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“A wonderful time in my favorite city destroying my microbiome.” When I typed out that caption last October for my humbly sized social media following, I didn’t expect the Instagram post (the one in which I surrender to the gastrointestinal perils of spending a few days down in New Orleans) to resonate so strongly. The positive reception, I suspect, is less about my aesthetic snaps of hotel rooms and bananas foster, but rather, the universal recognition that traveling does in fact wreak havoc on our poor little microbiomes. I won’t attempt to dissuade you from cutting loose on your next vacation, but I travel for a living and can’t afford to eat like King Henry VIII while on the road anymore (yes, the gout one). Though I’m far from finding the perfect balance, there is a food trend that’s been bubbling up in destinations around the world that feels like a compelling remedy: fermentation.
Fermentation is, news flash, as old as civilization itself. But its recent positioning as part of a destination’s selling point—whether through chef-led workshops or crafty menu offerings—does feel like an emerging concept (more on that ahead). And this makes sense, considering our culture’s Sisyphean pursuit of a so-called healthy gut. For board certified nutritionist and author Mia Rigden, eating one fermented food a day is a simple way to improve your microbiome. “Foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and miso contain live probiotics that can help support the balance of bacteria in your gut,” she says, adding that “these microbes play a key role in everything from digestion to immune function and even your mood and mental health.”
When we’re traveling, gut health is notoriously tough to regulate. (Sitting in a pressurized metal tube whizzing through the sky doesn’t exactly scream digestive ease.) “Travel can throw off your regular eating patterns, sleep, and stress levels—all of which can impact the gut,” Rigden notes. There are, of course, other ways to give your stomach a fighting chance while on vacation that don’t include fermented foods. With regards to that, Rigden suggests staying hydrated and eating fiber-rich plants like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes. “These foods act as prebiotics, serving as fuel for the good bacteria in your gut.” She also points out that supplements can help fill in the gaps while traveling. “I often recommend a full-spectrum probiotic or Saccharomyces boulardii—a beneficial single-strain probiotic that’s particularly helpful for preventing traveler’s diarrhea and supporting gut health under stress,” she says. “Also, magnesium is great for sleep and keeping your digestion moving, and an electrolyte can be really helpful in keeping you hydrated.”
In addition to these practical tips and strategies, if you’re curious how to merge a yearning for a healthy gut with a niche travel trend like fermentation, then allow the following destinations to influence where your wanderlust takes you and your microbiome next.
Fermenting Vegetable Gardens in Tuscany
I’ll concede that Tuscany and a happy gut don’t always go hand-in-hand (this is the land of gluten and Sangiovese, after all). But at Borgo Santo Pietro, fermentation is a guiding principle for executive chef Ariel Hagen. Jeanette and Claus Thottrup, the founders of the 300-acre estate, had a vision to create a fermentation lab onsite that would allow all redundant produce to be preserved for future use. “When I joined the group, we started to work to enhance and develop the fermentation process, which led us to eventually establish a pop-up restaurant each June to September with a menu curated by our fermentation specialists, Rafael and Santiago,” Hagen explains. The menu is based on the concept of ancestral cuisine, so everything is cooked on fire, sans electricity, and alongside fermented ingredients. “These flavors that today feel new actually go back generations and are the root of every culinary culture around the world,” he says, adding that fermentation is the best tool to transform food. “It’s a keystone to creating unique flavors.” For those not at Borgo Santo Pietro during the pop-up, a visit to the hotel’s trattoria to order from the Fermenting Garden menu should do the trick, or even a leisurely tour of the vegetable garden itself.
Fermented Cocktails in the Balinese Jungle
I checked into Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape not long after my gluttonous New Orleans sojourn. Stomach distended and digestive system heavily laden, I sat down for my first meal at this hotel in the middle of the Balinese jungle delighted to discover its predominantly plant-based menu (prepared in a no-waste kitchen, no less). Naturally, this dovetails with fermentation rather seamlessly. “It helps us elevate humble vegetables, preserve fleeting seasonal flavors, and create depth without relying on heavy meat stocks,” Surya Antara, the resort’s chef, tells me. “It’s also a way for us to honor every part of the ingredient, like yam skins or vegetable trimmings or even leftover fruit and bones.” Guests experience these complex flavors across the food and beverage menus. “For example, we brew tepache from pineapple skin and kombucha using wild herbs from the garden,” Antara explains. (The aforementioned was shaken up into a wow-worthy cocktail for me later that evening.) “Fermented ingredients add a sense of time to a dish. When you taste something fermented, you re tasting the memory of what it used to be and what it has become.”
Fermentation Workshops in the Hamptons
If you’ve never been to Shou Sugi Ban House then you’ve at least seen it on your Instagram feed. This boutique Hamptons hotel has note perfect design (the wabi-sabi interiors certainly have a hand in that). On the culinary front, foraging and fermenting play a lead role in the menu, which was developed in collaboration with chef Mads Refslund. Taking this and combining it with the property’s already-acclaimed wellness programming, Shou Sugi Ban House offers a hands-on workshop for guests who want to learn more about how fermented foods aid the microbiome. The hotel’s resident nutritionist, Charlotte LaGuardia Abbate (MS, CNS, CDN) takes you through the earliest form of food preservation, diving into the details of fermenting your own food and learning about the changes that occur during this natural process.
Fermentation Field Trips in Scandinavia
For those with even a remote interest in the restaurant world, Noma is a familiar name. The iconic Copenhagen destination may have taken its final bow last winter, but Søren Wiuff (the renowned Danish farmer who was a key supplier to the three-Michelin-starred restaurant) is keeping busy providing for many of the region’s most sought-after establishments. Take Wiuff’s deep familiarity with fermentation, package it into a one-in-a-lifetime travel experience, and you have Black Tomato’s much-coveted Field Trip series in Scandinavia. On this family-friendly excursion, travelers will explore the fields with Wiuff as their guide, harvesting fruit and vegetables along the way and preparing recipes like those featured in The Noma Guide to Fermentation.
