Whisk Around the World

Posted: December 5, 2007

The Caribbean Eddie Williams has been named exec chef at the 300 room Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa (St. Thomas). Previously, he spent 20 years with Marriott, most recently as exec chef at the Marriott Marina in Fort Lauderdale, now the Fort Lauderdale Grande. At corporate level, Wyndham has a new vp of f&b, Fernando Salazar, most recently vp of f&b for Omni Hotels in Irving, Texas. Salazar replaces Mark Shuda, the senior director of f&b.

London Nick Jones of Soho House has opened the members-only Shoreditch House, set over three floors of a vast brick warehouse in East London. The complex houses a large bar, bowling alley, spa with unisex sauna and steam room, gym, games area, restaurant (serving salads, grilled meats and fish, and wood-oven pizzas), and rooftop swimming pool and bar overlooking London's skyline. Annual local memberships begin at £700 (U.S.$1,400). The exec chef duties are handled by Andrea Cavaliere, who is also exec chef at Cecconi's. Soho House Group operations manager Steve Ham oversees f&b. Jones' other clubs include Soho House (New York City), Babington House (Somerset, U.K.), Electric House (London), and High Road House (Chiswick, U.K.). He plans to open Soho Beach House, at 43rd and Collins Ave. in Miami Beach, next year.

Sara Adams opened the doors at Kensington Square Kitchen at 9 Kensington Square in West London in October. The 50 seat bar/restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, brunch (until 6 p.m.), and tea. The food is seasonal, British, and sourced locally wherever possible; there's also a selection of English wines. Adams is the former head chef of Notting Hill Café & Deli and also worked at Armadillo and at the Divertimenti Cookery School and Cafe. She says the design of Kensington Square was inspired by her favorite hotel, the Delano in Miami Beach.

Rome Aran Hotels opened the 323 room Aran Mantegna in late May, in an imposing steel and glass building on Via Mantegna, attached to the Fiera di Roma Conference Center in the EUR district, near the city center. Exec chef Emanuele Vizzini was at the Golden Tulip Hotel (Rome) before assuming the Aran Hotels Group exec chef title. He oversees two restaurants: Il Parnaso, which offers high quality catering for large groups, and La Brasserie, which has an à la carte menu and a large piazza.

Eastern Europe On the shores of the Caspian Sea, 15 minutes from the city center of Baku, Azerbaijan, the 82 room Khazri Ramada Baku soft-opened in September. Istanbul-based Servus International is management consultant. Exec chef Rod MacKenzie came from the Sheraton in Ashkabat, Turkmenistan. F&B director Christian Haig Selchau set sail from the Radisson SAS Bosphorus (Istanbul).

Africa and the Middle East Raffles Dubai opened last month in a glittering new 18-story pyramid in Wafi City, in the heart of Dubai's business and shopping district. It counts 188 rooms and 11 f&b outlets. Exec chef is Stefano Artosin, who comes from One & Only at Reethi Rah in the Maldives. Exec assistant manager of f&b is Christoph Ganster, who transfers from Raffles Resort Canouan Island in the Grenadines (Caribbean). Future Raffles openings include properties in Macau, Tianjin (China), Da Nang (Vietnam), Konottaa (Maldives), and Phang Nga (Thailand).

At Constance Lémuria Resort, a Relais & Châteaux on Praslin Island in the Seychelles, the new chef is Jacques Ledu, from the Constance Le Prince Maurice in Mauritius. He has replaced Michael Clinton, who decamped for Peter Island in the BVI. Ledu's replacement on Mauritius is Matthew Small, an Australian who'd been exec chef at Aman Resorts' Amanbagh in India. Replacing Small is Jordan Theodoros, formerly consulting chef for Sumptuous Food magazine and Sumptuous Television in Australia. His fiancée, Stephanie Vasileff, a pastry chef, works with him.

Jurgen Lepping is the new exec chef at the Ramada Plaza Doha (Qatar), which just added six new restaurants, bringing its total of f&b outlets to 20. Lepping joins the hotel from the Hilton Sharm Water falls Resort in Sharm Al Sheikh, Egypt, where he was exec chef.

Andrew Phillips is the new exec chef at the Mövenpick Hotel Bur Dubai, coming from the Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers (Vietnam), where he had been exec chef since the hotel's preopening in 2003. In Saigon, Phillips has been replaced by Ian Lovie, from the Westin Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

Asia Ilario Turri is now exec chef at the new Sheraton Dameisha Resort in China, having come over from the Sheraton Dongguan in China's Guangdong province. The upscale resort, which preopened in May and grand opened in August, has 387 rooms, all with South China Sea views. The gm is Philip Kang; f&b director is Michael Ho.