In the food world, ‘farm to fork’ has become something of a buzzphrase — invoked so often and so loosely that it has begun to lose its meaning. At Brook & Pines, we prefer to describe what we do in more specific terms: we source from people we know, in places we can drive to, ingredients that were growing or living a short time before they reach your plate. That is what farm to fork actually means, and it is a practice that fundamentally changes the quality and character of the food we serve.

Kasauli and its surrounding villages occupy one of the more extraordinary agricultural zones in India. The altitude and climate produce vegetables, herbs, and fruits that simply do not taste the same at lower elevations. The diurnal temperature variation — warm days, cold nights — concentrates the sugars in fruit and the flavours in vegetables. The soil, relatively uncontaminated by the industrial agricultural methods of the plains, produces food that has a vitality you can taste.

Our sourcing programme began with relationships. Before we finalised our menu, we spent time in the villages around Kasauli, talking to farmers, visiting farms, and understanding what grows here and when. We wanted to know not just what was available, but what was exceptional — the ingredients that would be difficult to find anywhere else and that would tell the story of this landscape on a plate.

The tomatoes that come from a farm about fifteen kilometres from us are a case in point. They are not the uniform, thick-skinned tomatoes bred for shelf life and transport. They are irregular in shape, deeply red, and so ripe that they almost cannot withstand the trip to our kitchen without splitting. They taste like concentrated summer. In our pizza sauce, our pasta dishes, and our chutneys, they make a visible difference.

Our herbs come from even closer. We cultivate a kitchen garden directly on the property, which provides us with fresh mint, coriander, basil, thyme, rosemary, and several local mountain herbs. Having herbs growing metres from the kitchen means that we can use them at peak freshness — harvested minutes before they are needed rather than days before. The difference in flavour is not subtle.

Wild mushrooms are another ingredient that defines our menu seasonally. The forests around Kasauli produce several varieties of edible wild mushrooms, and we work with local foragers who have spent decades learning the land. These mushrooms are harvested carefully and arrive at our kitchen in the morning, to be used the same day. Their flavour is earthy, complex, and distinctly of place in a way that cultivated mushrooms simply cannot match.

Our dairy sourcing follows the same principle. We use milk and paneer from a dairy cooperative whose animals graze on mountain pasture. The milk is full-fat, naturally homogenised by the traditional methods used here, and it has a richness that commercial dairy products do not have. It makes our curries creamier, our coffee more satisfying, and our desserts more luscious.

Working within a farm-to-fork model is not without its challenges. Supply is seasonal and sometimes unpredictable. The tomatoes run out. The wild mushroom season is short. A late frost affects the herb garden. Our menu responds to these realities: we do not stubbornly keep a dish on the menu when a key ingredient is not at its best, and we introduce new items when seasonal abundance makes something exceptional available.

This responsiveness is actually something our regular guests appreciate. They come back to see what is new, what is in season, what the kitchen is excited about that month. It creates a dynamic relationship between the restaurant and its guests that a fixed, unchanging menu cannot offer.

Our local sourcing also has an economic dimension that we take seriously. By buying directly from farmers and foragers, we are directing revenue into the local community in a meaningful way. We pay fair prices — above market rates where the quality justifies it — and we maintain consistent relationships that give farmers the certainty to plan their production. Several of the farmers we work with have told us that Brook & Pines’ commitment has allowed them to invest in their land in ways that would not have been possible without a reliable buyer.

Farm to fork is, at its best, not just a culinary choice but an ethical and economic one. At Brook & Pines, we are proud of what it means for the quality of your food, for the health of our local agricultural community, and for the extraordinary landscape that makes Kasauli what it is.

When you taste something at our table and think, ‘this is different from what I usually eat,’ that difference has a source. It is growing in the soil just down the road.