Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The meatless movement is growing in popularity around the world with chefs, bloggers and other social media influencers swearing by it.
Campaigners suggest a vegan lifestyle can reduce the suffering of animals, better serve the planet and can improve personal health.
Whereas once these views were supported by a limited few, nowadays hordes of people rise up to join the annual Veganuary campaign, which started in 2014 in the UK, and as of 2019, more than 170,000 people across 14 countries started the New Year resolving to eat a plant-based diet.
As reported in last week’s issue, The Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, has teamed up with American celebrity vegan chef Matthew Kenney to help develop a tasty menu.
The Folia menu was launched on Friday at the hotel’s Bay View Lounge and GulfWeekly was the first publication on the island to put some of the range of starters, entrées and desserts to the taste test.
The menu was developed in partnership with Saudi-based KBW Ventures, founded by CEO HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, who has been a long-time advocate for vegan food and aims to open 10 vegan restaurants in the Middle East by 2020.
Chef Matthew’s menu is already being implemented in the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, LA, and now Bahrain leads the way in the Middle East.
Bay View Lounge and Bahrain Bay Kitchen restaurant manager Fabian Apel, said: “We’re only the second Four Seasons property to feature the menu. We have picked up some dishes that we believe will be particularly popular in this part of the world.”
Normally a devout carnivore, I was accompanied by my borderline-vegan friend, Mariam Alumran, and vegetarian photographer Honey Sharma, to sample the fare.
Executive sous chef Ravneet Manchanda and his gourmet team cooked up, well more like whisked, diced and chopped up, some signature dishes.
He boasts 18 years of culinary experience under his belt and specialises in Mediterranean cuisine as well as Indian fare. “I have been preparing plant-based cuisine for the past three years,” he explained. “The way the food is handled is such a delicate matter. The nutrient value makes it a very healthy cuisine option.”
Some popular dishes have been given a vegan twist. For example, tuna in the classic French salade niçoise, has been replaced with palm hearts and according to the chef, the flavours taste similar.
Now called the Hearts of Palm Nicoise, it included hearts of palm ceviche with cherry tomato, peewee potato and olives in a dijon vinaigrette. It was light and zesty. Mariam, who doesn’t like tuna, was delighted with it.
Every dish, which was the perfect portion to share with a friend, appeared like a work of art. The colours were vibrant and almost seemed too beautiful to eat … but the beet hummus was calling out our names.
It featured oregano cream, pickled celery and dill with za’atar crispy toast and was absolutely stunning. It was a real taste success in our books, as well as the Cacio E Pepe, which featured kelp noodle, crispy black olives and arugula.
The wild mushroom sandwich with caramalised onion and truffle aioli was divine but the real star was the green herb taco with roasted squash, king oyster barabacoa and pepita cream guacamole. I thought I was eating meat because it was so delicious until I read the dish description again. We also sampled the beetroot poke and green gazpacho.
For dessert, we tucked into the coconut cream pie with a macadamia crust, banana crème and coconut, as well as the ‘super food’ banana split which included cacao, goji berry and hempseed ice cream with banana and tuile berries.
There you have it; three different kinds of foodies all agreeing that the meals were light, fresh and filling.
Will I go completely meatless? No. However, I would definitely come back for that taco and coconut cream pie because the flavours were out-of-this-world which proves to me that I don’t need to have meat or dairy to feel full and divinely satisfied.
The menu is served from noon onwards.
For more details, contact 17115000 or visit www.fourseasons.com/bahrain
