Julie Mautner reports.
Mexico and the Caribbean Michelin-starred chef Marc Dobbels has been named exec chef at Paraiso de la Bonita, a 90 suite beachfront boutique resort on the Riviera Maya, 30 minutes from Cancún. Dobbels, who earned his star in France at Hélène Darroze in Villeneuve-de-Marsan, comes, most recently, from the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach (Cancùn) and Cambridge Beaches (Bermuda). In addition to producing the gourmet "cuisine of the sun" for which the resort is known for, Dobbels will conspire with an in-house doctor to develop anti-aging and spa cuisine menus. Dobbels replaces Fabrice Guisset, who went to Las Ventanas (Los Cabos, Mexico) to take over for Michel Gehrig.
Bahamian born chef Kermit Mackey, who has worked at the Atlantis and Four Seasons Resort Great Exuma and its Emerald Bay sibling, is new exec chef at Bimini Bay Resort and Marina (Bahamas), where Casa Lyon, a 120 seat waterfront restaurant serving Caribbean cuisine and fresh seafood has opened. Mackey will oversee room service, in-home catering, and private dinners and tastings.
Canada The Westin Nova Scotian (Halifax) has welcomed Raj Gupta as its new exec chef. Gupta, former exec chef for Epicurus Hospitality Group, a Halifax catering company, has worked in 11 countries, including Bahrain, China, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. Gupta replaces Michael McKinnon, who left to become exec chef at his alma mater, Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
United Kingdom After 19 years, chef Rowley Leigh has left Kensington Place (London), the 100 seat restaurant he opened in 1987 with Simon Slater and Nick Smallwood. Leigh is considered one of the fathers of modern British cooking and was an early champion of seasonality. He plans to open a "glamorous and democratic" 170 seat Art Deco–style brasserie this month, in a former McDonald's ("but you wouldnt know it if you saw it," he says) in Whiteley, London. The cuisine will be contemporary British. Meanwhile, back at Kensington Place, the culinary torch has been passed to Sam Mahoney, previously a chef/partner at Albert Roux Consultancy.
Chef Iain Smart has left Chez Bruce (London) to run the kitchen at Four O Nine, a new restaurant above The Clapham North pub, in London's Clapham neighborhood. Four O Nine serves modern French: foie gras/chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche; roasted cod with olive oil mash and sweet pepper compote; and globe artichoke/tomato/mint risotto with green leaf salad. The company that owns the pub and the restaurant Swap Bars also recently purchased The Old Bear in Cobham, which they'll develop this summer.
Ireland Dublin's hippest new hotel is the 44 room Dylan, a $32.5 million redo of the former Hibernian. In Still, its all-white restaurant, exec chef Padraic Hayden (former head chef at One Pico) is cooking modern Irish. Rounding out the foodservice team is f&b director Matt Dillon, who came from La Stampa, and sommelier Jacinta Delahaye. No two Dylan guest rooms are alike, but they're all loaded with the newest upscale goodies, including plasma TVs, iPods, Frette linens, memory-foam beds, wireless Internet, and a music compilation CD. The Dylan belongs to the Fylan Group, also owners of Dublin's new Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa.
France Eighty-one chefs from 13 countries showed up in Monte Carlo to fete Paul Bocuse on the occasion of his 81st birthday. Organized by La Société des Bains de Mer, under the impetus of CEO Bernard Lambert and Alain Ducasse, festivities were spread out in several venues, including the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, and the Hôtel de Paris. Chefs who made the trip included Raymond Blanc, Jacques Pourcel, Ferran Adrià, Alain Senderens, Yannick Alléno Jacques Maximin, Gualtiero Marchesi, Tetsuya Wakuda, and Marc Haeberlin. "While I've spent plenty of memorable times with him in the past," says Daniel Boulud, "to see Paul Bocuse surrounded by so many people who had come to honor and celebrate him was really something."
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