Botanique: a mountain hotel as a cultural itinerary

A mountain hotel can offer more than a view. At Botanique, the twelfth-anniversary programme described by WAYFARER in October 2024 treated the Mantiqueira as a meeting point for food, design and the people who make both. The interest was in the connections between disciplines, rather than a succession of unrelated guest appearances.

The culinary sequence gave that idea a clear structure. Cesar Costa, of Corrutela, appeared on 12 October with dishes including octopus and banana salsa. Tássia Magalhães, of Nelita, followed on 19 October with an eight-course menu. On 26 October, Marcelo Laskani, of Più, brought a repertoire that included fagotelli, artichoke and beurre blanc. These were particular dates in the hotel’s history, not an ongoing schedule.

Art and objects extended the programme beyond the dining room. Circuito Arte Itinerante included work associated with Sérgio Rodrigues, Mariana Palma and Nicole Toldi. A ceramics workshop with Simone Scorsato shifted attention from looking at a finished object to understanding how it takes shape.

Regional production mattered too. Rossini olive oil and coffee presented by Roberto Guimarães connected the hotel to a landscape of cultivation as well as scenery. Taken together, the encounters proposed a useful way to read Botanique: as a place where a stay could be organised around makers, ingredients and materials. The anniversary is over; that account of the hotel’s cultural ambitions remains worth revisiting.