A Queensland restaurant has picked up on the “localvore” philosophy that dictates eating food that is grown and produced in your local area.
The Capers at the Beach restaurant at the Airlie Beach Hotel in the Whitsundays has recently introduced a new menu that aims to reduce pollution and wastage and support local farmers.
The ‘localvore’ menu features daily specials which offer diners a chance to eat only local produce, sourced within a 100 kilometre radius of Airlie Beach. The meals created are complete and comparatively priced.
Airlie Beach Hotel general manager Mark Bell said the localvore menu developed from the restaurant’s need to find a new angle to tackle the downturn in the economy.
He said Airlie Beach’s economy survives primarily on tourism and as a result of a downturn in the economy, the town had to work harder for that tourism dollar.
“We needed to find another way to entice diners to the region and our restaurant,” Bell said.
“Aside from fresher, cleaner and healthier produce, the localvore concept keeps local money circulating locally and reduces our carbon footprint by shortening the route your food takes from paddock to plate.”
“For example, some farm produce goes from Bowen to Brisbane then back up to Proserpine and finally to us here in Airlie. By the time you package and transport all of that produce, the carbon footprint increases and the food isn’t as fresh as it would have been had it come straight from Bowen.”
The Localvore movement to North Queensland is the innovation of Tim Whitehorn, executive chef at the Airlie Beach Hotel, who spent many months tirelessly chasing leads and local farms, searching for enough ingredients to create a worthy menu.
After six months he now has more than 50 items and has discovered more than a dozen local farmers he previously never knew existed. “We now use herbs, veggies and lettuces from the Whitsundays’ only hydroponic farm. We source other fruits, vegetables and nuts of all kinds from other farms, and we even use coconuts from the front of the hotel,” he said. “We have free range meats including pigs, cows, chicken and seafood and even Beefalo which is a cross between Bison and cattle.”
Tourism Whitsundays chief executive officer Peter O’Reilly said the introduction of the Localvore concept in the Whitsundays would be welcomed by locals and visitors alike. “So many people go on a holiday to a tropical destination like the Whitsundays and want to try the local fares,” he said.
“The Whitsundays is so blessed with such rich agricultural land within such a close distance, so it is wonderful to see that tourists and locals will now easily be able to enjoy the range of foods on offer—from a Bowen mango sorbet, a fresh local barramundi, Whitsunday Gold Coffee and plenty more,” he said.
