Great Hotel Restaurants
HOTELS celebrates 14 years of honoring hotel restaurants that set the standards of excellence.
By Mary Scoviak, Features Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 8/1/2003
Foie gras is back in style and so is a grand passion for cooking. Though less is still more in terms of limiting the number of ingredients and assiduously avoiding anything that masks the pure flavor of food, there is a surprising sumptuousness in the choice of products—plates of caviar, pan-seared foie gras, pink mushroom soup, Kobe beef. Portions are still small. Flavor enhancements are done with a light touch. Heavy sauces have been banished to the annals of history. Even with all that, the chefs at the helms of this year’s Great Hotel Restaurants are introducing a new intensity to, as Brown’s 1837 Executive Chef Andrew Turner describes it, “the alchemy that is cooking.”
Guests are seeing classical culinary traditions applied with an innovative, modern touch and are tasting some of the best food available anywhere. Hotel restaurants in Asia and the Middle East have virtually cornered the market on fine dining. Their counterparts in Europe and the Americas are tough competitors, reflected in the growing number included on international “best of” restaurant lists. These great chefs credit realistic budgets and management’s support of culinary innovation as the quality drivers that are winning hotel restaurants more Michelin stars and posting higher profits for fine-dining restaurants on the bottom line.
Consistency is a theme, as much for food quality as service and design. Like the food, restaurant design is clean-lined, but richer and deeper. Comfort is key in the front of the house, as well as the back of the house where chefs encourage brainstorming sessions involving the entire brigade. These factors add up to the excellence required in a truly great hotel restaurant. These are the issues the food essayists, authors, consultants and designers who make up our Selection Committee weigh when voting on more than 100 nominees.
|
Tugra,
Ciragan Palace Hotel Kempinski, Istanbul
Ciragan Palace was more than a decade ahead of
its time when its management decided to devote its fine-dining restaurant
to Ottoman and Turkish cuisine. While the world cycled through Asian,
Latin, fusion and more, Tugra was giving hotel guests food they could
sample few other places in the world: Its signature cold “messes” (a
sensual mix of appetizers), Ottoman-style vine leaves embedded with
dried beef and served with a tomato coulis and Imperial-style stuffed
chicken. Now, as culinary fashion again favors local flavors, Tugra’s
12-chef brigade led by Chef Sezai Omer Erdogan, continues to take advantage
of the flexibility of Ottoman and Turkish cuisine by experimenting with
new blends of herbs and spices as well as changing presentation styles
with the ornaments, ceramics and patterns synonymous with Turkey’s
rich aesthetic heritage.
“There are many chefs and restaurant managers in a hotel. Consequently, there is a larger pool of ideas when it comes to implementing new dishes, elaborating new presentations or introducing new services,” Erdogan says. This sort of brainstorming led to evolutionary changes in intensifying the seasonality of menus as well as the more revolutionary decision to build a wine cellar where guests can select their own wines. Ciragan Palace’s Executive Chef Fabrice Canelle and Erdogan work with local suppliers, such as olive oil producers, to find new flavors and textures to enhance the food.
“Chef Canelle believes in the rule of simplicity. Product has to absolutely fresh and the presentation creative. He is an artist, really. He mixes spices and vegetables like paints on a canvas,” says Erdogan, who counts Canelle among his mentors.
Beautiful food and presentation is a must in this 11-year-old, 86-seat restaurant housed in the only “living” Ottoman Palace in the world. The price of luxury for this Leading Hotel of the World member is still an affordable US$13.50 for most entrées.
|
Al Mahara,
Burj Al Arab, Dubai
Guests enter Al Mahara via a three-minute simulated
submarine ride through a beautiful aquarium filled with some of the
most unique fish in the world. Executive Chef John Wood’s food has to match
the “wow” factor of this spectacular entrance, and it does.
This “other” world of darting fish, waving fronds and coral-inspired
carpets is complemented by the luxurious exoticism of squid ink bread,
sea salt and seaweed “La Lavosh,” and a caviar plate of
beluga, sevruga and osetra, each with a different topping,
served with potato terrine.
With an average check of US$118, the 72-seat Al Mahara takes advantage of the diversity of seafood. But, with a nod to this Jumeirah International hotel’s globe-trotting clientele, Wood’s menu attracts meat lovers with a filet of beef with fondant potatoes, balsamic onion confit, asparagus and Madeira jus, as well as vegetarians drawn to honey roasted sweet potatoes with a Parmesan biscuit and baby spinach risotto.
“Alan Jameson, the first real chef I worked with, was the chef for the royal family of the Philippines. He was fanatical about detail and produce,” says Wood, who claims cooking as his job and his passion “He use to guide me through until the early hours of the morning to get it right. His obsession with perfection paid off. I also worked for Anton Edelman at the Savoy. He never accepted second best. I learned a lot from him—the hard way at times.”
Leading a team of 21 chefs, Wood sees his cuisine continuing to lighten up. Menus feature more organic items and less fat and oil. He believes in maintaining “popular” dishes rather than signatures. “(Classical) cooking has existed for hundreds of years. All chefs have done is taken pieces from various dishes and added their own interpretations on something that was done before. It’s a matter of innovating, creating and adapting,” says Wood, who won his first Michelin star at Cliveden House, Berkshire, UK.
|
BLU,
Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore
Opened in 2000, 75-seat BLU won a place among Condé Nast Traveler’s
Top 100 New Restaurants (2001) and kudos from Singapore Tatler and Wine & Dine
for its signature contemporary Mediterranean cuisine.
Old world cooking methods fuse with California produce and a modern
presentation to satisfy the diverse palates of regional customers as
well as European, U.S. and Canadian expatriates.
“Singapore is, perhaps, the most challenging market I ever had to cook for. It truly is a challenge to exceed everyone’s expectations all the time,” says Peter Schintler, chef de cuisine. “The chef has to understand the desires and needs of the very diversified clientele and guests to be able to make each experience different based on the client’s expectations. Fortunately, I can cook anything I wish. Cetin Sekergioglu [area manager and general manager] supports my passion to be creative without restriction. Working here is a chef’s dream.”
Schintler and his eight-member brigade take advantage of this culinary freedom to create dishes of diverse flavors and textures such as a soufflé of lobster “enhanced” with rosemary and served with a savory Chardonnay-vanilla bean sauce and a grilled Ahi tuna with Hudson Valley foie gras, white anchovy croquettes and a Sangiovese-pomegranate jus. Typically, BLU’s seasonal menus, with their average check of US$89 for six courses, feature as many as 25 new items to keep the concept fresh and interesting.
As manager of the 26-staff member restaurant, Schintler recognizes he has a larger role in restaurant operations than most chefs. “I like to see people laugh and not be worried about dropping their fork. I very much do not like the seriousness and stiffness of old world service and formality,” says Schintler, who is considered one of Asia’s rising star chefs.
|
Anakena Thai Market and Grill,
Hyatt Regency Santiago
Few restaurants deserve to be called unique. Anakena
is a bona fide exception. Its market-style philosophy
means guests can order from the Thai-inspired menu or talk directly
with the Thai chefs in the open kitchen to design their own menu. Those
who can resist the signature Pad Thai or grilled swordfish with prawn
fova succotash and basil buerre blanc can select their entrée
directly from tanks of live fish and lobsters. All products are displayed,
as in a real market, to emphasize their quality and
freshness.
Anakena’s eight-member brigade uses a wide variety of cooking methods to enhance the pure flavors of food and will customize preparation to guests’ requests. Once the order is placed, the culinary transformation begins. “Every cuisine in the world is an inspiration because every country has great dishes. A lot lays in the hands of the chef preparing the dishes, the cooking method and insistence on the freshest ingredients,” says Executive Chef Armin Zahner. Anakena’s unique operational approach and consistency over its 11-year history have built sales to 36,500 covers a year at an average check of US$18.
“Over the past years, customers have become more adventurous. Chileans generally do not like chilis and spicy food. Anakena has stimulated the taste buds of the local market,” says Zahner, who works closely with Felipe Moraga, chef de cuisine and two Thai national chefs. “Over the last six months, our menus have become more and more authentically Thai and more increasingly focused on quality fish and seafood available in the local market.” Quality is key since much of Anankena’s cuisine is prepared “à la minute” to keep maximize the food’s nutritional value.
|
Restaurant Le Bristol,
Hôtel Le Bristol, Paris
Firmly rooted in French culinary tradition, the
60-seat Restaurant Le Bristol has earned two Michelin stars for its
masterful variations on classical themes. “I like the surprising interaction
between luxury ingredients such as foie gras with simple, regional foods
and recipes,” says Eric Frechon, chef de cuisine. “We are
fortunate to have the budget to purchase the finest ingredients,
which means we can be inspired by some of the most exotic produce and
spices in the world.”
Dishes created by Frechon and his two “teams” of 35 people reflect a delicate balance between a respect for the original flavor of food and ingenious enhancements. Artichoke macaroni stuffed with truffle and foie gras, accented with aged Parmesan, as well as cod fish in champagne and caviar sabayon and water cress purée have become favorites on the à la carte menu. Frechon’s daring in introducing a delicately encrusted whiting on a gourmet menu signals the kind of creative thinking that earned this 40-year-old the Norman Champerard Guide’s best chef of 2003 award.
It is the food itself, rather than ephemeral trends, that drive the evolution of Le Restaurant’s cuisine. “We really do not take into account current food fashions or where the guest comes from. We tend to keep the menu light but, overall, our menu is based on the tradition of haute cuisine. However, when guests request a special dish, it is always prepared as they wish,” Frechon says. Average check (excluding wine and beverages) varies from E65 for the seasonal menu to E150 for the à la carte menu.
|
Locanda Locatelli,
InterContinental The Churchill, London
Michelin stars are in Giorgio Locatelli’s blood. The 40-year-old
chef grew up in his family’s Michelin-starred restaurant along
the banks of Lake Maggiore, Italy, and brought his own
stellar culinary talents to London, where he earned his first Michelin
star in 1999 for Zafferano. His second star honors his latest effort
at showcasing the best of Italian cuisine, Locanda Locatelli at InterContinental
The Churchill, London.
Operated as a lease-out, the US$2.5 million, 90-cover restaurant plays up the pure flavors of food in dishes such as tordelli di cipolla con salsa al Chianti (red onion pasta parcels with Chianti sauce) priced at US$16, or nasello in scabeccio (steamed hake with garlic and vinegar) priced at US$31. “Dishes in general are becoming less complicated. We find we are losing ingredients as our menu evolves,” Locatelli says. Ingredients dictate menu changes. New dishes are introduced every two weeks on Locanda Locatelli’s seasonally inspired menus. The nature of the ingredients and the varied techniques of traditional Italian cooking allow for the kind of realistic versatility that accommodates special requests for rice flour pasta (from customers allergic to wheat) or vegetarian dishes.
Locatelli is as much a purist when it comes to staff performance as he is when overseeing the kitchen. What keeps the concept fresh, he says, is training. Passionate about standards and innovation, Locatelli conducts ongoing training for all staff on the 56-member brigade as well as waitstaff. “When food and wine suppliers visit, we encourage everyone here to discuss, debate and experiment,” he says. Staff members are encouraged to learn new skills and increase their understanding of what it takes to succeed. “All the elements from the environment to the quality of the food are important. But the success of the restaurant lies in a dedicated staff,” he says. Star status does not hurt. Madonna’s favorable comments on the snakeskin-textured chair for baby Rocco pumped up publicity for what many consider the best Italian restaurant in London.
|
1837,
Brown’s Hotel, London
I came to this glorious restaurant four years ago
and found it virtually empty. I had to ask myself why. The answer was
that it just did not justify the US$75 minimum spend,” says Andrew
Turner, an Albert Roux protégé who took over as 1837’s
executive chef in 1999. “A meal should be of excellent quality
without being extortionately expensive, and wine should
play an integral part of the experience.”
Working within the elegant spirit synonymous with Brown’s, which was acquired in June by Rocco Forte Hotels from Raffles Holdings, Turner elevated his “grazing” menu concept (something he first toyed with “when nouvelle cuisine was raising its ugly head”) to a US$65 seven-course sampling of the dishes on the à la carte menu. To counteract the confusion of wine selection, he worked closely with the sommelier to develop a wine list of 300 wines sold by glass—an award-winning roll call of the world’s vintages that range from interesting to exquisite.
Not only has this approach sent wine sales soaring, but it also ensures better food cost controls for the bottom line and better quality for the guests. “Nothing goes unsold,” Turner says. “There are no leftovers to use up in mousse. We can buy top quality and offer guests an insight into the fabulous alchemy that is cooking.”
Despite its historic references, 1837 serves modern European cuisine with English overtones. Turner and his 12-member brigade deconstruct classical food and reconstruct the ingredients into modern dishes such as a pink Paris mushroom soup with crystallized truffle, foie gras with green apples for summer and a filet of beef with lardons, wild mushroom, salsify and a red wine sweet meat sauce for the autumn. “I don’t enhance anything that doesn’t need enhancing,” says Turner, a frequent face on top cooking shows. “Everything needs to be cooked as close to the order as possible, even vegetables. If you understand that the ‘kids’ in the kitchen can take on a lot, you don’t need to do so much in advance. It’s all about simplicity.” Simplicity sells. 1837 now contributes US$3.3 million annually to Brown’s bottom line.
|
Azul, Mandarin Oriental, Miami
Change is the constant for Chef Michelle Bernstein
and her 13-member brigade at Azul. “We all love learning about food—changing
the menu, inventing new dishes. There are no special rules here. No
surprises. Just a lot of excitement and exciting guests,” says
the 33-year-old Miami native whose creativity has earned this 120-seat
restaurant Miami’s first-ever AAA Five Diamond Restaurant award
and a host of “best of” awards before Azul’s third
birthday.
An afficionado of “delicate yet passionate” food, Bernstein heightens “simple French cuisine” with Latin and Caribbean flavors to create dishes such as a seared foie gras with chocolate mole and amarena cherries and a “deconstructed” paella. “Our guests are what inspires our cuisine. They are all looking for flavor and precision,” Bernstein says. “But, Latins like quality as well as quantity. Europeans like quality without a lot of food on the plate. Americans like things they are familiar with but don’t eat often. We have to think proactively. The best part is the flexibility and independence the hotel setting gives us.”
Bernstein works in an open kitchen where good product is the starting point for culinary excellence. “I don’t believe in flashy,” she says. The restaurant’s ambience reflects that. Simple and elegant, very different from the “busy style” of typical Miami restaurants, Azul has carved out a niche among international guests who can dine on the culinary cutting edge for an average US$45 at lunch, US$88 at dinner.
|
Madison,
Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, The Regent Bangkok
Madison is in the vein of a sleek, new generation
of updated steakhouses cropping up all over Asia. From its earthy, contemporary
design by Tony Chi and Associates, New York, to its uncomplicated
fare, this 27-month-old, 62-seat restaurant tightly focuses on modern
interpretations of the classics. Executive Chef Ian P. Chalermkittichai,
the first Thai national executive chef in a major 5-star Bangkok hotel
restaurant, and Sous Chef Rewat Srirachi stretch the concept of comfort
food to include velvety New England-style clam chowder followed by a
perfect cut of U.S.-raised Kobe beef, as well as innovative sautéed foie
gras on pear purée and shallot marmalade preceding fresh, charcoal
grilled seafood. Average check stands at US$24 (Baht
1000) for a menu that draws 80% of its business from locals, 60% of
whom are Thai, 40% expatriates.
“The origin of customers does not influence the cuisine that much. Taste does. Our guests want foie gras that tastes like it does in Paris or clam chowder as they remember having it in Boston. The foie gras was the most surprising success. It was not even on the menu in the beginning. We put it on because so many people asked for it. Now it is our best-selling appetizer,” says Chalermkittichai, a strong believer in mixing new items with signature dishes, such as Madison’s crab cakes or chocolate melt. Creative ideas and great execution have earned Madison word-of-mouth recommendations that profitably complement its inclusion on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2002 Hot Tables list and a place among Travel & Leisure’s five best hotel restaurants in Asia for 2002.
Chalermkittichai, who counts his “dear mom” as his culinary inspiration, looks to new products, herbs and spices for fresh influences. Menus change every three to four months to keep the nutritional balance and highlight alternatives to the signature dishes. “With the type of menu we have, we do not need to adjust to culinary trends. Trends affect the style of presentation more,” he says.
|
Clio,
The Eliot Hotel, Boston
Clio’s menu, like its ambience created by Niemitz Design, is in
intriguing mix of the simple and complex. Ken Oringer, executive chef
and co-owner of the 77-seat Clio and its new sister, Uni, a 21-seat
sashimi bar, adds a contemporary flavor to traditional French cooking
with combinations such as his râgout of calamari sautéed
with argan oil, gains of paradise and carrot emulsion. Marinated yellowtail
and yellow fin tuna served with soy sesame, ginger, garlic, tobikko,
cilantro and opal basil is so popular that it has remained on the menu
since the day the restaurant opened five years ago. Many guests and
critics agree with Concierge magazine’s description of Clio’s
cuisine as “a symphony of perfectly blended tastes.”
“Our menu undergoes constant refinement,” says Oringer, who counts Jacques Pépin, David Burke, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Michel Bras among his mentors. “The goal for us is to make Clio unique, to create a sense of style and comfort with cutting-edge cuisine. We want people to relax and take their time to dine, as if they were eating in a living room. That relaxed feeling perfectly matches the cuisine we serve.”
New items give a fresh look to the menu daily, with selections ranging from US$14 for the râgout of calamari to US$20 for a “lacquered” foie gras or US$36 for the roast suckling pig. “We pay no attention to eating trends,” Oringer says. He and his eight-member brigade draw inspiration from “unusual” ingredients from around the world. Uni is the newest outlet for Oringer’s creativity, giving vent to further experimentation with Asian
Selection Committee
Fred Ferretti, author, food essayist, consultant,
Montclair, New Jersey; Kurt M. Fischer, president, Châine des Rotisseurs
and president, International Food and Beverage Forum;
Mary Gostelow, president, Gostelow Travel, Tincleton, UK; Fabrice
Knoll, DFKNOLL, architect, Paris; Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, cookbook author,
consultant, Montclair, New Jersey; Stanley H. Murray, travel/lifestyle
author, Greenwich, Connecticut; Forbes Mutch, editor, Caterer & Hotelkeeper,
Surrey, UK; Bryan Nagao, chef, Kokage, Hong Kong; Wolfgang
Schmitz, editor in chief, TOP HOTEL, Landsberg am Lech, Germany; Steve
Shellum, editor, Hotel Asia Pacific; Steven B. Stern, author, Stern’s
Guide to the Greatest Resorts of the World and Stern’s Guide
to the Cruise Vacation.
View All Blogs
