Julie Mautner reports.
CANADA
Oliver Beckert is the new chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, having moved over from the Four Seasons Resort Lana'i at Manele Bay in Hawaii. Beckert replaced Rafael Gonzalez, who went to the Four Seasons Philadelphia. In Hawaii, exec sous chef Fabrice Huet is serving as interim exec chef.
The 644 room Hyatt Regency Vancouver has a new exec chef, Norbert Roesch. He joined Hyatt in 1998 and has worked in Washington, D.C., Columbus, Phoenix, and, most recently, at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara in Northern California. He replaces Javier Alarco.
MEXICO
Temptation Resort Spa, an adults-only all-inclusive, opened its second property in Mexico, in Los Cabos on the Baja Peninsula, in February. The 149 room beachfront resort features three restaurants, five bars, a rooftop infinity Jacuzzi lounge, multiple pools, and a spa. The exec chef is Felipe Reinaga, who was working last at Desire Resort & Spa on the Riviera Maya. The f&b director is Mario Velazquez, formerly of Blue Bay Club, Cancún.
THE CARIBBEAN
The 317 room Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa St. Maarten has a new exec chef, John Bakker, who joined the hotel in November 2008 from Glenapp Castle, a Relais & Châteaux in Ballantrae, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Bakker replaces Raymond Southern, who is now the resort's director of f&b.
UNITED KINGDOM
Richard Wynne and Kate Crutchley have opened a cocktail lounge called Callooh Callay, in London's Shoreditch, inspired by the nonsensical poem Jabber-wocky by Lewis Carroll. The bar manager is Sean Ware. Chef Marco Schneof, who worked previously at Greenhouse, Smith's of Smith-fields, and Gordon Ramsay's Maze, focuses on seasonal snacks and dishes made to share. The whimsical design—a chandelier suspended from a 10-ton crane, artificial grass in place of carpets, bath-tubs posing as sofas—is the work of Dominic Taylor and David Knight (of Dtwo, London), who set out to create "a real sense of escapism…to give it all a spin, upset the balance, and regain the fun, frolics, and mischievousness associated with a great bar."
In January, Sir Terence Conran opened Boundary, a collection of "restaurants with rooms" in a converted Victorian warehouse in the heart of London's Shoreditch. It's the entrepreneur's first private venture in 20 years; his partners are his wife, Vicki, and Peter Prescott. The six-floor building houses the lower level 124 seat Boundary Restaurant and Bar, headed up by chef Henrik Ritzen, formerly of Racine (London). The ground floor is home to Albion, a typical British cafe open until midnight seven days, whose chef is Alex Umeh, formerly of the Great Eastern Hotel (London). Another restaurant and bar sits on the rooftop, with 48 seats around a fireplace and a grill menu. Ian Wood, formerly of Almeida (London), is Boundary's overall head chef. Conran, who did the design work himself, says the 12 guest rooms and five suites have "a level of comfort more akin to a private home but all the accoutrements associated with a five-star hotel." The Boundary complex also has a bakery and a food shop.
Jonathan MacIver is the new chef de cuisine at Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt. He comes from The Mill at Lyons and, prior to moving to Ireland, The Village Bistro and Longueville Manor on the Isle of Jersey. Located at the The Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt in County Wicklow, 16 miles south of Dublin, the restaurant opened in October 2007 and is Ramsay's first in Ireland.
THE MIDDLE EAST
W Hotels opened its first Middle East property, the W Doha Hotel & Residences, in Qatar in March. Displaying architectural fondness for the literal, the all-glass "W" shaped structure has 445 rooms with views of the Arabian Gulf. The hotel has La Maison du Caviar serving caviar dishes from across the globe, Market by Jean-Georges and Spice Market, a bar/club, a pool and poolside lounge offering hookahs in an array of flavors, a Bliss Spa, and a W Hotels Store. The hotel's acting exec chef, Prakash Seetul, selected by Jean-Georges Vongerichten to oversee the two restaurant concepts, trained at Spice Market and Mercer Kitchen in New York City and worked previously at Le Meridien Ile Maurice on Mauritius as exec chef. The f&b director is Janin Smollny, who came from the Westin Copley Place in Boston, where she was banqueting director.
AFRICA
In February, Four Seasons opened its 83rd property, The Four Seasons Resort Seychelles. It has 170 secluded acres on Mahé (the main island of this archipelago of 115 islands of which 20 or so are inhabited), 30 minutes from the airport. It has 62 treehouse villas, five suites, and 28 private residences, each with veranda and plunge pool. After working with Bernard Loiseau and Georges Blanc in France, the Bordeaux-born exec chef, Stephane Hestin, joined Four Seasons (Lisbon) in 2003. He comes, most recently, from the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Switzerland. F&B director Giuliano Callegaro comes from the Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai, resort gm Markus Iseli from the Four Seasons Hotel Damascus.
Send your international restaurant and hotel f&b news to Julie Mautner at WhiskNews@aol.com
