Hotel Chefs Share Variations of Traditional Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup and Other Recipes to Ward Off Colds and Flu From Executive Chefs at Renaissance Hotels

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. October 14, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC, January 24, 2007. With winter in full swing across the country, and blustery storms sweeping the nation from California to the Carolinas, cold and flu season seems to be at its peak. One of the most time- honored and tasty ways to minister to these ailments is a good dose of warm, hearty chicken soup, that just makes you feel better.

Executive chefs at select Renaissance Hotels & Resorts across the nation know this very well and are sharing the recipes to their favorite variations of traditional chicken soup, featuring them on the hotel's restaurant and room service menus and making them available by special request.

Chuck Subra, Jr., executive chef/proprietor of La Cote Brasserie at the Renaissance Arts Hotel in New Orleans, La., adds some spice to his variation of the traditional recipe with his Chicken, Vegetable, and Konriko Rice Soup - - with white wine, tomato, yellow squash, mirliton, basil, thyme and Tabasco.

Sam Castro, culinary chef for the c-blue Wet Bar & Bistro at Renaissance ClubSport in Walnut Creek, Calif. also adds rice to his chicken soup, Arroz Caldo (Chicken Rice Soup). In addition to cooked white rice, Chef Castro's recipe includes fish sauce, garlic, ginger and saffron.

Paul Burnash, executive chef at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., creates a hearty dish with his White Beans and Chicken with Collared Greens soup, which includes white beans, collared greens, celery and onion.

Other Renaissance Hotels & Resorts chefs from around the country add their own worldly flairs to their chicken soup recipes. Timothy Grandinetti, executive chef at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis, Mo. adds soy sauce, red jalapeno chili, grape seed oil, rice wine vinegar, lime and cilantro to his Chef Timothy's Restorative Chicken Soup.

At the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach, Calif., the Executive Chef, Mohammed Sebouai, uses chick peas, tomato, oregano, lemon juice and fried pita bread wedges for his Mediterranean Chicken Soup.

And for her Mulligatawny, Wendy Wagner, executive chef at the Renaissance Inn at Bay Harbor in Bay Harbor, Mich., includes garam masala curry (or curry powder), ground cumin, cayenne pepper, Asian chili paste (Sriachia), coconut milk, and even throws in two diced Granny Smith apples.

Some of the chefs at various Renaissance Hotels & Resorts have remedies for colds and the flu other than chicken soup.

Fabrizio Schenardi, executive chef at the Pelagaia Trattoria at the Renaissance Tampa Hotel International Plaza, recommends a recipe indigenous to the Piemonte and Valle D'Aosta regions in Italy to cure such illnesses. His Vin Brule consists of red wine, grappa, mint leaves, and zests of both lemon and orange, all boiled together and then brought to a flame.

Klaus Mueller, executive chef at Eden Roc, A Renaissance Resort & Spa suggests drinking Chef Klaus's Ginger Tea -- with fresh, unpeeled ginger, sliced stalk of lemongrass, julienned basil and a touch of cinnamon. Not only does this tea taste great, and provide a quick energy boost, some say it wards off illnesses, as well.