Pittsburgh Suds Up with Homemade Soap

I just love when people do something unexpectedly innovative. Especially when it comes out of a large corporation, rather than an expected innovation-pumping start-up. That's why Fairmont Pittsburgh's most recent kitchen experimentation has caught my eye...

Turns out the classically French-trained Executive Chef Andrew Morrison whips up more than just fine dining for the LEED-Gold luxury hotel. He's also a master of soap. Yes, the kind you use when washing your body. Available in scents like lavender chamomile, rosemary mint, lemon grass and pear ginger, the homemade suds will sell in the health club and spa in the near future and are crafted using reclaimed, all-natural ingredients like coconut oil and lye, from the hotel's kitchen. (The tallow, or beef fat used to make the soap, actually comes from the weekly half-cow that Morrison purchases at the Burns Angus local farm. Now, every part of the cow is being used to minimize waste.)

The soap-making process, which takes two weeks, is started and completed in the Fairmont kitchen using reclaimed, all-natural ingredients from the hotel's restaurant, Habitat.

Fairmont Pittsburgh's Habitat Restaurant