For the chefs, restaurateurs and caterers serving the group market, the meetings industry’s heightened awareness of the “F&B factor” has only made their role more influential, if not integral, to producing positive outcomes that whet attendee appetites and leave them craving a second helping.
Embracing this role are four top chefs who get it right every day, as L.A.’s Wolfgang Puck, Toronto’s Donna Dooher, San Antonio’s Johnny Hernandez and Tony Clark, executive chef at the Valley Forge (Pa.) Casino Resort, dish on customer engagement, culinary journeys and other recipes for success.
Customer First
With his eponymous catering operation in 12 major group markets around the U.S., including Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas and his home base of Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck is the consummate authority on F&B and hospitality for groups.
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| Wolfgang Puck |
“Customers in the U.S. are generally better educated about food than ever before,” says Puck, whose pioneering “open kitchen” concept, which he introduced at his famed L.A. flagship Spago three decades ago, has contributed significantly to today’s savvier diners. “Chefs can no longer hide in the kitchen, and I think that has helped us, because now we have higher expectations and more discerning tastes to meet.
“For me, that has always meant serving my catering customers exactly as I do my restaurant customers,” he continues. “Whether for a party of 1,000 or a dinner for two, it’s the same Spago risotto or Chinois lobster, cooked restaurant-style.”
For larger functions especially, Puck believes the traditional F&B model at most major hotels must evolve.
“They know how to sell the rooms, the space and the event, but the faster, easier, ‘prepare beforehand and warm it up’ approach to the food is finding less favor with today’s customer,” he says. “I think we may see more outsourcing of catering to specialists as a result.”
Another shortcoming he sees is that hotel banquet chefs, typically distracted by meetings and paperwork, are not always on the scene.
“I tell chefs all the time, bring your stations onto the show floor, and be out there cooking, because customers want that interaction,” Puck says. “What better result than when people tell you directly that the food was fantastic?”
For Puck, the ultimate success is creating an irresistible experience that creates repeat business.
“Following my Oscar party one year, Michael Caine came to Spago and requested the same dish for him and his family,” Puck remembers. “That is the result you want for meetings and events.”PageBreak
Rooting for the
Home Team
Higher customer attunement and awareness are also dominant themes north of the border, where celebrated Toronto-based chef, restaurateur, author, philanthropist, food ambassador and media personality Donna Dooher has tapped the pulse of the Canadian scene for the last 25 years.
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| Donna Dooher |
“After disconnecting during and after the economic downturn, people have made a strong return to the table,” says Dooher, who from 2012 to 2013 chaired the board of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, its 30,000-plus members representing Canada’s $63 billion restaurant industry. “Whether influenced by celebrity chefs on TV, or concerns over GMO, or their interest in organic and locally sourced food, they have come back wanting to be engaged and involved more than ever before.”
With “corporations increasingly embracing culinary-related learning and interactions” as one example, Dooher, who also serves as exchange director for the U.S.-based National Restaurant Association, finds this “renaissance” happening all along the food chain, including at its source.
“With agriculture fundamental to our heritage, Canada is experiencing a robust ‘return to roots’ movement, with people originally from the country returning home after training in the cities,” she says. “I see farmers stepping into the limelight next—my latest TV pitch, in fact, is a show called ‘Dude, Where’s My Tractor?’”
This rekindled awareness and enthusiasm around F&B is made to measure for group programs. During Winterlicious 2014—Toronto’s annual foodie fest—Dooher and her husband Kevin Gallagher hosted the popular “Tin Chef” competition for aspiring non-professional cooks at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, their acclaimed restaurant in Toronto’s Liberty Village.
“Over 100 people attended the event, and the energy was great,” Dooher says, remembering why people generally gather around the table in the first place. “Chefs do not drill teeth or foreclose on mortgages,” she says with a laugh. “Our job is to make people happy.”PageBreak
Mi Casa es Su Casa
For the last two decades, Johnny Hernandez has made visitors to his hometown of San Antonio happy with his nationally acclaimed, endlessly inventive approach to traditional Latin and Mexican cuisine and artisanal cocktails. For the last eight years, his award-winning Real Flavors Catering, launched 18 years ago, has been part of a five-company group cohesively catering San Antonio’s Henry J. Gonzalez Convention Center.
It is here that Hernandez, also a culinary ambassador for the San Antonio CVB, plays a frontline role in introducing visitors to the city.
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| Johnny Hernandez |
“Knowing our strong reputation for hospitality, people come to San Antonio looking to experience our unique culture and history,” says Hernandez, who routinely caters welcome receptions for up to 2,000 delegates in the center’s Lonesome Dove space on the Riverwalk. “Typically their first event in town, this is our opportunity to introduce them to San Antonio and Texas on the plate.”
Hernandez is equally busy hosting planners and group events at his growing collection of local restaurants, which include La Gloria at the Pearl Brewery complex (with an outpost at the airport), the hacienda-style Casa Hernan and tapas-cocktail haven Fruteria-Botanero. Giving back is also important for Hernandez, whose annual Corona Paella Challenge raises some $70,000 each year in scholarship funds for students in need. Like Puck and Dooher, he embraces the connection with people.
“I recently hosted a luncheon at Casa Hernan for the wives of convention delegates from a growers association,” Hernandez says. “Truly appreciating what they do—farmers are integral to my success—I showed them how to make the ceviche, salsa and other dishes from the Mexican tasting menu I created for the event.
The gesture was a hit that was appreciated by the attendees.
“The thank-you cards I received afterwards affirmed for me yet again that the culinary arts, so richly based on history, travel and exploration, is a story that we all can share,” Hernandez says.PageBreak
From the Heart
Emblematic of so many chefs, Tony Clark has taken a long culinary journey to arrive at where he is professionally today. Before becoming executive chef at the Valley Forge Casino Resort in late 2012, Clark, of Polish descent and raised in New Jersey, developed his craft in Thailand and China, and at Spain’s world famous El Bulli restaurant. Add the French influence of Le Bernardin and Jean Georges, and his culinary passport is as well-stamped as they come.
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| Tony Clark |
It’s a journey that Clark, also a radio and TV personality whose namesake Philadelphia restaurant earned him “Best New Chef in America” honors from Food & Wine magazine in 1997, is committed to sharing every day.
“I am a showman who cooks from the heart and loves to educate people as much as entertain them,” says Clark, who oversees the resort’s Pacific Prime steakhouse and Italian hot spot Viviano. “From touring Philadelphia’s food markets with guests to taking them on global culinary adventures at the hotel, I want to excite them in a way that they leave talking about the experience and continue on their own culinary journeys, hoping they come back here of course!”
On his own endless culinary journey, longtime Meetings Focus contributor Jeff Heilman serves as a judge at Johnny Hernandez’s 5th annual Corona Paella Challenge in San Antonio this month.
