The ocean is never far away in Mauritius. Its rhythm shapes the island’s life, from the fishermen setting out before dawn to the children splashing in lagoons at sunset. Next month, at Heritage Resorts in Bel Ombre, it will also shape the food. For five days in October (6th to 11th October 2025), chefs, farmers and winemakers will gather for the fourth edition of Sustainable Gastronomy Week, a celebration that takes the island’s terroir as both canvas and muse.
The chosen theme is water, a simple word that carries many layers. In Mauritius it is both resource and threat, abundant in the waterfalls that tumble down volcanic cliffs and yet precarious in an age of shifting climate. For the chefs invited to this year’s programme, it is also inspiration. Afternoon teas will be designed around aquatic biodiversity, cocktails steeped in botanicals drawn from riverbanks, and gala dinners structured around the dialogue between land and sea.
At the centre of the week stands Jean-François Bérard, the French chef known for his deep-rooted approach to sustainability. Holder of the Michelin Green Star, he is more gardener than celebrity, a man who treats vegetables and herbs with the respect others reserve for fine cuts of meat. His task is not only to oversee competitions but to encourage a way of cooking that leaves as light a mark as possible. “Cuisine can, and must, play its part in tackling the major challenges of our time,” he says. In Mauritius, with its fragile ecosystems and finite resources, this statement feels especially resonant.
Much of the programme takes place not in lecture halls but in kitchens and dining rooms. Young chefs from the resort’s brigades will test their skills through challenges: crafting an inventive three-course lunch, designing a water-themed gala menu, and distilling the island’s flowers and spices into a singular cocktail. These contests are not staged spectacles but working laboratories, a chance to reimagine what Mauritian cooking might become in years ahead.
Equally central are the conversations outside the stove’s heat. Roundtables will gather chefs with growers, and international voices with local producers. The question threaded through them is how to balance pleasure with responsibility. Can a fine dinner truly be considered a success if it ignores seasonality? How do short supply chains survive in a tourism-driven economy? These are weighty topics, but they find lighter expression each evening when guests sit down to taste what collaboration has produced.
Sustainable Gastronomy Week is not about glossy menus alone. It is about the memory of the island’s farmers, the ingenuity of its cooks, and the ways water, in all its forms, continues to shape both. In the end, the real story is less about a resort than about a small nation searching for a future in which its food is both exquisite and enduring.
