Four Seasons DC Cultivates Ultra-Healthy Menu

This spring the Four Seasons Hotel Washington DC will promote a West Coast way of living via a new healthy menu packed with avocados, rockfish, and even dessert.

The new options, available beginning April 8, are inspired by smoothie queen Tess Masters. The Australian author of The Perfect Blend cookbook is based in Los Angeles, which is where one might expect such a health-conscious menu to crop up.

But there’s proof D.C. is craving more vitamins: The hotel’s egg white omelet is currently a top seller in the morning, Four Seasons Hotel executive chef Douglas Anderson said.

Masters — dubbed The Blender Girl — offered up her Mystical Mango Smoothie for the menu, as well as her Avocado Avenger salad. In addition, she said raw sprouted watermelon seeds, sprinkled on top, are a new trend to gobble up. Diners can also order an added dose of protein by adding shrimp or chicken.

D.C.-based nutrition expert Ashley Koff helped co-write the menu and recruited Masters late last year. “I credit Four Seasons’ chefs,” Koff said of the creative collaboration. “Some can be territorial. I never want to tell a chef what to do, it’s like telling a designer what to do.”

Anderson came up with a ginger and cilantro grilled local rockfish with roast bok choy and oyster mushroom, mushroom water, and radish. Foods traditionally banned from carb-conscious menus also made the cut, including gluten-free bread and flourless triple-pecan mousse pie supplied by Four Seasons executive pastry chef Charles Froke.

Hotel guests can get even healthier come June 10 (Global Wellness Day); that’s when an expanded, all-day spa dining menu is projected to launch.

“We’ve got some game-changing things on the menu. For me, it’s selfish; living several blocks away I can just pop in,” Koff said.