Four Seasons Kuwait Embraces Vegan Dining With New Matthew Kenney Menus

Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait is going all-in on plant-based fare, launching new dedicated menus created by Chef Matthew Kenney at its signature restaurants. In a collaboration with  Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud’s KBW Ventures, diners at Dai Forni and Sintoho can now choose vegan dishes from the new standalone Folia plant-based menus. 

Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya is hopping on the plant-based trend, adding standalone Folia menus to its two renowned eateries, the rooftop Italian establishment Dai Forni, and Asian fine-dining restaurant Sintoho. Folia, meaning “from the leaves” in Latin, is a dedicated plant-based menu concept developed by globally acclaimed plant-based chef Matthew Kenney, in partnership with Prince Khaled’s KBW Ventures. 

KBW Ventures is an investor in the chef’s global restaurant group Matthew Kenney Cuisine, as well as a number of other alternative protein companies including Beyond Meat, Rebellyous Foods, Upside Foods and BlueNalu, to name a few. 

Folia menu

Diners at Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait restaurants Sintoho and Dai Forni will now be able to choose from the Folia menu, which features Kenney’s progressive plant-based, health-conscious dishes tailored to the establishments’ cuisine. 

At Italian restaurant Dai Forni, for instance, Kenney has created a Sicilian-inspired Eggplant Caponata with raisins, pine nuts and capers as a starter and a Cauliflower Pizzaola featuring charred cauliflower, roasted chickpeas and housemade sauce as a main. Meanwhile, Sintoho diners are treated to Kenney’s raw vegan dessert, the Raw Banana Cream Pie, made with coconut cream.

Commenting on the launch of plant-based menus at the hotel’s establishments, Four Seasons Kuwait general manager Didier Jardin said: “I am excited to be launching these outstanding plant-based menus because it sends such a positive signal to our much-valued diners.”

Rising plant-based demand

Jardin, who has managed the hotel since 2017, says that clients have been increasingly demanding vegan options, and now, it “gives me great pride that we are evolving our product to meet changing needs of our much-valued guests.”

Four Seasons’ Kuwait location is just the latest to launch Kenney and KBW’s Folia menu, with similar collaborations already rolled out in the hotel group’s properties in Los Angeles, Dubai and Bahrain. 

Speaking about the expansion of Folia across Four Seasons’ properties, Prince Khaled said he was “especially pleased to see another GCC country partner up to present this delicious and healthy dining experience.”

“The Folia concept for Four Seasons is an incredibly exciting moment in the transition to a more sustainable future,” added Chef Kenney. “Creating menus that are seamlessly interwoven into the fine-dining that already exists at the property is a project that we enjoy, and to be working with the team in Kuwait is a dream come true.”

As sustainable and plant-forward gastronomy takes over the F&B industry, more upscale restaurants and hospitality groups are now offering vegan menus. Three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York, for instance, reopened its doors earlier this year with an entirely plant-based menu. 

It followed the move by Mei Jiang, a Chinese restaurant in The Peninsula Bangkok, to relaunch with a new 100% plant-based Cantonese private fine dining experience, a first-of-its-kind offering in Thailand.

All images courtesy of Matthew Kenney Cuisine / KBW Ventures / Four Seasons.