FALL 2008
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At Work
Pg 38 - At Work with Bree Lewis-Pritchard
Bree Lewis-Pritchard, spa director at the Rancho Bernardo Inn reveals the secrets of Made Fresh Daily, an exclusive menu of face and body treatments using seasonal fruits and vegetables from local growers.
Who: Bree Lewis-Pritchard
Where: Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego
Why: She keeps it creative with a fresh, seasonal spa menu for guests and gives great take-home recipes for at-home body treatments and spa cuisine.
Organic Spa: Where did the Made Fresh Daily idea come from?
Bree Lewis-Pritchard: It evolved from research I was doing for our "Spa To Go" amenity card. Many spas give guests some kind of take-home item, like a stone or a tarot card.
OS: That everyone throws away.
BLP: Exactly. We wanted something a little more practical but also fun and usable, so we created a card that would focus on an herb we grow on the property-like lavender or rosemary -and feature two recipes using that herb. One is a food recipe created by the Chef at the restaurant here, the other is an at-home therapy that's easy enough for guests to make and then use.
OS: Can you give us an example?
BLP: One of the first cards we did used lavender. The food recipe was an heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese and lavender croutons, and the spa recipe was an almond and lavender body scrub. As I was researching benefits of different herbs and foods to come up with recipes for the Spa To Go card, it hit me: Why not take this a step further and build a treatment seasonally that matches whatever is plentiful for that season and make it fresh every day? I know nothing about food recipes or how the kitchen works, and for the chef it's the opposite. So this program definitely takes teamwork.
OS: What's the process?
BLP: First I have to decide on the main ingredient. I meet with the chef to find out what is in season and plentiful, because the produce that's in the grocery store isn't necessarily in season. Then the key is in knowing when that fruit or vegetable has the highest vitamin content, which is usually when it's at its peak of ripeness.
Once I have an idea of what ingredients we want to use in the body treatments, it's building the recipe-how many cups of this or teaspoons of that. The chefs come into play to help out in case something is too watery, for example. Then I'd go to the kitchen, get the ingredients, mix them up, and test them.
OS: So you're literally cooking in the spa?
BLP: Oh yeah. We do a lot of tests. Sometimes things turned out too runny, and I'd have to ask the chef how to make it less runny while keeping the basic ingredients. With the Tomato-Basil Back Treatment, for example, we found we had to strain the tomatoes after blending, or else we'd have a very watery product.
OS: What else has been on the menu?
BLP: Well, we had an Oatmeal-Cranberry Body Treatment that included an exfoliation with brown sugar, warm almond oil, and the juice of cranberries, then a mask of oats, yogurt, honey, cranberry and either chamomile or peppermint tea, and a moisturizer made from melted cocoa butter. We finish off that treatment with a homemade cranberry lip balm.
OS: I'm getting hungry.
BLP: You can literally eat the mask. And you get a small treat created by the chef before every treatment, just like you would in the restaurant. After the treatment, guests are given the recipe card I mentioned earlier.
OS: How is it being received?
BLP: Really well. Our guests seem interested and excited to learn about the benefits of items that might be sitting in their kitchen. So they get an education and a fabulous treatment at the same time.
OS: Anything easy I can try to make?
BLP: You said you like toners. Why spend $50 on one when you can use distilled water and cranberry juice?
OS: Well, now I feel like a total fool. Topic change: What ingredients are you looking at for future treatments?
BLP: We had the Oatmeal-Cranberry through February. For spring, we developed an Avocado-Rosemary Body Treatment and for summer I'm looking at watermelon.
OS: Do you cook at home?
BLP: Not so much. I'm better with spa cooking than home cooking.
-R.S.