4 Seasons George V, Paris Farm-to-table Cooking Class

One afternoon final July, I wandered by a backyard in Versailles, France, herb shears in hand, looking for oregano. Elsewhere within the Domaine de Madame Élisabeth — a lush property that Louis XVI gave to his youthful sister in 1783 — my spouse, Tiffan, picked basil for pesto whereas our three-year-old daughter, Odella, cranked dough into pappardelle. All of our efforts had been guided by Simone Zanoni, the chef at Le George, certainly one of three eating places on the 4 Seasons Lodge George V, Paris.

We had been company of the resort’s garden-to-table program, the newest sustainability effort led by Zanoni. The outside kitchen is solar-powered, all the restaurant’s meals waste is composted, and spent espresso grounds are used to develop oyster mushrooms — incomes Le George a Michelin Inexperienced Star (along with its present star for culinary excellence).

After I returned with the oregano, I discovered Zanoni serving to Odella make focaccia. He bowed to her insistence on including extra rosemary and thyme. Then as a household, we walked by the backyard, plucking zucchini, tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers off the vine earlier than chopping them up. We additionally set the picket picnic desk with hand-painted Italian plates and azure glass goblets. Odella tucked blue-and-white-striped napkins into serviette rings earlier than wielding a pestle to crush basil and a few peppermint in a mortar, with help from Tiffan. 

“It’s like the sensation I had as a toddler making lunch with my household,” mentioned Zanoni, who grew up on a farm in Lombardy, Italy, and has labored underneath Gordon Ramsay at his London and Versailles eating places. After Zanoni ready a lemony fillet of sole on the stovetop, we dug in to the fish and the pappardelle with pesto. When Odella declined Zanoni’s supply of parmesan topping for the pasta, he feigned outrage: “You don’t just like the cheese? Mamma mia!” 

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Because the adults sipped from a magnum of Philipponnat champagne made solely for Le George, Zanoni instructed us extra concerning the philosophy behind his cooking. “Luxurious just isn’t a elaborate chandelier or stiff service,” he mentioned. “It ought to really feel like an extension of your home.”

And in a approach, it did really feel like we had been at house (albeit a much more luxurious one). After such an extravagant meal, there was just one factor left for us to do: the dishes.

A model of this story first appeared within the April 2024 concern of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Make This Backyard Develop.”