John Degnan Joins Icon as F&B Director
HOUSTON, TX, March 25, 2008. John Degnan, the newly appointed director of food & beverage at Hotel ICON (www.hotelicon.com), a Destination Hotels & Resorts property, brings two decades of luxury hospitality management and culinary experience to his position at the internationally acclaimed Houston hotel. In this role, Degnan is overseeing all dining and banquet related endeavors for Hotel ICON, including the launch of VOICE, a signature restaurant and lounge debuting on April 5, 2008 that will feature the regionally-inspired Modern American cuisine of award-winning chef and Charleston, SC transplant Michael Kramer.
Degnan has worked in operations and in the kitchens for some of the most respected hotel brands in the world, including St. Regis Hotels and Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts and Omni Hotels. From 2004 until 2006, he was based in Hawaii, where he served as director of food & beverage for the 3,200-acre, five-star Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows, overseeing six restaurants and banquets, and later at the AAA Five-Diamond Hualalai Resort and Spa as a director of food & beverage. As a division head at the Hualalai Resort and Spa, he was responsible for three restaurants and catering and also participated in the planning and development of a private golf club.
Prior to that, Degnan was based in Newport Beach, CA, where he was the opening team director of six restaurant outlets and room service for the St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach and was later employed by Culinary Adventures as the manager of two of the company's five restaurant concepts: Sorrento Grille and Chimayo Grille.
Degnan began his hospitality career in pastry as a baker at Patisserie Lanciani in New York's West Village in 1988. From there, he advanced to increasingly more high profile venues and roles in Manhattan, including pastry chef at the famed Pierre Hotel's Caf'e Pierre, assistant pastry chef at the iconic Rainbow Room, executive pastry chef for Restaurant Associates' three Rockefeller Center operations (The Sea Grill, American Festival Caf'e and Savories) and opening team pastry chef for the Omni Berkshire Place hotel.
After moving to Hawaii in 1997 to take a position with Castle & Cooke as executive pastry chef for The Lodge at Koele and the Manele Bay Hotel, Degnan began his transition to operations. In 1999, he was named banquet manager of the Manele Bay Hotel and a year later was promoted to acting director of food & beverage for seven restaurants plus banquet.
Degnan has an Associate Degree from the Hotel and Restaurant Technology Department at New York City Technical College and studied at the International School of Confectionary Arts in Gaithersburg, MD.
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