How cuisine connects to our philosophy

For millennia, the role of food has been as complex as the variety of our emotions. From craving and attachment to a source of inspiration and meditation, food breathes life into life. With over abundance, infinite choice, misinformation, and indiscipline, we have also made food a major cause of illness today. At Six Senses Vana you can be in control of what you eat by learning all about cuisine and making it the focus of your time here. This would mean discovering what you should eat, learning recipes and techniques and exploring how to make healthy food practical to create back home.

Our cuisine supports a positive and embracive outlook toward healthy eating and might just be one of the highlights of your retreat!

Our philosophy

Mindfulness is at the heart of our cuisine. Nature and ecology are forever present in how the seasons and our supply chain influence menus. Wellness objectives and personal preferences are provided for. And nutritional and dietary information are made available, to make choices that you can follow back home.

We believe in using local, seasonal, and organic ingredients, organic certified where possible. A lot of what we source is from Uttarakhand, and we try to find indigenous varieties. As we are conscious about ecology, we do not airfreight food.

With wellbeing being our focus, our food does not contain refined sugars, grains, or oils. Our whole-grain flours are freshly ground in our petite stone mill, and we bake fresh bread for our guests and team every day.

We work with several local farmers and suppliers to source pulses, milk, tofu, cheese, vegetables, and mushrooms. Creating our own food network is an ongoing effort and something that we hope will make us self-sufficient one day.

Nutrition

Nutritional information can be found on all menus to help you make informed choices. We are not prescriptive about your diet unless it is essential for a particular retreat objective. Our dishes and menus are created to allow you to enjoy each of your meals and leave the table with a happy stomach and happy mind. Our wellness and cuisine team interact closely to understand your preferences, allergies, and restrictions if any. Information on the menus will help anyone on a vegetarian, vegan or raw diet choose what works for them.

Our portions and levels of salt and oil are calibrated carefully, and chilies are not used. We use olive oil (organic if possible) and organic ghee.

Seasons

Our cuisine follows five seasons: summer, monsoon, autumn, winter and spring. Our menus take advantage of what is available in the region and locally, foods that give nutritional benefit in different seasons.

Ayurveda

Ayurveda believes that diet and digestion are key to wellness. This ancient science also highlights that the palate plays an important role in digestion and puts emphasis on incorporating all six tastes in one’s meal: sweet, pungent, salty, astringent, sour and bitter. It also recommends that we fill half the stomach with food, a quarter with water and leave the remaining empty for digestion.

Dining spaces

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served at Salana. Menus are à la carte accompanied by a small and carefully chosen buffet at breakfast and/or lunch. Salana’s cuisine takes inspiration from various cultures and re-focus on wellness, creativity, and ecology.

Anayu is derived from the Sanskrit words ‘an ́a’ and ‘ ̄ayu’, meaning ‘food’ and ‘life’. It brings together Indian inspired recipes and Ayurvedic principles. Anayu’s menu is crafted to serve each of the three body types - Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Anayu is open for lunch and dinner.