Hotel Operations

🍴 Will Guidara, at age 26, took over Eleven Madison Park and turned it from a two-star brasserie into the world's #1 restaurant according to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. At MURTEC 2024, he discussed "unreasonable hospitality," focusing on automation with a human touch, creating extraordinary dining experiences, and fostering team cooperation for service excellence. He also provided tips on blending authority with innovation in a 3-minute video.

🍴 The National Chef of the Year 2024 finalists include senior chefs from restaurants like Frog by Adam Handling and Northcote. Top 40 chefs crafted an amuse-bouche or pre-dessert themed ‘a taste of summer.’ The finals are on October 8, with chefs refining their original menus. Past winners include Gordon Ramsay. Finalists: Adam Fisher, Cleverson Cordeiro, Craig Edgell, Danny Young, Jethro Lawrence, Lee Tyler, Matt Ramsdale, Nick Edgar, Orry Shand, Paul Gamble, with reserves Murray Cooper and Sergio Cinotti.

🍕 Curry Leaf Cafe, an Indian restaurant in Brighton's The Lanes since 2014, offers Indian street food and craft beer. Founder Euan Sey cites the cost of living crisis and rising business costs for the closure. Sey, a former journalist, launched the restaurant with chef Kanthi Thamma, who left to co-found Palmito. Despite expansion, including pub kitchens and a kiosk, only the original Ship Street location remains. Sey reflects on the brand’s future while thanking the team and local suppliers.

🍝 Corn-flavored desserts in corn cob molds are trending at Ceiba in Conrad Orlando. Tuna tartare with Persian flavors is featured at Joon in Vienna, VA by chefs Najmieh Batmanglij and Chris Morgan. Nick's Quorum Bar in Omaha, NE, serves pan-seared trout with spinach, green apple, and pumpkin seeds, while Verde at Perez Art Museum Miami offers shrimp poached in clarified butter by chef Loris Navone. Le Bilboquet’s Denver celebrates the upcoming Paris Olympics with a French gin cocktail.

🍫 Chamoy, a Mexican condiment, is gaining traction in the U.S. among consumers who enjoy Mexican cuisine. Made from pickled fruit, chiles, and lime juice, it can be liquid or paste-like, combining salty, sweet, sour, and spicy flavors. Market research by Datassential shows that 38% of U.S. consumers recognize chamoy, and 17% have tried it, often with fruits, vegetables, or in drinks like the popular mangonada.

🍷 Levan and Bar Levan focus on low intervention wines; half of Levan's wine list is devoted to the Jura region, France. Bar Levan offers a dynamic 'by the glass' list, changing weekly with 12-bottle purchases, a cellar list, and an extensive mezcal selection. Notable wine list recommendations include Brawn in East London, Bokman’s in Bristol, and Planque in East London. Raphael Rodriguez is respected for his wine industry knowledge. The best value wine at Levan is from Stajerska Kollective in Slovenia at £7.50 a glass. A memorable pairing involved a dessert with Westwell's sparkling cuvée Pelegrim, limited to 90 bottles. Andi Mann from Rheinhessen, Germany, is currently favored for producing quality, accessible wines. Alsace, France, is considered an underrated wine region.

🍴 Yannick Alléno, a French chef at Pavyllon in London's Four Seasons Hotel, admires Auguste Escoffier for modernizing cuisine with his brigade system and emphasis on sauces. A transformative moment in Alléno's career was a critique by François Simon in Le Monde, prompting a personal culinary reflection. Alléno's advice to aspiring chefs includes hard work, perseverance, and self-belief. His kitchen essential is a Mauviel frying pan from the M'ELITE collection. He prefers à la carte dining, enjoys chips as a fast-food choice, and would ban eggplant from his hypothetical restaurant dictatorship. Instagram is his social media platform of choice, and his ideal food and drink pairing is a marble-aged wine with wood-fired roasted venison served at his three-star restaurant, Alléno Paris at Pavillon Ledoyen.

🍴 Home restaurant in Leeds, launched August 2017 and relocated to Brewery Wharf in November 2021, is closing due to soaring costs and low consumer confidence. Chef and restaurateur Elizabeth Cottam cited a "perfect storm" for her business with energy bills rising from £2,000 to £10,000 a month and no fixed energy contracts available. The tasting menu started at £65, peaking at £145. Home was shortlisted for National Restaurants Awards Opening of the Year in 2022. Cottam plans to keep her team for future projects, exploring simpler, community-based concepts. Her other restaurant, The Owl, remains open.

🏖️ Capella Kenting, a luxury resort by Capella Hotels and Resorts and Riant Capital Ltd., is set to open in 2028 in Pingtung, Taiwan, covering 99,000 square meters with 65 villas featuring private pools, hot spring facilities, and sea views. Sonesta's Costa Sur Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with 206 rooms, marks its first Mexican property and Classico brand expansion. InnVentures now manages 85 hotels, adding two Embassy Suites in Oregon and Washington, with a total of 596 keys. Hotel 24 South in Virginia celebrates its 100th anniversary, offering 124 rooms and 8,500 square feet of event space.

🏠 French designer Rudy Guénaire redesigned the 200-square-metre Matsuri Japanese restaurant in Paris' 16th arrondissement, inspired by Japonisme and American modernist design. The interior features wooden furniture with lacquer, pastel-coloured domes, a kaiten sushi conveyor belt and a lighting system with subtle colour control. Matsuri, part of a chain established in 1986, displays old posters from Japan. Photography by Ludovic Balay.