Posts from — June 2009

Hi,

Started off the day with what? Another meal because it has been 20 minutes since I have last eaten.  We got to the VIP Lounge to eat breakfast and they have a couple things that are charming.  The most interesting plate warmers I have ever seen.  I will take a picture of it tomorrow as the plate warmers stand up and are slotted like the drain basket you use at home to set the dishes in after washing them.  On each hotel staff’s namebadges is the flag of the languages that they speak.  For those folks who speak English a flag of the UK is on their badge. It was weird not seeing the American flag but at the end of the day it makes more sense this way.

Irene arrived last night from Shanghai.  Irene is an employee of the company I am here working for and is great fun.  Always in a good mood easy to be with and I always enjoy my time with her. She is as outgoing as they come.  Her flight from China was 22 hours including a 6 hour lay over in Frankfurt, Germany.

Irene

After breakfast Irene and I go and meet with our CSM and F& B director of the hotel to go over arrangements for the meeting. Our shipment is due to arrive today so we are planning on doing inventory later in the day.  We go over all arrangements – it is here that we find out a little history of the hotel being used for Russian soldiers to do training.  Even though Czech has been free since the late 1980’s it is obvious that these folks still have a communist mentality don’t ask them to step outside the box as it isn’t going to happen.  It probably won’t be until their kid’s generation will they feel comfortable living a free lifestyle and making decisions for themselves.

The meeting space is a pleasant surprise. The lighting fixtures I feel in love with and are the originals from the mid 1950’s when the Russians used this hotel.  Also this is the only meeting space that I have ever been in – in my 25+ years in the industry that has arms to their banqueting chairs. It was so kool to see.

 After Irene and I finished up with our business – we took the tram and then the train to the city center of Prague.  When we got out of the train at the city center is where we got into a bit of trouble.  We bought our train tickets for about $1.40 USD but we didn’t get them stamped at the train station.  When we got off the train we were stopped by the officials to show them our tickets. Ok, we did that – but it wasn’t good enough. Because we didn’t have our ticket “stamped” at the station we were in violation.  They asked to see our passports neither of us had them. They told us it was a $2000 Czech Krom fine for not having our passports. I said no way this isn’t a communist country anymore and there is no law saying we have to have our passports. We explained to this jerk that we didn’t know to get these stamped as these machines aren’t obvious in the train station and there is no turn styles and we would get them stamped moving forward.  He told us we had to pay a $700 Krom fine which is about $35.00 USD.  We said no and to get his supervisor.  Irene and I both argued with him relentlessly and he said he was taking us to the police station. I told him fine take me to the police station present me with a “ticket” and then I would pay the fine. It was becoming obvious that our charming manner was not heading him in the direction of “being a nice guy and letting us go” Someone apparently had a quota he had to make and even better it was from an American. It was just then that he and Irene REALLY got into it. She is definitely a fiery chick when you piss her off.  He then took us with him to the “ticket office” I called our CSM at the hotel to tell him what was going on. Mikal told us that we do need to pay the fine and that this was indeed a real thing. To make a long story short – we ended up paying the damn fine.  Being escorted to “see the supervisor” which was probably his drinking buddy was a guy who was a refugee who refused to pay a train ticket.  We finally decided to pay our fine leave the station walk around the block on the street. We see this refugee who btw is dressed well enough in jeans and a nice t shirt. Irene asked him why was he stopped he said because he didn’t even buy a train ticket. At least we had a ticket – he said as a refugee he only gets $100 krom from the government a day and at least $55 goes to cigarettes and therefore he has no money for a train ticket so of course he isn’t going to pay for a ticket.  Don’t even try to make sense out of this as it is impossible to do.

 Next Irene and I went to lunch. It was a lovely restaurant on the river near the St. Charles bridge.  We split this pasta dish and then I had tuna which was delicious.

Pasta with Olive Oil, Herbs, Parm Cheese and Mushrooms

 Then we walked all around old town and did some shopping. Unfortunately all the stores are so touristy in nature – you walk into a couple of them you have seen them all.  The stores here Pilsner beer which was founded here in Czech is the same price as water and sometimes cheaper. We saw cans of beer at $40 Krom and Water $40 Krom.  What is a girl to do? While we were walking there was a tour guide doing his things on Segways. Irene has never seen a Segway in her life and rightfully so was facinated by them and how they worked.  I had to take a picture and send it to her so she could share with her boyfriend back in China.

After lunch I went to use the restroom and as I was drying my hands their papertowels had ad’s on them.  Cracked me up.

  I took a picture of this pizza place because I liked this presentation of the pizza. It is very fun all of it lined up on this butcher block with lighting.

   Late afternoon it started raining so Irene and I took an overpriced cab ride back to the hotel and had a non descript dinner in the hotel bar.

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

Claire

Arrived in the beautiful city of Prague yesterday after I was “lucky”dog enough to get a free biz class upgrade on Delta coming across the pond. How do you ask? Well they oversold coach and since I am a platinummedallion why not?  Memo to Michele Bernstein who does the menus for DL’s biz elite –  I have to tell you DL does an awful job of honoring your food.  The flight attendants didn’t do a good job of cooking the food via the microwave. The soup was cold the rolls weren’t warmed through properly and were hard as a result and they never offered people the ice cream dessert. Not that I needed it but it is nice to be asked.  I watched the movie “the reader” on the way over and I can’t recommend it enough it was very good.

When I arrived in Prague the ground transportation company didn’t come pick me up – so that sort of sucked.  Got to this communist looking Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza – that screamed government  hotel in the old days but was pleasantly surprised the rooms aren’t bad at all. When we asked out hotel CSM about the property – he said it was started in 1953 but finished in 1957 and it was used for training Russian soldiers hence they have 16 meeting rooms. The lobby bar is absolutely beautiful – although expensive a bottle of water there cost me about $15.00 USD last night.  The hotel isn’t located in the best of areas. To get to the city center you have to take a tram and a subway for about 20 minutes to get to where you need to be.  Which is exactly what I did.  Since I am a foodie by trade that is exactly what I took pictures of – lots of food.

Holiday Inn Crowne Plaze - Prague

A couple of fun things that always happen along the way – is everyone is reglious about using the crosswalks. No one jaywalks here.  The local’s call the crosswalks – Zebra stripes which is appropriate if you think about it.  In Prague they have these hot dog /sausage/hamburger stands on almost every corner. Instead of putting lettuce on their hamburgers they put cabbage.  Take a look at the add

 Beside the stand was a little ice cream store front.  I got a lemon sorbet – 1 scoop for .15 krom which was .75 USD – I like this because it is portion control none of the oversize ice creams that you see in the US. The Europeans LOVE their ice cream and there is never a shortage of gelato shops anywhere in Europe.

Lemon or as they say Citron Sorbet

This is  a pic of the 2 ladies working the storefront. They were happy actually to have their picture made.

Next I went to the Communist Museum. It gave the history of Czekloslovakia and how they became communist after WWII – thanks a lot France for selling them out at the end of the 1930’s. What communist life was like for their folks and then the fall of communisium in the late 80’s early 1990’s.  This small museum was next to the McDonalds and housed a cheap casino in the same building.

Poster of the Communism Museum

There are lots of interesting things to learn about in the museum but one of the things that I read about – was the sports in a communist country.  We laugh as the heavy athletics part of these sports at the Olympics were heavily particpated by communist countries – they explain why in the museum. Joseph Stalin wanted the youth of these countries to be very athletic in nature because if they ever had to go back to war their folks would be in good shape. 

Then they did an area that talked about the propaganda on how in factories at times they would have people putting on gas masks because they were told the US could invade them at any time.  Can you imagine growing up being so scared of this.  Then they talked about the shop keepers in the grocery stores were very low paid. In order to make money they would take the items that were so hard to come by and hide them under the display cabinets in the shelves this way when the wives of government officals came in they would have them in stock and these folks would tip the shopkeeper for taking care of them. 

Bar of chocolate from communist czech

After the museum – I took a little walk around a section of old town.  I hit about this famous astrolonomical clock to see wood statuettes of saints appear.

The Astronomical Clock - Prague - Old Town

After all this walking it was time for a snack – so I had a trdelnik the Czech equivalent of a doughnut.  Best eaten hot, straight from the baker.  Who am I to argue. That is exactly what I did. 

Tredelnik - a Czech doughnut

As I was walking around the streets I came across a nice brewhouse that I thought was lovely and then the next picture is this seating is on a swing which I thought was kool as can be.

Pilsner House

These individual cabana's are actually gliders

 For dinner – I went to a Thai restaurant – my faovorite cuisine. This restaurant was located near the St. Charles bridge.  In Czech they are known for their glass/crystal etc. Many of you know there are a ton of shops all over the city.  This restaurant was unique because a glass maker displays his wares throughout the restaurant giving it a great environment.  Then in the downstairs area is his showroom.  Seriously – I just had a snack of chicken larb – jasmine rice – it was beautifully presented.

Jasmine Rice

Hi,

Here are some pictures from desserts at my event last Thursday night.

FYI, my client Mara’s cocktail tree is now sprouting limes! So funny.

Claire

Closing Banquet Dessert

Chocolate Lollipop Tree

Hi,

Made it home from Phoenix and ended up sleeping most of the day. I was so tired.  Had a great experience with the JW Desert Ridge catering and banqueting team.  Learned a lot of thngs along the was as I am sure they did as well. Going to post several pictures tomorrrow of the food that we did during the week. I found that I really have come to like their banquet chef who has been with Marriott for 25 years.  Sam really cares about what he is doing but more important he is very good with understanding banquet timing but even more important he has done a good job of listening to his customer.  I am a unique customer because I am so specific about what I want – this took a couple of go rounds but by the end of the week he totally got it. 

Also I learned if you want to marinade a veggie salad you need to blanche off the veggies before you do it this way the marinade will soak through the veggies which is what you want.

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

Claire

Hi,

I am using some of this as a parking lot for ideas for when I do 3 keynote speaking engagements next month.

For buffet lunches put coffee near the door with disposable cups so people can take the coffee with them.

Do desserts at the afternoon coffee break.

Theme out your foods – Raising the bar – do different bars

Church cookbooks

Gorgonzola Cheese on Potato Wedges

Ask about leftover wine will make a great upgrade

Ask how much comes back

Ask to look at size of food and portions often can easily get bigger portions for the same money.

Wow affect use dry ice pellets

Spend your F & B Min. put a banquet bar in the lounge area for nightly hospo.

Use watercoolers – and sell sponsorships for bottles. Lemonade/Trail mix bar

CRG – talk about sponsorship opportunities.

What I have learned over the past several months is that when I work with pastry chef’s who are active in National Competitions is that I can expect desserts that are a  strong OK but nothing great by any stretch in the “excitement or interesting department”.

I have worked with 2 such pastry guys in past months and sure it sounds impressive that they are active in National Pastry Competitions let’s face it they are passionate about what they do- but what does that mean for me or our client – the person paying their salary?   What it means is to expect the same old same old. Reality is they are still working off their corporate same ol’ recipes.  And it is these pastry guys that I find that getting anything ultra creative or interesting out of them is like pulling teeth.  I hear all about their competition – the TV’s shows they are on – so I think great – I can’t wait to see what they have for me – it seems all their creative juices go into the competition and NOT INTO the guest experience.  Doesn’t mean that these guys don’t care about what they do and the quality – because they do…just when I am on my knees wanting something that is really going to impress the guest and want not just a WOW factor but a mind blowing experience I have to come to realize with a heavy heart that these competitive type of pastry guys are going to be the last place I am going to find it.

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

Claire

Hi, Working here at the JW Marriott in PHX and they have the weirdest thing here. A TON OF RABBITS. I think they put rabbit food in the grass near this little seating area and the rabbits come and munch away. You can sit and they will have like 20 rabbits seating all around you. It is the weirdest thing. I took a ton of pictures the other day. Opening reception is tomorrow now. It is a Newport beach theme and one of the foods I am doing is a lobster hash station – it should be really good.

I am reading an article on a new wine boutique that opened in Atlanta. Now this is common knowledge that wine especially good wine needs to be drunk out of GOOD wine glasses. As a part marketing part true shtick some boutique wineries make glasses that they feel is the best type of glass to drink their wine out of. This has to deal with width of the bowl and thickness of the glass etc. These type of glasses are called “wine slippers”. Mean when you drink this particular type of wine that you need to use a particular glass.

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

Claire

After a long day moving all our stuff out of my old friends defunct restaurant. I invited a couple of the folks over to my house for dinner. Steve who is a fantastic grill master stepped right up to the plate – of steaks that is to do his grill magic. He asked if I had any seasoning. Actually that I did have – chef’s always give me their version of rubs and spices as a gift. So I gave him an array of things to sample. He did something interesting – first he smelled and then tasted the rubs to make sure they weren’t salty. Let’s face it a salty rub is going to dry out the meat and well let’s state the obvious – make the meat salty. He then coated the steaks with Olive Oil – and then put on a TON OF RUB – I said WAIT what are you doing! Too much – he said calm down not too much. If it isn’t a salty rub you are fine with evenly putting what looks like a lot on as when you go to eat it is ends up not being too much. The steaks were delicious and he was correct.

I hope this helps many of you as we are all firing up our grills this summer.
That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.
Claire