EVENT REVIEW: Hilton's F&B masters

The judges had to assess the service as well as the food.

In order to motivate, inspire and challenge young chefs and mixologists, Hilton Worldwide Middle East & Africa organises the F&B Masters. Hotelier editor Louise Oakley was at the 2012 culinary competition in Abu Dhabi to judge the talent

Now in its second year, the Hilton Worldwide Middle East & Africa F&B Masters is gaining momentum quickly.

The vast majority of the chain’s 56 MEA hotels entered this year’s culinary and mixology competition, submitting detailed PowerPoint presentations to Hilton Worldwide’s corporate F&B team, headed by Simon Lazarus, vice president, F&B, Hilton Worldwide MEA and Knud Bundgaard, culinary director, Hilton Worldwide MEA — who spearheads the F&B Masters.

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Of these tens of applications, only three F&B teams of four people — which must comprise one commis chef and one waiter — and three mixologists made it to the final, held on October 17 at Hilton Abu Dhabi.

Here, they were put through their paces, with the first challenge requiring the culinary teams to present a panel of judges with the four-course menu they had submitted in the entry rounds.

After a break, it was then time for the black box competition, with mystery items including Liwa dates, linguine, a whole rabbit, John Dory fillet, lemongrass, prickly pear and fresh sugar cane. Meanwhile, the mixologists had to create four different types of cocktail and also faced a mystery box, including asparagus, grapefruit juice and coffee.

The full-day event was judged by Hilton senior management from across the region, including Essam Abouda, vice president – operations, Hilton Worldwide, Arabian Peninsula; Christian Grage, vice president, operations, Egypt & Levant; Jan Vanderputten, vice president, operations, Africa & Indian Ocean; Reinhard Truchlar, executive chef, Hilton Sharjah; Wolfgang Maier, general manager, Hilton Abu Dhabi, Steven Benson-Flower, culinary director, Hilton Ras Al Khaimah; Marino Gheradi, F&B manager, Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort & Spa; and Christian Hoehn, director of operations, Hilton Abu Dhabi — reflecting the weight placed on developing F&B talent by the Hilton team.

Bundgaard explained the rationale for the F&B Masters event: “F&B is a vital component of every one of our hotels and it's importance to the overall contribution to the property and the company, cannot be overestimated. Hilton Worldwide MEA has over 300 F&B outlets and employs 6000 F&B staff.

That’s more than one third of our total team member numbers of 17,000, all dedicated to the F&B function. Guests staying at our hotels are important customers for our F&B outlets but we also aim to attract custom from the local population, so the quality of both the product and the service at our restaurants and bars needs to be consistently high”.

He said the Masters was “a great incentive for young chefs to push themselves that extra mile and to demonstrate what they can achieve”. 

“I was very pleased at the talent on display at our F&B Masters event. I already knew how skillful and energetic the finalist teams were, but to see them in action, particularly in pressurised circumstances, was a delight to observe. They all worked tremendously hard to be shortlisted and very much deserved their place in the spotlight at the main competition finals,” added Bundgaard.

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