Good news for foodies in New York City: The Waldorf=Astoria has opened a chef's garden on a 20th Floor rooftop space in addition to several large planters with a variety of fruit trees. The garden and trees join a honeybee hive, city website Gothamist notes.
Food from the garden has already been incorporated into dishes at the hotel's restaurants and bars, including their Sunday Brunches at Peacock Alley. Chef De Cuisine Matt Schindler used up massive amounts of kale last weekend and will soon start using the carrots, the story notes. Other growing ingredients include edible flowers, various strains of thyme and other herbs, and lots of lettuces, as well as a row of apple trees that will bear fruit next year. Tomatoes are already coming in.
Celebs are also excited about the garden: Tim Gunn, filling in for Bette Midler as ambassador from the New York Restoration Project, helped to plant one of two sour cherry trees. (We hear the fruit will be put to use in the hotel's version of a Manhattan cocktail.) Cool touch: The rooftop trees count towards the Project's MillionTreesNYC initiative, which seeks to plant one million new trees throughout New York City by 2017.