F&B FOCUS:
French Canadian executive chef Olivier Chaleil plans to bring something new to Sofitel The Palm’s F&B concepts by offering a fresh take on tried and tested methods.
“We knew Porterhouse was going to be a steakhouse so it was about trying to make the steakhouse a bit more different and we did it with the materials we could find. We designed some special grills, the meat suppliers are usually the same for everyone but I tried to get some special cuts from France,” he says.
“Moana is a seafood restaurant but the idea is to make it seafood of the world — the best of what people would like to see. So we have fresh oysters as well as sushi and sashimi because everyone loves that.
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We have grilled fish and all the best curries from around the world, which is what I like most about this restaurant because you can have monk fish with a curry from India or Sri Lanka or from Thailand, so you can have the same fish cooked with different sauces,” enthuses Chaleil.
“The French restaurant [Studio du Chef] is an upscale restaurant. A French restaurant is usually seen as a difficult restaurant to go to by many people because they find it very stuffy and the names on the menu are also difficult and most of the time the attitude of the service is also very repulsive. So we tried to reverse all of that and tried to make something happy, very fun,” he explains.
When asked about focusing on food promotions and seasonal specialities, Chaleil is quite indignant about the lack of innovation. “It has been done, redone and abused and re-abused. For example truffle promotions, aren’t you bored by a truffle promotion?” he quips. “So I think it’s time to find something different.”
Stat Attack
-543 Rooms and apartments
- 2500m2 The size of the resort’s So Spa
- 650 Employees at Sofitel The Palm
- 170 Species of plants
- 800 m2 Length of the indoor green walls
- 32 Water features
- 14 Restaurants and bars
- 15,000 Facebook fans
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