Bermuda-Grown Herbs and Home-Made Infusions 🍃
The new herb beds at the Hamilton Princess are blooming and their chefs are discovering ever more ways to use these organic, home-grown taste sensations. And, it’s not just in their savoury dishes. They are adding them to their delicious desserts too.
Photographed, Intrepid's Junior Sous Chef, Angelie Sarmiento
Growing in a protected spot between the hotel’s Intrepid restaurant and the waters of Hamilton Harbour, diners can also enjoy seeing where their ingredients grow:
“It’s special to be able to look out of the window and see where your meal comes from, and that the beautiful environment of Bermuda is producing what’s on your plate,” says executive pastry chef, John “JJ” Hauser.
When asked about his favourite herbs, he struggles to choose. He enjoys using basil and rosemary in some of his pastries, and rosemary and thyme in some of his breads. JJ’s rosemary focaccia is particularly popular.
He also enjoys the sage and curly parsley. The sage because it goes so well with chicken and pork dishes, and the curly parsley because, he laughs:
“It’s fun. It holds up really well to the knife and it has a nice flavour.”
But, he adds, he loves all the bright green herbs because of the oils and infusions he can create.
They recently crafted a blood orange sorbet for an intermezzo course, to which they added a touch of home-made basil oil:
“The basil oil helps add a little bit of richness to a very sharp granita,” he explains. “You get a good balance of flavour and incorporating the sweetness with a savoury flavour is unique, and also delicious.”
Other popular combinations include thyme or rosemary with a lemon curd, and mint with strawberries in Grand Marnier and sour cream.
“You just want to use a small amount. It’s there as a flavour component, not as the star,” he emphasises, which is why the oils and infusions work so well:
“I can turn the mint into an oil, for example, and extract the flavours that way, or in a syrup, so I’m incorporating a little bit instead of using artificially infused flavours. It’s the real thing.”
Another versatile favourite is lemon balm:
“It has a nice lemony flavour so you can incorporate that into cocktails, savoury and dessert,” he says.
Bermuda’s climate allows the Hamilton Princess to grow their own herbs year-round, with some extra watering and maintenance during the peak summer heat, and the proximity to the salt water gives them a particularly unique flavour.
Also adding to the flavour is what they are planted in - an organic soil and fertilizer created by the hotel’s partner, Yard Farms Bermuda. Like the hotel, this local family business is devoted to providing nutritious produce, alongside fantastic flavours, and the results are noticeably visible, as well as deliciously edible.
Growing these herbs is just the beginning of a long-term programme that will see more vegetable and herb gardens cultivated at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.
Developing their own home-grown produce has long been a dream for the Hamilton Princess, not just for its healthy and unique flavours, but also because it benefits the local environment too:
“It’s not only the quality of the herbs and produce, but the impact that we’re having by keeping our carbon footprint down,” says JJ.