FLORIDA
Although your idea of the perfect getaway may be the solitude of a spa destination where you can learn the tools for healthy cooking, where days are filled with pampering treatments, quiet meditation, and restorative yoga – this type of vacation doesn’t peak your family’s interest.
However, you don’t need to abandon your family to pursue your ideal getaway. Since the Ritz Carlton in Naples opened the doors of its 51,000-square-foot spa in 2000, there is a place that attracts travelers of every interest and level of attention span.
Spa Chef Patrick Brown’s cooking classes – offered during the hotel’s November to June high season – are an incredibly popular feature of the resort’s spa program. The classes, offered Tuesday through Saturday will provide you with intense, two-hour glimpses into the kitchen arsenal of a chef who cooks on the lean.
Each class tackles a particular culinary style, such as Asian, French, or Mexican, translating each culinary tradition’s most popular dishes into healthy, lower calorie, lower fat meals. The focus of the workshop is to build a three-course lunch. In addition to learning how healthy ingredients have played a role in particular culinary traditions throughout history (a class on Mexican cuisine, for example, may focus on the role of corn), you’ll receive easy-to-follow instructions to recreate the sumptuous flavors for your family, while they frolic on the resort’s sugar-white beach.
Should you ever manage to pull yourself away from the tri-level spa’s sauna, hydrotherapy tubs, Tao stone massage, and fitness center; guided beach walks, afternoon tea, tennis, and golf await. For the younger members of your family, there’s a kids club, junior golf lessons, and even etiquette lessons. Best of all may be the simple luxury of lounging on your Frette linen-covered bed gazing at the crystal blue Atlantic waters.
And if you just can’t seem to tear yourself away from the spa, you can always book quality time with the family in Chef Brown’s H2O spa cafe.
Contact (239) 598-3300 or visit www.ritzcarlton.com
CALIFORNIA
You’ve just entered the kitchen of one of the world’s most highly rated destination spas. Tonight, however, the kitchen will serve as both your classroom and dining room. The experience of a celebrated cookbook author and spa chef is available every Friday night at Cal-a-Vie, the twenty-four-guest getaway just north of San Diego.
The destination spa, which offers three, four, and seven-night stays, offers lessons to enhance health not only during guests’ visits, but when they return home from their retreat as well. In addition to the lectures and health-related activities, all guests are invited to join Chef Steve Pernetti in his kitchen for Friday night’s dinner and cooking class. The dishes feature many of the items found in Cal-a-Vie’s Gourmet Spa Cookery, such as Hoisin Marinated Shrimp and Chocolate Mousse. None of the featured meals exceed 400 calories, (the spa’s standard program offers a total of 1,200 calories per day, but guests can work with an on-staff nutritionist to meet their own specific dietary needs).
Days at Cal-a-Vie are not centered around the meals, although dining becomes most guests favorite times of the day. Mornings are filled with hiking, cardio, pilates, and water sport classes – so you won’t find any latecomers for lunch!
Afternoons involve spa pampering, seaweed wraps and hot rock massages are among the favorite treatments. Each guest is offered at least two spa treatments per day.
There is also a pool, kept at 90℉, along with a hot tub, sauna, and private steam shower to encourage the spirit of restoration. Between facials and yoga, guests are welcome to wander in the spa’s gardens and pluck a morsel or two for themselves.
Although most guests find moments to themselves rare, between the multitude of activities handed out on individualized, daily schedules (a bit like sleep-away camp for adults), those in need of a little quiet reflection find the labyrinth which overlooks the curvaceous Southern California landscape, a quiet place of contemplation. Guestrooms are sanctuaries unto themselves, although Spartan in decor, the Frette linens and array of bath amenities help evoke a certain kind of spiritual pampering.
Morning and afternoon snacks are scheduled into each guest’s day and include refreshing treats like spiced, steamed vegetables and platters of fresh-picked fruits to keep blood sugar on an even keel. Along with the three communal meals a day, these mid-day morsels make up the signature Cal-a-Vie experience – fresh, nutritious, and tasty foods to help improve overall health and inspire life-long wellness.
Contact (866) SPA HAVENS or visit www.cal-a-vie.com
Cooking for Two –
Culinary Programs Devoted to Pregnant Women
A new concept in spa cuisine is hitting the New York Metro area this winter. Bloom! A day spa concept for soon-to-be-moms created by Gail Krebs, author of many self-help titles including, What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know (Penguin USA, 1985) and Eating for Two: The Complete Pregnancy Nutrition Cookbook (Bantam Books, 1983), specializes in both prenatal education and restoration.
In addition to aromatherapy massages and specialty foot treatments, a key component to the Bloom! Program is daily cooking classes promoting the special needs of expecting mothers. During the week, the hands-on class is offered in conjunction with dinner; on weekends there are both lunch and dinner classes focusing on fast, easy, and nutrition-packed treats. Four Bloom! Spas will be opening this winter. For more information, visit www.lapreservespa.com/bloom/index.html or contact (515) 678-5555.
November/December 2003
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