Patrice Vander, cook, & Valentin Prost, gardener at Royal Évian

From their balconies, guests at the majestic Royal Évian can look out over Lake Geneva and a magnificent 19-hectare park, with its lawns and flowerbeds, splendid century-old trees and a vegetable garden that's more than just ornamental. In addition to these 3,000m² of cultivation squares, there is a second permaculture vegetable garden, an orchard, a berry garden and beehives, all of which feed a large part of chef Patrice Vander's gourmet restaurant, Les Fresques. These green spaces are under the responsibility of Valentin Prost, who has been in charge of the estate's gardens for 23 years, arriving shortly before the chef who, in 2010, after rising through the ranks, was appointed Executive Chef of the palace's kitchens.

What was the park like when you arrived 20 years ago?

Patrice Vander: It's always been a beautiful park. There was already a vegetable garden with herbs and aromatics, which we used, but much less than today. We didn't talk as much about local produce back then. We did a bit of picking and collected wild herbs... And then there was lawn everywhere. Last year, the gardeners transformed a large area into a natural meadow that will be renewed year after year. We avoid over-mowing and water less. Some customers find the park less well-maintained, but you have to live with the times and lots of flowers will grow. What's more, the time Valentin spends here, he can spend with his team in the vegetable gardens.

Valentin Prost: In 2000, the vegetable garden was essentially about making things look pretty. It had to be beautiful and fun. It was when the chef took up his post that he decided to make it real and tasteful. But we're going to have to expand, because with everything he asks of me, I'm going to need a lot more! I think that today, given what's happening with global warming, we're all going to have to succeed in producing our own vegetables.

Event Picture

How is this first vegetable garden organized?

V.P.: What we've tried to do here is first and foremost to please our customers. So that they can say to themselves: that's pretty, that's rare or that's bizarre... And then, above all, there's what Patrice asks me to do.

P.V.: I make him a list of herbs. Sometimes we just need one or two strips, but he needs them. We're spoiled children: the more we have, the more we want!

Is the aim to be self-sufficient?

P.V.: We hope so. I think we'll gradually be able to do that. For example, this year we were almost 95% self-sufficient in strawberries for Les Fresques.

Edouard Guibaud, Nicolas Jacquemin

Can you use all the surplus?

P.V.: We manage to use the vast majority of fresh produce. But we had, for example, a lot of tomatoes that, because of the change in weather, were starting to spoil. So we made tomato sauce. Unfortunately, with the reduction in working hours, these are tasks I can hardly get the team to do. This summer, we had a lot of zucchinis and pâtissons, which we passed on to the self-service restaurant. That still represents 180 covers at lunchtime.

Valentin, what are you trying out in the second kitchen garden?

V.P.: I'm testing permaculture techniques. Above all, I'm checking to see if what we're doing to the soil will keep the leaves as long as possible. Here, the plants last much longer than they did upstairs in the first kitchen garden. However, there comes a time when you have to water. We realized it wasn't enough.

Edouard Guibaud, ©Event Picture

How do you manage to minimize water consumption?

V.P.: Under the red fruit garden, there's a water reservoir where we collect all the rainwater. We had calculated that we wouldn't need any drinking water, but today we'd need reservoirs of 150 million cubic metres to be sure! We "mulch", i.e. we cover our soils. We leave the wood, parts of branches and bark, which act as a sponge, releasing moisture when it's too dry. Before, we threw our leaves away at the rubbish dump. Today, we recover everything. But the water deficit is so great that even permaculture is out of date. In the park, we're preparing forested areas, because we realize that in summer, customers don't go out on the lawn any more - it's too hot. They go under the trees. So we're going to create micro-forests and protect our soils with organic matter, more or less recreating what happens in a natural forest. The boss was talking earlier about our melliferous meadow, but we're already working on a new philosophy. We're going to make a permanent meadow with plants that grow naturally on the land here, in the climate here. Because, in fact, the flower meadows we see today are reseeded every two years and are expensive. We've reseeded around 32 native species and there are lots of interesting things in them for the chef, like burnet.

Would it be possible for you to cook today without having a vegetable garden nearby?

P.V.: I got my chef's job in 2010, and the more I progress, the more I think that the signature of Le Royal and Les Fresques is the garden. On beef fillet and Bresse poultry, we no longer put a garnish on the menu, but evolve it as the seasons change. I have to highlight Valentin's work. Every year, we make a tomato collection and a zucchini collection. Some regulars will say that I don't change much, but what they don't see is all the work that Valentin and his team put into finding and growing these varieties of zucchini or tomato, and that's what we want to highlight.