product, which, given the Hotel’s tight storage space, must be turned around from delivery to plate in less than 48 hours. “People feel much better spending money for something that they know came out of the ground from nearby.” And he ought to know.