Eat Fresh and Healthy in California's
Silverado Resort

Napa Valley's Silverado Resort has added Certified Angus Natural Beef (CAB Natural Beef) to its sustainable cuisine offerings in the acclaimed Royal Oak and Terrace Restaurants. Executive chef Peter Pahk made the just a few weeks after the beef became available in the United States.

The Silverado Resort is the sole location in Napa Valley to offer the Angus-type cattle, which is raised without supplemental hormones, antibiotics or animal byproducts. The beef must meet premium quality standards confirmed by USDA graders before it earns the CAB Natural name.

We believe it is critical to offer food that is produced in a way that is not only good for the environment but also humane for the animal," said Chef Pahk.

The Silverado Resort has earned a reputation as a leader in sustainable cuisine. It is the only resort in Napa Valley to become a member of the Chef's Collaborative, a national network of more than 1,000 members of the food community who promote sustainable cuisine. The Chef's Collaborative educates chefs and consumers about local sustainable products and practices and also works to improve the quality and taste of sustainable food products.

The Silverado Resort has been enhancing its sustainable cuisine offerings for several years. In 2001, the resort introduced an aggressive seafood policy that promoted the use of sustainable seafood in the Royal Oak restaurant. The resort began recommending to its patrons fish from Marine Stewardship Council-certified sustainable fisheries and those that were harvested using sustainable practices, following guidelines developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch protocol and the Audubon Society's Living Oceans Seafood Guide. In addition, the resort stopped serving four species of seafood – Chilean Sea Bass, Atlantic Swordfish, Blue Fin Tuna and Shark - because the survival of those species is threatened by over-fishing, or they are harvested in ways that damage the environment.

"It is our goal to not only serve environmentally appropriate cuisine offerings but also to educate our guests and employees about the reasons behind those decisions," said Chef Pahk. "Balancing availability, food cost and guest preferences is always a challenge, but we have found that our guests are particularly receptive when we explain that the choices they make can directly affect the health of the planet."

The Silverado Resort's sustainable cuisine practices now include:

• Serving wild Alaska salmon instead of farmed salmon. The resort's operator, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, was the first U.S. hospitality company to be granted the "Chain of Custody" certification from the Marine Stewardship Council. This important certification guarantees all wild Alaska salmon menu items can be traced to their source, assuring consumers that the salmon is from a fishery that has met the Marine Stewardship Council's stringent environmental standards.
  

• Becoming a member of the Chef's Collaborative.
  

• Featuring Snake River Farms Kurobuta Pork and Kobe-style Beef. Both products are produced using all-natural production methods. American Kurobuta Pork is raised on small family farms in the Midwest using no extenders, sodium or added water. Kobe Beef cattle are raised in a natural environment and fed a varied diet of barley, golden wheat, straw, alfalfa hay and Idaho potatoes. Their feeding program runs three times longer than traditional beef and is hormone free.
  

• Serving wine produced by members of the Napa Sustainable Wine Growers, a group of winemakers in Napa Valley who adhere to a variety of strict sustainable practices.
  

• Serving abalone produced by Abalone Farm, a California facility that uses state-of-the-art sustainable practices. Due to the rapid decline in the coastal wild abalone population, commercial abalone diving is illegal in U.S. waters. Abalone Farm operates an aquaculture facility that grows abalone without harming the earth's natural resources.
  

• Implementing a Foodservice Energy Awareness Program that teaches all of the resort's food service employees to participate in energy conservation in a variety of ways.
  

• Developing a Green Procurement program to ensure all paper products and chemicals used in the company's food service operations are environmentally sound. As part of the Xanterra's Ecologix environmental management system, all food service operations also participate fully in recycling and waste reduction programs.

Xanterra Parks & Resorts operates lodges, restaurants and other concessions at national parks and state parks and resorts. Xanterra is the country's largest national park concessioner. The company operates concessions in the following locations: Yellowstone National Park, the North and South Rims of Grand Canyon National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Death Valley National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, Everglades National Park, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial; and at the Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif.; Gideon Putnam Resort & Spa in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. and eight Ohio State Parks.

Long committed to the preservation and protection of the environment, Ecologix, Xanterra's environmental program, includes a variety of proactive environmental stewardship programs in each location. Xanterra was selected as a member of the EPA "Environmental Performance Track" program in 2003. Also in 2003, the company's Grand Canyon operations received the Arizona Tourism Award for Preservation and its operations in Mount Rushmore received the prestigious ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard Certification. Xanterra was the recipient of Environmental Achievement Awards from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002 and from the Department of Interior in 2001 and 2002. Xanterra also received the Travel Industry Association's Odyssey Award for its environmental initiatives in 2001.

For more information about Xanterra and links to individual properties, visit: www.xanterra.com.