Austin’s Four Seasons Hotel, Ciclo restaurant, and Chef Richard Sandoval may turn guests into bee-lievers with a honey-drenched, pollen-dusted food and drink event this spring. Through April 22, guests may indulge in a new bee-centric menu and even choose to zip themselves into white beekeepers’ suits for close-ups on working hives at the property. With more than 60 restaurants around the world, busy bee and food industry leader Chef Richard Sandoval said he was happy to spotlight the indispensable insects.
Chef Sandoval’s Viva Abejas, a bee-friendly education initiative, touches down at the Four Seasons’ Ciclo with a menu for diners open to thinking more deeply about the fact that one in three bites of food would not exist without bees.
Meant to bee delicious
Should diners mull it over with Ciclo, they may do so over unforgettable bee-dependent dishes like the coconut tuna ceviche in a velvety, creamy Peruvian leche de tigre with orange blossom honey. Guests might greedily slurp the orange sorbet served in a small pool of mezcal and honey, if they’re anything like us. For a richer sweet treat, the honey cheesecake with honeycomb and blood orange, flambéed in Alma Finca liqueur, is so good it may be tough to eat neatly in polite company.
The impressively flambeed and attention-grabbing Texas Wagyu tomahawk steak is available year-round at Ciclo but gets a bit of raw honey during the Viva Abejas spring event. Executive Sous Chef Abril Callender and Restaurant Chef Juan Mateo bring the menu to life through Earth Day, but Ciclo also designed cocktails and mocktails. Spirited and spirit-free options include a honey lavender margarita made with Alma Finca, a spirit helping to create 100% Mexican margaritas across the region for the first time.
Recently launched orange spirit Alma Finca is made from citrus harvested in the Yucatan Peninsula. The oranges themselves are pollinated by Chef Sandoval’s bees nearby, a species that creates a thin nectar locally used in the area as a face serum and cataract remedy, according to Isabella Sandoval, Chef Sandoval’s daughter.
Un-bee-lieveable hive tours
Three bee hives have the Four Seasons abuzz this spring. Amateur entomologists staying in the hotel may book private tours and learn about the intricate and organized colony structure with Two Hives Honey and Free Range Beehives, organizations partnered with Viva Abejas this year to bring the European honey bee to the Four Seasons Lady Bird Lake property.
Three small boxes stand in a shady, out-of-the-way area for each tour, with around 20,000 to 80,000 bees in each box, feeding their young and creating a sweet golden nectar even as guests take turns holding beehive frames. Toni of Two Hives Honey, a local woman-owned apiary, was a font of knowledge at a recent tour, sharing facts about the bees that kept guests riveted. Fun fact: Male bees explode after mating with a queen.
The hives also help local elementary school children learn about the food ecosystem through tours offered as part of the Viva Abejas mission to educate younger generations. Students will also hear Chef Sandoval read his first children’s book, “Viva Abejas,” the proceeds of which benefit the World Bee Project, and get a cooking lesson with the chef.
The place to bee
Viva Abejas hums to life during the Four Seasons Roses and Rosé event, happening through May 25, so expect lush photo-worthy garden installations throughout the grounds and rosé pairings available for each course.
Anyone looking for just a taste of honey might enjoy the afternoon tea service or honey aromatherapy massage at the spa. A la carte items are also available from the chef’s full menu for Viva Abejas. Bee stings, fortunately, are unavailable.
RELATED: Radius Butcher & Grocery Brings European-Style Fresh Market to Austin
The post Bee-Inspired Dining and Hive Tours Land at Four Seasons Austin This Spring appeared first on Tribeza.