CHEF Meik Brammer, executive chef of Marriott Hotel Manila, makes no compromise on the quality and freshness of the ingredients that he uses. ‘Tis why when he promises that diners in Marriott’s dining facilities, especially its premier restaurant Cru Steakhouse, will enjoy fresh, exquisite and top-quality food every time they visit, he means it. After all, his kitchen is filled with the freshest ingredients possible. Its fresh produce – vegetables, greens and fruits – is freshly picked from the Bautista Organica Farm in Nasugbu, Batangas, and delivered straight to the hotel regularly. So every forkful that diners enjoy at Marriott is bursting with a harmonious balance of flavors and freshness like no other. Just the way good food should really be.
To showcase how the hotel comes up with its farm-to-table menu, the Marriott team, led by Chef Meik Brammer and director of marketing communications Michelle Garcia, embarked on its 2nd Farm-to-Table Dinner, an event that took media people to the Bautista Organica Farm in Nasugbu, Batangas.
Bautista Organica Farm, which has the husband-and-wife team of Craig Clayton and Corazon Bautista at the helm, produces a wide selection of salad greens, vegetables and fruits for Marriott’s kitchen. These include lettuce, arugula, bell peppers, tomatoes, mangoes, French beans, baby potatoes, baby carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, micro greens and, yes, even organic rice. Most of these come straight from the sprawling Nasugbu farm. The rest it sources from the farms of its farmer partners in Panuca in Nasugbu, Calatagan and Lipa City, as well as Benguet, Mindanao and Nueva Ecija. Bautista Organica Farm, as its name suggests, practices organic farming, and so do its farmer partners.
Marriott’s 2nd Farm-to-Table event last Monday (April 28, 2014) began with an early afternoon sampling of Marriott’s new Lifestyle Break-Green Cocktails at the Lobby of the hotel. The intimate afternoon buffet offered healthy bites – Free Range Blackened Chicken and Organic Avocado and Lettuce Wraps, Grilled Vegetable Gourmet Salad with Organic Honey Dressing, Tiramisu, Green Apple and Cinnamon Compote Crepes, and Chocolate Granola Bars to go with imported organic juices and fruit sodas. The food presentation emphasized the fact that organic ingredients were used to prepare these delicious treats. The salad, for instance, was placed in bayong boxes. The organic cookie bars had brown paper wrapped around them. The desserts, although presented in glass shot glasses, were covered with brown paper and tied with a native string.
Afterwards, everyone boarded a bus that took the group all the way through Silang, Cavite, and Tagaytay to Bautista Organica Farm in Nasugbu, Batangas, where Craig and Corazon welcomed everyone. Besides showing baskets of organic produce to the guests, the couple put together a short planting tutorial that had everyone spreading their share of organic soil on the tiled base of their wooden trays, spraying probiotics onto the soul, then sprinkling seeds of mixed salad greens onto the soil before spraying these with water to keep the seeds moist and happy.
Then everyone took his/her seat in the al fresco reception area overlooking the farm, and early dinner service started against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset. The gourmet four-course dinner, which had Chef Meik and his team using ingredients freshly harvested from the farm, began with an awesome Citrus Cured Norwegian Salmon appetizer with cherry tomatoes, pickled onion, baby arugula and smoked goat cheese, paired with Rose Martin Codax, Cuatro Pasos Rosado, Spain, from Barcino Corporation. It was a very colorful plate where all the different colors, textures and, most importantly, flavors melded together beautifully on the palate.
Next came the soup, Organic Sweet Corn Veloute with Crab Spaetzles and Chive Chantilly Cream. It was another exquisite piece of gourmet art that turned out to be a light and refreshing treat.
Main course came in the form of Cru Steakhouse’s famous Grilled U.S. Certified Angus Prime Rib Steak with rosemary crushed potatoes, grilled organic vegetables and pink peppercorn sauce. More than calling attention with its size, the steak was grilled to perfect medium doneness. “Should you want your steak cooked further, just let us know and we’d gladly cook it to your desired doneness,” Chef Meik told everyone.
Rounding out the exquisite farm-to-table dinner was a lovely dessert of Mango Confit, Peanut Sponge, Smoked Raisins, Tamarind Ice Cream and Graham Cracker Crumble. Its ‘deconstructed’ presentation was so in tune with the trend of the times, offering different colors, textures and flavors that were good on their own and at the same time went well with all the other elements on the plate. White Port Wine, Robertson’s, Portugal, made the flavors full-bodied and pleasurable to the palate.
This very same gourmet four-course organic dinner menu shall be made available at Marriott’s Cru Steakhouse this whole month of May 2014 for Php2,900, proving to one and all that what happens in a farm has a lasting impact on what is served on the table. So, with organic vegetables freshly picked from the farm before they hit the grill or dance with the flame in a wok or saute pan, freshness is uncompromised – just the way Chef Meik Brammer wants Marriott diners to enjoy.
