From Aruba to the Dominican Republic, Marriott is making a big culinary push in the Caribbean

It was like a speakeasy. Chef Andres Davila ventured into a mall in downtown Oranjestad, knocked on the door. What was inside was rather stunning.

“You go in and it’s like a whole different world,” he says.

The tiny local store was Rachell Peterson’s Farm a Cure Fungi, a boutique mushroom farm that has been leading the movement to provide locally-grown, locally-sourced food to Aruba’s restaurants.

Davila, the executive chef at the Aruba Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino, has been working to incorporate more local produce in the restaurants at the Palm Beach-area property. It’s a challenge: if you buy enough to support 13 different restaurants, you could leave the island without much local produce left. And Aruba’s exceedingly dry climate doesn’t make it an agricultural hotbed.

But that’s where Peterson comes in, with her urban farm producing hundreds of pounds of mushrooms every week, with a good amount finding their way onto the plates of diners at the Aruba Marriott.

“You come inside her farm and it’s something super different,” Davila tells Caribbean Journal. “And it’s something really important for us to have as well.”

Today, you might find some of these fungi in a dish at the signature Atardi restaurant, like mushroom chicharron from an oyster mushrooms — which you’d swear, from its crunchiness and tanginess, was actually pork. At the resort’s Mercat restaurant, a mushroom side dish has become increasingly popular, too.

This kind of sustainable, local sourcing is a big priority for Marriott International, which has been making a deeper culinary push in the Caribbean, emphasizing star chefs, thoughtful local sourcing and sophisticated flavors.

“The main focus for the whole company is sustainability right now,” Davila says. “What we’re trying to do is be cautious about the products we’re using, and use them in a mindful way.”

It’s all part of an exciting culinary movement at Marriott’s resorts in the Caribbean, from celebrity chef eateries to gastronomic festivals.

That includes the first-ever Puerto Rico restaurant for Michelin-starred Chef Michael White (whose Paranza in Nassau was named one of the 50 Best Restaurants in the Caribbean): Levant, set at the iconic La Concha Renaissance Resort (rooms from $592 per night). Additionally, resort, will host the island’s first-ever Wine and Food Festival, running from April 3 to 6.  Another exciting opening is an eponymous eatery by Korean star chef Akira Back at The St Regis in Aruba Resort, which just opened its doors as the most exciting new luxury resort on the Dutch Caribbean island.

In Grand Cayman, the island’s Grand Cayman Marriott Resort (rooms from $669) has some new culinary offerings of its own, from signature coffee and rum to a bar program that includes the largest selection of gin on the destination at the Anchor and Den Bar and Lounge.

Another Caribbean St. Regis, The St Regis Cap Cana Resort, is opening its doors this spring, with nine distinct  food concepts, one of the highlights is Nina Restaurant, a Dominican Republic outpost by celebrity chef and Peruvian native Diego Muñoz renowned for his passion for blending bold flavors with sophisticated preparations. At Nina, fire takes center stage — a concept inspired by the Quechua word for “ember,” “candle,” or “fire,” reflecting the indigenous language spoken in the Andean region of South America.

Source: Caribbean Journal