LEFAY RESORT & SPA LAUNCHES LEFAY VITAL GOURMET:
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE WITH ITALIAN CULINARY EXPERTISE
Lefay Resort & Spa Lago di Garda, the luxury eco spa resort overlooking Lake Garda in Italy, has launched Lefay Vital Gourmet, an innovative food concept combining the principles of classical Chinese Medicine with the best local seasonal produce and Italian culinary heritage.
In line with the resort’s own Lefay Spa Method, which combines the preventative approach of Chinese medicine and modern Western techniques, Lefay Vital Gourmet is a fusion of traditional values and modern expertise. Menus in the resort’s two restaurants – La Grande Limonaia and Trattoria La Vigna – showcase an holistic way of cooking where respect for the seasons and their rhythms is fundamental, as well as the provenance and freshness of ingredients.
Classical Chinese medicine believes foods should be local to the area you live in and that they boost your entire system with concentrated energy, provided by a carefully selected combination of ingredients. The principles are that ‘sour’ stimulates the liver, ‘salty’ stimulates the kidneys, ‘bitter’ helps the heart and ‘spicy’ is beneficial for the lungs.
Executive Chef, Matteo Maenza, transfers this philosophy into The Lefay Vital Gourmet concept and refers to these key values in his menus. An example of dishes creating a menu with the perfect balance of bitter, spicy, salty and sour include:
Starter: Grilled white asparagus with braised chicory (bitter).
First course: Hummus with tuna, sun-dried tomatoes and sesame seeds (salty)
Second course: Mini roulades of spicy turkey bulgur, pineapple, coriander and Espelette
chilli (spicy)
Dessert: Granita of pink grapefruit, grapefruit with fresh mint and rural rocket amaro (sour)
Lefay Resort’s values and philosophy includes five key principles, as reflected in all the menus:
• The importance of a Mediterranean diet: cereals, fruit and vegetables, fish, low fat meat
and dairy products are the basic elements of this diet, in which extra virgin olive oil reigns
supreme.
• Seasonality: the ingredients used in the dishes are those that follow the rhythms of the seasons so that always the freshest produce is brought to the table.
• Italian character – local produce: the menus are created using the finest ingredients from the local area and typically traditional Italian regional produce.
• Ethics: Lefay Vital Gourmet undertakes not to use animals and fish threatened with extinction and products obtained by violent methods in its dishes. Species threatened with extinction on the menu are obtained only from controlled breeding programmes.
• Suppliers: local suppliers and preferably those that adopt a system of organic farming are the resort’s favoured partners.
About Lefay Resort & Spa
Lefay Resort & Spa is set in 27 acres of woodland and olive trees in the Alto Garda National Park overlooking Lake Garda. The resort has 21 treatment rooms, five different types of sauna, a salt water lake for flotation therapies and indoor and outdoor swimming pools with spectacular views. They have developed their own non-invasive Lefay Spa
Method which includes programmes dedicated to tackling issues such as insomnia, poor posture, stress and weight and all using an holistic approach.