Selvarasu scores a hattrick for Atlantis at awards

Atlantis The Palm’s Vinothan Selvarasu celebrated his win yesterday, as the Caterer Middle East Chief Steward of the Year.

The win marks a decade for Selvarasu in the country, having shifted base from India where he honed his skills and was educated in hotel and catering management.

“My ideology is simple, it's to be creative. It's important to give alternatives to people. When my staff tell me they want so-and-so crockery or equipment, I always give them an alternative to work with especially when that particular piece of equipment is not in the store,” Selvarasu said.

From overseeing a vast team of 243, Selvarasu not only trains his colleagues everyday but sets and maintains quality of service standards, handles customer complaints and requests and oversees the ordering for no less than 23 F&B outlets resort wide.

“It's like scheduling people, I assign my team leaders to each and every shift, and they are instructed to train each and every staff everyday with our SOPs.”

Atlantis The Palm claim that Selvarasu has been one of those few employees in its history to possess a flair for creative cost cutting and impacting the bottom line of the business.

With new ideas proposed every week, his initiatives saved the resort thousands of dollars on cleaning supplies annually by implementing simple but smart measures including an automatic D10 and tissue dispenser in each outlet, which cut overuse dramatically.

Selvarasu revealed the secret of his savings: “I do not have to serve a margarita in a typical broad mouth glass, I can serve it in a champagne glass. The guest does not care about what it is served in, what matters to them is the quality of what's served in the glass or the plate.”

His creative work with housekeeping is also notable whereby Selvarasu has turned old tablecloths into napkins, napkins into wiping cloths and old towels into dusters, all of which not only have a positive impact on the environment but have also saved his department a few more thousands of dollars.

Selvarasu said the most important quality for a steward is to be, "1000% calm, as they have a lot of stress".

Atlantis The Palm won three awards on the night. Selvarasu was presented the award by design and production manager David Sprakes of A.Ronai.

The highly commended award went to Abdul Latheef Naduvile Purayil, Holiday Inn Abu Dhabi Downtown.

A list of the other shortlisted nominees can be found here.