Radisson rebrands F&B to become 'food and drink'

Radisson Hotels is currently in the process of rebranding its food and beverage departments into ‘Food & Drink’, as well as restructuring operations to better incorporate its events and catering business.

Speaking exclusively to Hotelier Middle East magazine, David Harnois, executive chef of the Radisson Blu Kuwait as well as the recently appointed area director of F&D, explained how the change will affect the hotel’s approach to its all day dining operations.

“The all-day dining restaurant has always been the heart of a hotel. It’s where guests have their breakfast, which is one of the most important parts of the guest experience. However, after breakfast, once all your guests have started to go out for the day, all day dining outlets have traditionally struggled to maintain that level of business,” he said.

“We try to ensure that our all day dining remains busy throughout the day because we also use it as a part of our banqueting service. Our hotel has a lot of conference rooms, and we use the all day dining as the venue for each group’s lunch offering. To tie in with our MICE business, we are also offering special fast meals, which are small things which guests can pick up straight away or even take it back with them into the meeting room,” he added.

As well as causing changes to the day to day operations of Radisson hotels ‘F&D’ outlets, Mark Willis, area vice president for parent group Rezidor Hotels outlined how the group is “ restructuring the food and drink of the organisation from our central office all the way out into each regional market.”

“If you look at the collaboration between food and drink and events, last year we launched experience meetings which is our new meeting and event concept under the Radisson Blu umbrella, and a core element of that has been creating a healthy approach to meetings, such as brain-food, lighter eating and healthier eating rather than huge, carbon-hydrate driven buffets,” he said.