Connecticut's Winvian offers Farm-to-Table Menus

 
Diamond-Dusted Honey Bees Will Sweeten Culinary Presentations
Of New Cooking School at Winvian and Farm-to-Table Menus

LITCHFIELD HILLS, CT ˆ December 2011 ˆ Honey bees foraging at Winvian www.winvian.com in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut this season are tasked beyond making honey. They are expected, as with all details at this world-class stunner, to bear the standards of a AAA 5-diamond kitchen and 5-diamond resort.

An international celebrity in the apiary world, Marina Marchese, is collaborating with Winvian‚s Executive Chef Chris Eddy whose own foraging efforts continue to bring delectable to its highest art form, including honey from Winvian's own diamond-dusted bees.

Queen bees won‚t reside in Winvian's 18 exceptional private cottages, though they will enjoy their own eco chic accommodations in two traditional Lanzstroth wooden and hand-stained beehives with fancy copper topped outer covers.  The colonies arrived at Winvian in May and reside close to the kitchen gardens (where visitors can see their comings and goings) and have free reign to forage on pollens early morning and on nectars later in the day on the resort's 113 sustainable acres and gardens that support Eddy's farm-to-table menus.

Winvian‚s honey will also be featured in the newly launched Cooking School at Winvian, which Chef Eddy presides over.  The Cooking School offers weekend, three-night midweek and six-week extensive culinary retreats. A gleaming state-of-the-art appointed culinary kitchen / classroom can accommodate up to 12 students.   

The school includes a classic two-hour introduction class on mastering savory pasta dishes or delicious pastries and treats as well as more in-depth, longer courses, Dishes will evoke the feeling of a cozy French bistro, Italian trattoria or a friend‚s vacation home in Provence.  Guests will cook with herbs, salad greens and vegetables from Winvian's garden and with seafood and game sourced as locally as possible.  

Eddy, who helped earn Winvian‚s restaurant the AAA Five Diamond award, the only new USA restaurant to achieve this honor in 2011, will lead all classes.  

Winvian, the private and whimsical AAA Ten Diamond retreat ˆ the property also received Five Diamonds for its accommodations ˆ ideally located just two hours from NYC, houses 18 luxe cottages and one suite on 113 acres of meadows and woodlands.  Nightly rates at Winvian start from $650 for two a la carte (breakfast included) and from $1,250 for two all-inclusive (full breakfast, room service, lunch, picnics, spa snacks, afternoon tea, cocktails, dinner, after dinner petit-fours). A 13% gratuity and 9% CT State tax will be added per night to the room rate.  The entire property is available for special celebrations and weddings with rates upon request.

For additional information on the Cooking School at Winvian and class schedules, or to book reservations, please visit www.winvian.com or call 860-567-9600.

# # #