Lush built its international reputation by creating handmade beauty products with fresh ingredients that weren’t tested on animals.
So when Lush’s communications team was planning a three-day retreat on Bowen Island, it wanted to put its ethos where its mouth was. It asked its caterers, the Snug Café, to design a vegetarian menu that sourced as many organic and locally grown products as possible.
A few extra challenges were thrown in: since not all of the 48 people who attended what Lush called Brand Camp were vegetarian, the menu had to satisfy meat eaters who might be worried they were about to endure three days of salads while also satisfying those people who were vegan, gluten-free and lactose free (plus one person with a poppyseed allergy.)
No problem, said the Snug’s Joan Hayes who, along with Steph Boggan and Christian Perroni, is turning out seven meals (plus two snacks a day) that are earning rave reviews.
“We are being spoiled rotten,” Jennie Ridler said after a lunch of summer harvest tortilla soup, lentil and walnut loaf, beet, apple and celery salad, strawberries with goat cheese, freshly baked Snug cookies and gluten-free banana bread.
Ridler, who’s vegan, is the manager of internal communications for the UK-founded company. “The standard of food is out of this world,” she says. “Joan really embraced it and ran with it.”
Run, Hayes did, all over Bowen Island: organic bread from Artisan Eats; tomatoes from Dave McIntosh; celery, kale, chard and relishes from Black Cat Farms; baby carrots and zucchini from Home Farm Gardens, eggs from Alderwood Farm; and jams from Foxglove Farm. She also got fruits from Discovery Organics and organic coffee from JJ Bean.
The whole visit has been special for the staff, who came from New York, Montreal, Chicago and Denver. Harkening back to the camp days of their youth, they boarded an old-fashioned school bus which brought them over on the ferry to Bowen Island Lodge. They started their day with a hike, went on a scavenger hunt, had a karaoke night and simply soaked in the views of Mannion Bay and the Coastal Mountains. The only thing missing was S’mores by the campfires since campfires are currently banned.
