Running restaurants in your hotel that are meeting points and social and business hubs for people in the local community is not as hard (or as hopeless) as it might seem. In this article we identify the four determining factors that can guide an orator to success in this area. As with just about anything, the first thing to do when embarking on a project, is find out who is doing it well and watch what they are doing. To this end we discuss some of the most successful hotel restaurants, and by understanding the history and context of their success, we can clearly see how by understanding and implementing the four determinants, even the smallest hotel in the most competitive market, can design and operate restaurants and bars that are attractive to the local community. And do so profitably. READ MORE

Sonesta International Hotels offers Liquid Art as homage to locally sourced ingredients in craft cocktails, local small batch spirits and ales, throughout the property regional wine lists and even down to the coffee served. This provides another opportunity to create a sense of place for our guests, extending the local inspiration found in our hotel design and decor into the menus for food and beverage. Examples from our full service hotels and resorts help illustrate how our beverage teams are delivering Liquid Art in new and innovative ways. READ MORE

Hotels with restaurants and bars are continually challenged to compete with freestanding food and beverage operations. I believe that many hotels and resorts however may have a unique opportunity to exploit a consumer trend that shows no sign of waning in popularity. In many cases a hotel or resorts location, physical plant, diversity of talent and volume may help them to create compelling programs to supply local ingredients for hotel guests READ MORE

I fondly remember my grandfather's very own vegetable patch where he meticulously grew, besides other delicious contributions to the family kitchen, exactly 31 chive plants. Why 31 you ask? Well, my grandfather was neither a restaurateur nor had many hungry eaters in our family he simply was a gourmand hence very particular when it came to fresh produce, quality and taste. Subsequently, one organically grown chive plant to harvest each day of the month was what he wanted to satisfy his quality requirements. Nothing could compete with the crisp taste of these freshly harvested chives of ours taken straight from the garden to the dish without having ever seen a refrigerator. READ MORE

People are often surprised when I tell them that I live in Las Vegas, even more so when I tell them that one of my restaurants is local, seasonally focused, and farm-to-table inspired. When my husband Kim and I first came up with the idea for our restaurant, Honey Salt, we wanted to serve the food that we serve in our home. The entire idea was to build a restaurant that felt like you were coming over for dinner, and then serve items inspired by our life together, our friends, and our travels. A big part of our life has always been seeking out great food and great ingredients, and we wanted to make sure that philosophy translated into the restaurant. READ MORE

Every year the National Restaurant Association queries the professional chefs in its membership to determine which food, beverages and culinary themes will be the hot trends in the current year. The survey is sent to the association's 1,276 member chefs, who are given a list of 211 items and asked to rank each one as “hot trend,” “yesterday's news” or “perennial favorite.” Not surprisingly, many of the top trends for 2015 stem from the super trend known as “farm to table.” In fact, of the top ten trends identified by this year's study, three include the term “local” while another two reflect a demand for “sustainable” products and practices. READ MORE

Iconic restaurateur and chef, Alice Waters, couldn't have foreseen that she would be a driving force in the way we source our food when she first opened Chez Panisse in 1971. Her decision to source foods locally and work directly with the farmers and purveyors caused a major shift in the way we approach the plate - both from a nutritional perspective and a sustainable one. What was once a regional trend, held in high esteem by food critics and gastronomes alike, has since permeated every aspect of our lives - from the abundance of farmers markets to the restaurateurs and chefs who continue to design their menus with notes and annotations of local farms and artisan purveyors. READ MORE

Microbiologist Rene Dubois coined the phrase “Think globally, act locally,” and that maxim certainly applies to the hotel industry today. Increasingly, hoteliers and especially their food and beverage operations, are seeking to retain brand consistency while adding local preferences. It's a delicate balancing act. Why is this balance so critical? For hotel brands such as Hilton Worldwide, consistency signals that guests know what to expect from their stays, which helps establish customer loyalty. Underscoring this, a December 2014 American Express Global Travel Survey found that 78 percent of business travelers consider a hotel's brand to be the most important factor when booking a hotel because it promises consistency. READ MORE

Many times the word of sourcing and purchasing food from local vendors has been romanticized in the imagination of restauranteurs and restaurant patrons of a long gone world with the farmer bringing his freshly harvested goods and crops to the back door of the kitchen to be inspected personally by the Chef where a handshake cements a partnership that represents all that is good to be served and savoured! This is a wonderful dream, now we must quickly return to the real world, where product sourcing, time and menu creation need to be quick, cost efficient, and most of all profitable. This article explains how to get the best of both worlds and most importantly your dining guests can expect and enjoy the best of local purchase on an affordable scale. READ MORE

Turks & Caicos is a destination synonymous with white sand beaches and beautiful turquoise blue waters, so the concept of “eating local” here evokes an array of ocean-to-table fare. Before farm-to-table had become trendy, or even discussed, local seafood available right off our shores had always been a staple of our Island diet. While common knowledge may dictate that Caribbean islands rely mostly on imported food, the truth in Turks & Caicos is that there are bountiful resources both in our seas and on land. At Grace Bay Resorts, and our Providenciales properties Grace Bay Club and West Bay Club, we have always enjoyed sharing the Islands' unique culinary traditions with visitors. READ MORE

If you walk into a full-service hotel today, one of the first things you may see is either a coffee bar, or a mini-mart in the lobby. What you may not see is a traditional three meal a day, all-purpose dining room. This change of scenery is emblematic of the evolution of food and beverage offerings at U.S. hotels. Consumer and financial factors have both contributed to this change. A rising number of new travelers are seeking communal experiences similar to what they partake in back home. Sitting in a coffee shop atmosphere with internet access is more appealing than sitting by yourself in a large dining room or your guest room. The ability to serve yourself and control your own time has given rise to the popularity of grab-and-go mini-markets in full-service hotel lobbies. READ MORE

In today's global marketplace, food and beverage operations are faced with a myriad of challenges to meet their guest's expectations while maintaining a profitable bottom line. Sourcing local food and beverage ingredients that meet the needs of the organization as well as the demands of the guest is increasingly important in this competitive landscape. Understanding the term local and how it is defined in your organization, identifying your guest's expectations and key drivers, and assessing various sourcing options and selecting the best method for the needs of your organization are critical components for creating a successful local food program. READ MORE

When approached to launch a farm to table concept at a leading hotel in Mexico City, Las Alcobas, recently named #1 hotel in Mexico by Conde Nast Traveler, I considered it an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. After relocating to Mexico's vibrant city capital, I spent a year traveling and eating through the country, sourcing and becoming familiar with its most unique resources and ingredients. My familiarization and education of the city, clientele and regionally sourced products have all played an intricate part in the development of Anatol, Las Alcobas' restaurant. Each season, I introduce a completely unique menu based on the farm to table concept, through the use of local and well-sourced high quality ingredients combined with organic planting and flavors of comfort. READ MORE

For many years farm to table and sourcing local produce has been a hot topic in the food industry. More recently this trend is making its way into the hotel kitchen. Smart Chefs are trying to find ways to incorporate this trend for many reasons, quality control, fresher organic ingredients and happier customers. Most importantly however, it's the social economic benefits that the movement has, that are finding growing support and appeal from many of today's Chefs. READ MORE

Opening the Wyndham Grand Jupiter at Harbourside Place as executive chef was a dream-come-true for me. I've been working in this business for over 15 years, and my hard work and dedication paid off. I had the opportunity and challenge to set up a brand new property from square one. With so many things to do, I wanted to make sure that I was able to implement all of the things that are important to me as a chef - one of them being the use of local ingredients. Being in Jupiter presented me with an entirely new set of challenges as I was unfamiliar with the area before beginning this position, and I really had no starting point to work with. With no contacts in the area I started with what I knew. READ MORE

Solutions to food waste are showing up in the trendiest of eateries, generating interest, great PR, earned media and good will. Chefs are boasting tip to tail and root to stalk menus with a waste not want not philosophy. Creativity and innovation abound adding interest and new flavors to menus. Chefs are educating guests on the value of baking bread today and serving bread pudding tomorrow as the wisdom of their grandparents is being revisited, and compelling restaurant narratives emerge. READ MORE