The prima donna Nellie Melba had put herself on a rigorous diet. Staying at London’s Savoy Hotel, she would eat nothing but toast and tea. Nevertheless, the hotel’s great French chef, Auguste Escoffier, made sure that her meager meals were properly prepared. One day, however, he was busy, and a sous-chef made Madame’s toast. It was thin, dried-out and crunchy. In the Savoy’s grand dining room, mâitre d’hôtel César Ritz looked on aghast as she took a bite. But instead of complaining, the opera star exclaimed to Ritz: “César, how clever of Escoffier! I have never eaten such lovely toast.” Thus was born melba toast.
Like Nellie Melba, many diners in hotels have over the years experienced botched meals, though rarely have those disasters resulted in new culinary creations. The grandest of five-star hotels may have been nice places to stay, but you wouldn’t have wanted to eat there. “You never ate at a hotel restaurant in New York unless you had to,” says a Wall Street investment banker and bon vivant.
But that has changed dramatically. Today top hotels offer some of the finest dining in cities from Abu Dhabi to Washington, as our accompanying list of hotel restaurants recommended by participants in Institutional Investor‘s annual survey of the best hotels (November 2003) demonstrates. These days, as Tim Zagat of the celebrated Zagat Survey restaurant guides notes, “you can’t have a first-class hotel without a first-class restaurant.”
The list of celebrity chefs operating hotel restaurants is as intriguing and as varied as a tasting menu. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who learned in Asia to spice up his classic French cooking, offers polished tableside service at Jean-Georges at New York’s Trump International Hotel & Tower. His other hotel outposts range from the Thai-flavored Vong at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, to the French-Asian style Bank by Jean-Georges at Houston’s new Hotel Icon, to the Prime steak house at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The famous Alain Ducasse has hotel restaurants at the Plaza Athénée in Paris, the Essex House in New York and the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. They’re strictly haute cuisine in a modern iteration, from the black truffles in winter to the golden Osetra caviar year-round. For Ducasse’s signature bubblegum ice cream and chocolate pizza, you have to visit his more casual hotel eateries, such as Spoon at the InterContinental in Hong Kong.
Former footballer Gordon Ramsay, through his Gordon Ramsay Holdings, has brought his passion for freshness and flavor to a brace of venerable London hotels -- the Berkeley, Claridge’s, the Connaught and Escoffier’s old seasoning ground, the Savoy -- as well as to the Hilton Dubai Creek. Executive chef Philippe Legendre’s Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V in Paris earned three Michelin stars. Master Japanese chef Nori Sugie runs Asiate at New York’s Mandarin Oriental.
What accounts for this sumptuous buffet of hotel restaurants? The phenomenon arises out of the hotel renaissance of the past decade and a half. As one astute critic of hostelries notes, no hotel developer is going to spend $100 million to build or upgrade a facility and then let the dining room slide. An acclaimed restaurant, even if it’s a loss leader, fills beds. And hotels, being first and foremost in the lodging business, can concentrate on delivering a safe and comfortable environment if they contract out their restaurants, a popular practice. “Food and beverage is a tougher area to manage than tracking the cost efficiencies of bedrooms,” notes Victor Gielisse, dean of culinary, baking and pastry studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
Guests at hotels with superb restaurants get to enjoy the convenience and the security of being able to wine, dine and entertain clients (or just themselves) in grand style without ever having to set foot outside the hotel -- or even their suites: Several hotels provide room service from their fanciest restaurants.
Fine food isn’t the only attraction: Another is the eye-popping decor by such designers as Tony Chi, Thierry Despont, Philippe Starck and Adam Tihany. The idea, says Wolfgang Hultner, CEO of Mandarin Oriental Management (USA), is “to keep the restaurants from blending with the guest rooms.”
For star chefs, who traditionally have made their names at their own establishments, the appeal of a hotel venue can be strong. They get to work out of first-class kitchens and dining rooms at prime locations with a clientele of expense accountequipped businessmen and other well-to-do customers. What’s more, they don’t have to concern themselves with the countless petty details of running a business, so they can focus on doing what they love: creating great dishes. The pay isn’t so bad, either. “These are big-money deals, and at a top hotel or restaurant, a chef may earn six figures and up,” says Gielisse.
Then, too, a multistar hotel makes a fine launching pad for a young chef who wants to start his own place. Vongerichten acquired his superchef status while cooking for Lafayette at New York’s Drake Swissôtel, which he left to start bistro JoJo in 1991. Yet such is the appeal of the hotel arrangement that this rite of passage goes both ways: Eric Frechon forsook his Paris restaurant, La Verrière d’Eric Frechon, to become chef de cuisine at the tapestried dining room of Le Bristol, which won two Michelin stars in 2001. (Ducasse, who collected nine Michelin stars among five of his restaurants in the latest ratings, brags that his Louis XV at Monte Carlo’s Hotel de Paris was the first hotel restaurant to win three Michelin stars, in 1990.)
Hoteliers’ practice of treating dining rooms as an integral part of their establishment -- the very souls, in some cases -- harkens back to an earlier era. Escoffier, of course, helped to make the Ritz hotels legendary before the turn of 20th century. The grand hotel palaces of Switzerland and Asia have long upheld high culinary standards. In Hong Kong, for instance, Gaddi’s at the Peninsula and the Mandarin Oriental’s Man Wah and Mandarin Grill have been first-rate for decades.
A number of recipes exist for creating a great hotel restaurant. Hotels may hire a well-known chef, as did New York’s Mandarin Oriental when it recruited Sugie from Restauant VII in Sydney, Australia, or the Four Seasons George V when it plucked Legendre from Taillevent. Alternatively, hotels may seek out talented but low-profile chefs; the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton chains often do this, using their strong brand names as a lure. Hotels may also contract with an entrepreneur like Ramsay. Still another option is for a hotel to bring in an independent tenant as its showcase restaurant: Le Cirque 2000, for instance, affords its landlord, the New York Palace, celebrity by association.
Hotels with popular restaurants advise their guests to book reservations when they book their rooms. This is absolutely critical for a so-called destination restaurant like Le Cinq. As Four Seasons George V general manager Didier Le Calvez notes, in Paris “food is the raison d'être.” Mandarin Oriental Management’s Hultner says local residents, not hotel guests, account for 70 percent of the chain’s restaurant business. Still, hotel guests tend to be given a privileged place in line at hotel restaurants.
A top-flight restaurant may not be the only reason for choosing a hotel, but as one Hong Kong securities executive says: “It does help, especially at a business hotel. You spend your day in and out of meetings and traveling through the city. Once evening arrives, the last thing you want is to hop in another car or taxi.” Given his druthers, he’d unwind at Bangkok’s Sukhothai hotel in the Celadon restaurant, which is nearly surrounded by water. It serves “the best royal Thai food ever,” he sighs, “and the restaurant seems to float in a lotus pool.”
Haute cuisine Here are the hotel restaurants around the world that Institutional Investorreaders cite as their favorites.
Abu Dhabi. Fishmarket, InterContinental. On the beach. (97-1) 2 666-6888; www.intercontinental.com.
Bahrain. Primavera, Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa. Elegant Italian. (97-3) 580-000; www.ritzcarlton.com.
Bangkok. Celadon, Sukhothai. “The best royal Thai food ever.” (66-2) 287-0222; www.sukhothai.com.
Bombay. Zodiac Grill, Taj Mahal Palace & Tower. Fine European dining. (91-22) 5665-3366; www.tajhotels.com.
Boston. Aujourd’hui, Four Seasons. “The best in Boston” is American with French and Thai accents. (617) 351-2037; www.fourseasons.com.
Chicago. Seasons, Four Seasons. North American fare with French flair. (312) 280-8800. The Dining Room, Ritz-Carlton (a Four Seasons Hotel). French cuisine, new chef. (312) 266-1000; both at www.fourseasons.com.
Hong Kong. Mandarin Grill, Mandarin Oriental. Consistently good, with a huge, 300-dish menu. Man Wah. Cantonese. No. 1 chef is acclaimed. Both at (852) 2522-0111; www.mandarinoriental.com.
London. Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s. Thierry Despont interiors. (44 [0] 20) 7499-0099; www.claridges.co.uk. Grill Room, Connaught. Perennial favorites plus lighter decor and Ramsay protégé chef. (44 [0] 20) 7592-1221; www.the-connaught.co.uk. Mandarin Bar, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. Popular Knightsbridge watering hole features Adam Tihany’s halogen-lit glass bar. Oriental tidbits. (44 [0] 20) 7201-3773; www.mandarinoriental.com. Also mentioned: dining room at Dukes Hotel.
Manila. Tivoli, Mandarin Oriental. New Asian cuisine, old Asian ambience. (63-2) 750-8888; www.mandarinoriental.com.
New York. Dumonet, The Carlyle. Sophisticated update and a new chef. (212) 744-1600; www.thecarlyle.com. Le Cirque 2000, New York Palace. A gala. Owned by Sirio Maccioni. Carnival setting by Adam Tihany. (212) 303-7788; www.lecirque.com. Asia de Cuba, Morgans. Philippe Starck minimalism in Ian Schrager hotel. Cool fusion menu, cool crowd. Wear black. (212) 726-7755; www.ianschragerhotels.com.
Osaka. Hanagatami, Ritz-Carlton. Spotlights Japanese dishes and garden. (81-6) 6343-7000; www.ritzcarlton.com.
Paris. The Restaurant, Le Bristol. Michelin two-star dining moves to formal garden in season. (33 [0] 1) 5343 4300; www.lebristolparis.com. Les Ambassadeurs, Crillon. Lighter look, sharper uniforms, new chef, old aura. (33 [0] 1) 4471 1501; www.crillon.com. Le Cinq, Four Seasons George V. A class act. Executive chef Philippe Legendre’s restaurant has three Michelin stars. (33-1) 4952-7000; www.fourseasons.com. Another Paris mention: Pierre Gagnaire at the Hotel Balzac.
San Francisco. Seasons, Four Seasons. “A beautiful space. Love the bar.” (415) 633-3000; www.fourseasons.com.
Seoul. Paris Grill, Grand Hyatt. “High-quality food” and hot nightspot. (82-2) 797-1234; www.seoul.grand.hyatt.com.
Tokyo. Nadaman, Imperial. Traditional food in season. (81-3) 3504-1111; www.imperialhotel.co.jp.
Venice. The Restaurant, Cipriani. “It overlooks the lagoon, has excellent service and a memorable meal.” (39-041) 520-7744; www.hotelcipriani.com.
Washington. The Jefferson, Jefferson. Old Washington. Impeccable white-cloth service. Power bar. (202) 833-6206; www.loewshotels.com. -- L.M.R.
