A heart for sustainable food sourcing

At leading homegrown hospitality group The Discovery Leisure Company, sustainability has always been at the heart of the way they do business. This is made apparent through their sourcing of ingredients from only sustainable producers; from introducing heirloom rice in their menus, a way to show support to Cordillera farmers, to partnering with Swiss-led sustainable seafood supplier Meliomar, which launched the Sustainable Seafood Week, a yearly event that started in 2016. 

Meliomar, Inc. CEO Christian Schmidradner

It’s no wonder then that the Discovery Leisure Company made its presence felt during the opening of the week-long sustainable seafood event, held at the Marriot Manila Grand Ballroom. With the theme “Inspiring Solutions for Change,” the Sustainable Seafood Week aims to serve as an open and dynamic platform in discussing the challenges facing the local seafood industry, towards a more sustainable future. Throughout the evening, The Discovery Leisure Company wowed guests with a traditional Filipino boodle fight laden with fresh sustainable seafood, featuring the stars of the night Selva Shrimp from the mangroves of Vietnam, and line-caught yellowfin tuna.

To show further support for the advocacy, Discovery Suites Ortigas also served as venue sponsor for a Sustainable Seafood Workshop that brought together Discovery staff and representatives from leading Hong Kong-based NGO CSR Asia for an engaging and productive afternoon session.

The talented chefs of The Discovery Leisure Company also took part in an exciting cooking challenge that pitted their culinary skills with chefs from other hotels, again with the intent of highlighting the importance of sustainability.

TDLCI corporate director of food & beverage Anthony Raymond and corporate associate director of food & beverage Ross McGregor

“We are proud to be one of the first homegrown hospitality groups that support sustainable seafood,” said Discovery’s Corporate Director of Food and Beverage Chef Anthony Raymond. “By 2020, my vision is to ensure that 100% of all our menus across all our hotels will only serve seafood sourced from sustainable fishing.”

(L-R) executive chef Gerwin Bailon of Discovery Suites, executive sous chef Jay Jay SyCip of Discovery Country Suites, sr. sous chef Ghel Bagwan of Discovery Shores Boracay, and executive chef Luis Chikiamco of Discovery Primea

When asked what’s store for 2018, Chef Anthony revealed, “Our goal is to add close to 10 more species in our repertoire of sustainable seafood.” He added: “Not only do we want to give our guests the best quality seafood there is, but we also strive to take responsibility for the health of our oceans and its diverse marine life.”

Visit www.discoveryhotels-resorts.com to learn more about the advocacy.