Spa Home Cooking

Renowned chef Bill Wavrin has created healthy, hearty dishes for top spas, including Glen Ivy Hot Springs, Rancho La Puerta, Miraval and Golden Door
Last year, I woke up to my Southern California lawn blanketed with two inches of snow on three separate occasions. This year, I’ve already burned through two cords of oak.
When the mercury hovers just above 30 degrees here at Glen Ivy Hot Springs, we are populated with a daily average of 300 bikini- and Speedo-clad guests, mostly Eastern Europeans, gleefully splashing about in our mineral hot springs, wanting the temperature to drop another 10 degrees.
Personally, I awake every morning with a sleepy fall into the deep end of my unheated pool and fall out as fast as I fell in. My wife thinks I’m nuts, but my son, Jonathon, who is a Navy Seal, thinks I’m right in line. Besides, warmed breakfast breads are perfect for warming the innards on chilly days like these, and my sweet potato latkes with rose shrimp are great at lunch or dinner.
Our gardens here at Glen Ivy Hot Springs are in full bloom throughout the year, planted with fall and winter crop leeks, and green onions and root vegetables like beets, carrots, parsnips and turnips inching deep in the cooling soil. Winter greens, like arugula, lamb’s quarters, sorrel, Chinese cabbage, Swiss chard, kale and fennel are greening their raised beds, perfect for a mixed green salad or quick stir-fry. Sweet potatoes, yams and a mix of potatoes are in full bloom. Asian pears, limes, persimmons, quinces and tangerines are destined for that short trip to my kitchens.
The colors—dark green to yellow gold to red—are not only pleasing to the eye, they are very healthy hues that should be included in your diet. Many fruits and vegetables that paint with this palette are jammed full of antioxidants, carotenoids and other beneficial vitamins A and C, plus minerals. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, turnips are a potent agent against cancer and all members of the Brassica family are found to be fighters of prostate cancer. I try to make it a habit to include as many of these vegetables on my plate as a main item or side dish. So eat your vegetables and be healthy!