Posts from — May 2009

Sounds awkward and out of place eh? and yet we went to this casual restaurant that was delicious.  We started out by having the most delicious curry ever. I am not a big curry fan but last night was a bit educational.  Red curry medium hot; green curry spicy hot.  But if you mix it rice then you are all ok.  The rice evens the spice out so don’t let it intimidate you. 

Then we went onto desserts. This was actually clever. All they have is frozen creamy sorbet type of desserts.  And this is perfect after a meal that has some spices.  They also served the dessert in context with the flavor. For example the lemon sorbet was served in a 1/2 of lemon shell same with mango and coconut.  The flavor of the creamy sorbet had a lot of depth WITHOUT having too much sugar.  This is where people screw up with sorbet – the flavor is good but after a couple of bites it gets to sweet. I feel like I am eating pure sugar and that is flavored and that isn’t right.  Just for the record my favorite flavor is Mango and if it is too sweet do like they do in Mexico – cut it with lime.  I had a pastry chef recently cut it with lemon – WRONG do lime it compliments the flavor of the mango on a greater scale.

That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

HI,  Here are some things that I have learned while working this trade show in Geneva.

*Everything is in liters are larger bags. They don’t really do individual serving sizes over here like they do in the states. Costs too much.

*When ordering food in the exhibit hall make sure that you have your own plates/napkins/platers – this isn’t supplied

*At the center in Geneva you can bring in your own food from the outside.

*Our folks aren’t drinking a lot of booze. Thank goodness I didn’t buy too much.

*If you order coffee – cream and sugar are not included.

Hi,

Folks, my heart was sad on this one. Gone are the days when people at the fine hotels “Make It Happen”  This ones comes to us from Geneva where I am working and this incident was at The Four Seasons….where let’s just say if you have to ask how much anything costs ~ you have no business being there.  I am working for a high net worth individual who always stays at Four Seasons in a suite. It turned out that we needing  a meeting room for the next day and this occurred late at night.  I went to make arrangements and since it was 10:30 at night went to the concierge. I was told I would need to come back the next day. I said can’t this is for 7:30 in the morning.  He said sorry. I said NO look at your daily for tomorrow to see if anything is available. He did and he said sorry nothing is available. I explained who my boss was and that I would recommend he finds something. He looked and said nothing is available.

I then asked to speak to the MOD – he said there was no one for me to talk to. I said WRONG it is 10:30 at night this is The Four Seasons and I am sure there is someone who is available who can help me.  He then turns me over to his other concierge buddy to assist.  He said he would look to see if any suites were available and we can hold this 5 person meeting in a suite. Makes a couple of phone calls and no suite is available.  Ok, I am a reasonable person – I realize you can’t give me what you don’t have at 10:30 the night before but here is where it really sucked and I lost a lot of respect for this hotel chain.  We said ok, how about just reserving us a quite table in the restaurant for breakfast so we could hold our press interview. Let’s face it my client spends a lot of money at this chain and he deserves a little respect and/or bending of the rules.  What the conceirge said ‘ NO – not possible they are not going to help us out!  Good eh? I walked away that evening very dishearting knowing even the better ones are folding with not wanting to acknowledge and help their upper end customers.  Let me end this story is my client did end up getting a table at breakfast for the press interview.  The food was beyond expensive – $12.00 for 2 pieces of toast and on top of the the service was lousy she forgot to bring parts of the order – the food was cold. 

Four Seaons very dishearting and that is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

Hi, had dinner last night with my Freeman reps. After getting a little lost walking around Geneva we found the restaurant they were looking for. It was a restaurant that served ONLY salad; a type of flat iron steak that had this amazing greasy butter sauce on it and french fries. The only choices you had were with dessert. The food was good, the drinks alcoholic and the company even better.

I am off to start hanging graphics in the exhibit. That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

May’s Monthly Morsel
Folks, this is probably one of my most important morsels to-date, so I encourage every one of you to learn from what I have to tell you.

When you are doing site selections, be sure to ask for copies of the menus. Why? Because planners tend to miss a lot of negotiating opportunities when they are focusing on the rooms portion of their contracts. Include culinary in the contracting big picture.

Sure, you may have gotten a 10 percent discount, bartender fees comp-ed or a couple of chef/attendant charges for free. But because the economy is down, there are many additional charges being added to banqueting menus…

Read Full Article »

Ok, folks I did it – I stepped off the curb and broke my own rules. I ate at the sushi bar at the Gaylord Orpyland and you know what. IT so wasn’t worth it. EXPENSIVE and that much I can live with – let’s face it I am at a hotel…but what stinks is that the portion sizes were very small for the sushi. I said something to the Sous Chef working this little area that the slices of tuna on top of the rice were very thin. He just smiled meekly at me with that “busted” grin. So busted the restaurant is…anyone coming to this big maze of a hotel – do yourself a favor and don’t eat here you are going to walk away disappointed. I know I was.

That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.