Julie Mautner reports.
Mexico and the CaribbeanMexican hotelier Grupo Posadas tapped three top chefs to create three restaurants in its newest hotel, Aqua, reopened in Cancún in February after two years of post-hurricane renovation. Siete, from chef Martha Ortiz (of Aguila y Sol in Mexico City), concentrates on traditional Mexican fare, while Franco Maddalozzo's al fresco Azur fuses Mexican, Mediterranean, and Asian flavors. (Maddalozzo, who joined Grupo Posados in 2004 and has served as its corporate chef, is also the hotel's exec chef.) Michelle Bernstein (chef/owner of Michy's in Miami) operates MB, using local organic ingredients to create "luxury comfort food" with Latin and Asian influences. Aqua also features the Aka Bar, created by beverage consultant Steve Olson; it offers "playful" cocktails, 200 wines including Mexican labels, and 60 Tequilas and mezcals which may be ordered in flights. Aqua's 371 rooms start at $319.
Luis Miguel Cortazar has been named exec chef at the 90 suite Paraiso de la Bonita, 45 miles south of Cancún on the Riviera Maya. The 14 acre boutique resort opened in January 2002. Cortazar, who replaces Marc Dobbels, will oversee all restaurants as well as food at the Thalasso Spa and Anti-Aging Center. He was most recently at Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach (Cancún). Dobbels, meanwhile, is now f&b manager at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, replacing David Collas, who went to the Ritz in London.
Jonathan Dearden is new exec chef at Jade Mountain,, the 24 room mountaintop "sanctuary" resort opened on St. Lucia in 2007. Dearden has been sous chef at Chef Allen's (Miami) for almost a year. Chef Allen's chef/owner Allen Susser has been consulting Jade Mountain, owned by Nick and Karolin Troubetzkoy, since January 2008 and travels to the island bimonthly. Menus are heavy on local seafood and exotic tropical produce, harvested from the resort's organic garden and an adjacent plantation. The Troubetzkoys also operate the resort Anse Chastanet, directly below Jade Mountain.
Bill Munn has been promoted to culinary director at Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort (St. Lucia). Born on Jamaica, he worked in Vancouver and the South Pacific before returning to the Caribbean in 2006. Munn replaces Didier Le Berre.
France The Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris has a new exec chef, Eric Briffard, replacing Philippe Legendre, who quit in April. Born and raised in Burgundy, Briffard, who trained under Joël Robuchon, has been running the two-star kitchen at Les Élysées in the Hôtel Vernet since 2002. Before that, he was chef at Régence at the Plaza Athénée, where he also earned two stars. At Le Cinq, the gastronomic restaurant at the George V, Legendre won two stars.
At press time, there was no word of his plans. Meanwhile at the Hôtel Vernet, Briffard's replacement is Guillaume Ginther, 27, chef assistant in the Vernet kitchen since April 2007 before his promotion. Prior to that, he worked for a variety of Michelin two-stars, including Relais Louis XIII and Laurent, both in Paris.
Anne-Sophie Pic, the sole female Michelin three-star chef in France, has opened a cooking school called Scook, next door to Maison Pic, her family's storied restaurant in Valence. She has headed up Maison Pic for about a decade. The school will be run by 30 year old chef Aude Rambour, with Pic in attendance once a month. Classes range from 45€ to 280€ ($70 to $450). When Pic, 38, was awarded her three stars last year, she became the first woman in France to earn Michelin's highest rating in 50 years. Anne-Sophie's grandfather received his three stars in 1934; her father, Jacques, earned his in 1973. The restaurant had lost its third star after Jacques died in 1992.
United Kingdom One of France's top female chefs, Hélène Darroze of the two-star Hélène Darroze in Paris, has been named head chef at the Connaught, the landmark London hotel which just completed a nine month £70 million ($137 million) restoration and renovation. There Darroze has launched the signature Hélène Darroze at the Connaught and at the same time oversees the more casual Gallery restaurant, private dining, and room service. She'll be responsible for the revival of the famed Connaught Grill when it returns this fall. A protégée of Alain Ducasse, Darroze plans to split her time between London and Paris. At the Connaught, she succeeds Angela Hartnett, who, together with Gordon Ramsay Holdings, parted company with the hotel last year. The Connaught's parent also owns and manages Claridge's and The Berkeley.
Switzerland The Dolder Grand, first opened in Zurich in 1899 and closed for renovation since 2004, finally reopened in April, with 173 rooms, a 40,000-square-foot spa, two restaurants, and banqueting. The $400 million project was a collaboration between London architects Foster and Partners, the interior design company United Designers, spa doyenne Sylvia Sepielli, and the hotel's principal owner Urs E. Schwarzenbach. The new chef is Heiko Nieder, previously at L'Orquivit in Bonn.
Send your international restaurant and hotel f&b news to Julie Mautner at WhiskNews@aol.com
