Afternoon tea l Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Perth
“WOW, SEEMS LIKE you spent a lot of time farming!” a friend said, looking at my Perth photos. Well, no, but I did hear so much about native Western Australian ingredients while there that when we finally visited a farm, I got weirdly excited handling real-life Geraldton wax, lemon myrtle and Davidson plums in situ.
This is the aim of Marriott’s Luxury Dining Series, whose name glosses over the dirt you might get under your nails learning about the life cycles of foods on your plate. The series hops around Marriott’s Luxury Group hotels and resorts in Asia Pacific—weekend-long food fests that go behind the scenes of growers, producers and suppliers, behind the pass in kitchens, and behind the bars. Chefs and mixologists from sister properties fly in to co-star with the hosting F&B team in a holistic travel experience that this year was themed on “forgotten ingredients.”
Bedroom views l Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Perth
Painting in the Lounge l Photo by Jeninne Lee-St. John
Though most of it’s a shiny glass tower, my first touchpoint with The Ritz-Carlton, Perth (doubles from AUD 499), was the gorgeous caramel- and eggplant-colored Kimberley sandstone of the hotel’s lower levels, and the mystical jarrah-wood concierge desk. The floor-to-ceiling curved windows lining my room gave a 180-degree panorama of the Swan River, South Perth, buzzing Elizabeth Quay, Kings Park Botanical Garden, and the CBD. The sense of place from this aesthetic immersion was furthered by grounding activities on site such as landscape painting (available at leisure, with local wine) in the Club Lounge, and a mesmerizing didgeridoo sound-healing session so powerful I felt my heart leap.
We had a dangerously long tasting at Old Young’s gin distillery, a champion of local botanicals; learned how Damaged Goods makes its zero-waste spirits with imperfect produce and fruit waste; and took a wine-blending masterclass with Cape Mentelle winery. I also had many a bone-dry martini from Kentaro Wada, who’d come from The Bar at The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo (where I’d attended a raw tuna- and rare matcha-fueled Luxury Dining Series long weekend in 2024), to shake things up with the Perth property’s bars and beverage manager Marco Barsotti.
Chefs Katsuhito Inoue and Brian Cole l Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Perth
FROM LEFT: So many local fish eggs I Photo by Jeninne Lee-St. John; A sunset drink l Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Perth
Convivial chef Brian Cole runs the show at Hearth, The Ritz-Carlton, Perth’s open-flame-focused restaurant where “forgotten ingredients” are a staple. His partner for the weekend of multi-course meals was Katsuhito Inoue, of Chef’s Table in The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto. Having eaten there last year, I knew how much Inoue prizes hyper-local ingredients—and so it was a joy to watch Cole, horticulturist Mark Tucek, and Aboriginal Elder Aunty Dale talk him through the bounty at Tucker Bush farm. Youlk, for example, is a native root vegetable that looks like a mini potato but tastes, Inoue said, “like dashi, and some carrottop.” Auntie Dale explained how the Noongar people harvest youlk in a way that ensures the plant regenerates—an apt metaphor for the goal of responsible travel today.
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