This week, we travel back to the island of Borneo, to the tiny Kingdom of Brunei… for a Royal short story… The Empire Hotel is like a small city, opulent, luxurious, and designed around “clean” entertainment… bars, and even a night club can be found in the hotel, but there is not a drop of…
Cancun –Springbreak of 1997… Once a year, hords of thirsty American teenagers flocked down to Cancun, to celebrate springbreak, a few days of freedom from school and parental guidance… Those days I was working as Restaurant Manager of the Blue Bayou, a Cajun cuisine restaurant, in one of the many chain hotels built in the…
Today’s post is about the art of creating a menu, in this case in rather specific conditions : catering for the Hiram Bingham train. For more information on the making of Hiram Bingham : Hiram Bingham, making of As an appetizer, here is what the gastronomic voyage looks like…. : 8:00 AM – Departure from…
Another great adventure, and challenge, was setting up the Hiram Bingham train service, from Cusco to Machu Picchu. In 2003, as I was in charge of Food & Beverage operations for Orient-Express Hotels (now Belmond) in Peru, I was given the task, together with the Executive Chef, to setup a new luxury catering service onboard…
Ever been in a situation so uncomfortable it turns seconds into hours, lifetimes? One of those moments that remain stuck in the air, as if time had completely stopped, and had no intention of starting ever again…. I have, and a few times… but for me this story deserves the palm of honor in the…
This week, and after so many long distance stories, we’ll stay in France, in the very heart of it, in the 17th district of Paris : at the Ecole Hôtelière de Paris Lycée Jean Drouant, where the”Trophée Frédéric Delair” took place last Friday. I was honored when I received the invitation to be a member of…
I have now been writing short hospitality stories for a few months, and I thought it is now time to pause for a few moments, and tell you a little bit about the author of these lines! Firstly, let me confess : I have deactivated my facebook account last week (got some “friends” angry at…
La Cumbre de Rio was a continuous stream of events in and out of the hotel : press conferences, meetings, bi(tri, and more)lateral presidential gatherings…. These would take place anywhere in the hotel, or on the many archeological sites in Cusco and around, such as Koricancha -also known as the Temple of the Sun-, La…
A few weeks after I had started working for Orient-Express in Peru, a small hotel committee -which grew bigger and bigger as the 23rd of May 2003 approached- initiated a series of meetings with the “advance team” (in plain english, the organizers 🙂 ) of the 17th Cumbre de Rio… The “Grupo do Rio”, as…
Technology brings human beings closer and closer every day, in many ways : instant communication, anywhere, anytime… every second millions billions of us exchange data, photos, videos, conversations, it seems anything is possible and the barriers of time and distance seem to have vanished…. Once you form part of the world of hospitality, frontiers tend…