Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia Pacific’s leading luxury hotel group, introduces “Signature Performance” healthy menus for meeting participants. Twenty of Shangri-La’s 55 hotels and resorts have incorporated the nutritious dishes into meeting menus, with the rest to introduce the menus by end of 2008.

Signature Performance Menus are one of the components of Healthy Lifestyle Cuisine, a programme designed to provide healthy dining options to Shangri-La customers. Sixty varieties of healthy dishes are featured in Signature Performance Menus, in addition to the standard meeting menus.

Each dish is assigned to a distinct category depending on their specific benefits; “Mindfuel” are dishes that provide a healthy balance of nutrients that improve concentration, increase energy levels and overall productivity for a busy executive; “Jetlag” dishes help reduce insomnia, fatigue and increase vitality; “ActiveYou” dishes give optimal nutrition for tissue maintenance, muscle repair for the sport and fitness enthusiast; and “ChiBalance” dishes are based upon the principle of chi to restore balance and harmony to the mind and body.

Currently, an assortment of Western options is available for lunch and dinner. By the end of 2008, Signature Performance options will also include Chinese dishes.

“Our chefs have brought all their talents to bear to produce Signature Performance dishes that are flavorful, delicious and beautifully presented; they are a treat to the senses as well as one’s health,” says Jean-Michel Offe, group director of food and beverage. “The menus are carefully crafted so that meeting planners can customise menus with the right food choices to boost energy levels and vitality for improved attentiveness, concentration and energy.”

A meeting participant’s meal may start with a Black Pepper Pumpkin Ravioli with Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Sauce or Pan-seared Tuna with Green Lentils, Couscous and Orange Lemongrass Reduction, followed by a main course of Oven-baked Salmon Fillet Wrapped in Prosciutto with Herby Lentils, Spinach and Yogurt or Chicken Breast Roll with Enoki Mushrooms, Carrots and Wild Rice, crowned with a dessert of Tropical Mango and Strawberry Salad with Yogurt Sherbet or Fruit Soup with Berries and Papaya Sorbet.

The healthy menus are the latest in a string of major food and beverage initiatives recently rolled out with focus on bringing healthy dining to a higher level of creativity at Shangri-La properties.

Since November 2007, Shangri-La has teamed up with Mr. Wong Chi Wing, head of food and dietetic at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital and a registered dietician from the Commission on Dietetic Registration accredited by the American Dietetic Association, to develop menus to meet the nutritional and lifestyle needs of its guests, from frequent business travellers to active, health-conscious vacationers and conference attendees.

Signature Performance Menus are part of Shangri-La’s “Signature Events,” a comprehensive set of initiatives designed to position Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia-Pacific’s leading luxury hotel group, firmly at the forefront of delivering streamlined, successful events. Meeting organisers can take advantage of services and benefits tailored to their needs, from initial inquiry to event follow-up. With over 130,000 square metres (over 1.4 million square feet) total meeting space in 55 properties, Shangri-La offers more meeting capacity than any other Asia Pacific luxury hotel group, featuring pillarless, high-ceilinged ballrooms up to 2,240 square metres in key city locations. For more information, please visit www.shangri-la.com.

For digitised pictures of the group’s hotels, please go to http://www.shangri-la.com/imagelibrary