Danny Ho has put Hotel Icon on the foodie map with his decadent and innovative pastries. The 37-year-old executive pastry chef has racked up numerous awards for his Asian-influenced French desserts, and his contribution to the hotel’s Market buffet has helped it earn best buffet in Hong Kong honors for six years running. He also has a canny sense for what will click on social media, which has helped drive the hotel’s reputation as a must-see for food lovers. Ever on the hunt for the next disruptive dessert — his latest obsession is durian, the controversial Southeast Asian fruit — Ho is an enthusiastic leader and coach as well.
Ho is one of 20 rising stars (all 40 and under) HOTELS interviewed for our May feature. All shared their insights about their lives in the business and thoughts about some of today’s challenges and opportunities. In a Wall Street Journal-sponsored series, read Ho’s responses to our questions and click here to link to the full list of interviews with HOTELS 20 Next-Gen hospitality leaders.
Contributed by Megan Rowe
HOTELS: What are people getting into the hotel business looking for?
Danny Ho: The young generation wants to know that management cares about them and wants to develop their skills for the future. At this hotel, we try to send the team overseas for training so they can see what’s happening around the world and connect with different chefs, have different experiences, and pick up new techniques and ideas. Then they can come back and share these ideas and work on developing new promotions for the hotel. I also give them a lot of freedom to develop their own style instead of me creating and them executing.
H: Do you think the glass ceiling/“old boys’ network” in the hotel industry remains, or is that changing?
DH: In the pastry profession, at least in Asia, I think most of the chefs are men, but in the younger generation, we are seeing many more women as students. They want to learn how to make pastry and then go home to start their own shop. Ten years ago, our students were mostly men. I think five or 10 years from now we will see more female executive pastry chefs.
H: What do you think needs to be updated about company culture to ensure that younger professionals are attracted to the hotel industry?
DH: I think we need to give younger people a lot of chances and a way to build their confidence. Nowadays younger people have their own way of thinking. When we train the students, they have a lot of questions Why do we do things this way — can we change? They have their own mindset. Sometimes I get inspiration from them.
H: What are the changing needs and priorities of next-gen leaders?
DH: The older generations, especially in Asia, weren’t ready to share — they wouldn’t share their techniques or baking secrets because they were afraid (of the competition). But I don’t think this is the right way to inspire the younger generation. So I decided to share all the secrets and skills involved in my recipes. I share recipes for my best-selling pastries on social media as well. I feel that there is no secret recipe for chefs. We need to share with each other — it’s the only way we can improve. I do it for another reason, too: Every day the Hotel Icon feeds more than 1,000 guests, and sometimes I’m away from the hotel for two or three weeks. I need my team to handle the pastry demand, and I need to know they are producing the same standard of quality.
H: What about the business or your job keeps you up at night?
DH: Social media! In Hong Kong, people like things that are trendy and new. I’m from Malaysia, and there you could use one cheesecake recipe for five or 10 years. In Hong Kong, that won’t work because the guests and social media gravitate toward new things. So the biggest challenge for me is always thinking about the next promotion, how to attract social media interest, get people into the hotel to try the product, take pictures and get the word out. For each promotion we need to make sure we make noise in the market to attract social media and guests.
H: To what do you most attribute your success and growth?
DH: I’m active in social media. I have my own fan club on WeChat with about 120,000 members; we share pictures, recipes and ideas. It has inspired me, and I’ve used it to promote the hotel and our pastries. I’m always looking at different ways to reach out to our social media audiences. We know there is a strong following in China, so the hotel created a special weekend package for them that includes two days of pastry classes with me.
H: What’s your best advice to the next generation of people in your position? What would you tell people entering the industry now?
DH: They need to work hard, not give up so easily, have more passion about their job and work with their heart. I know that’s not easy. But there are no shortcuts.
H: Describe the things that you try to do every day, and why you do them.
DH: Because it’s part of our hotel branding, I always try to think unlike others. If another hotel is doing something, I won’t follow that. We try to create trends here.
H: Where do you find inspiration outside your industry?
DH: From my mother. She baked, and when I was 3, I started helping her and told her I wanted to become a pastry chef when I grew up.