Hotelier Awards 2017 shortlist: Executive Chef of the Year
Hotelier Middle East is pleased to reveal the eight finalists in the Executive Chef of the Year category for the 2017 edition of the Hotelier Middle East Awards.
This year, for the first time, we have eight finalists instead of six - to highlight the high quality of entries received.
If you'd like to meet last year's winners of all categories, click here to find out more...
Click through to find out who has been shortlisted this year... and take a look at last year's event in the video below!
Daniel Hillier, executive chef, Jumeirah Beach Hotel
Daniel Hillier joined Jumeirah Beach Hotel in 2012 as executive sous chef. In the last year, he has been the driving force behind the integration of the waterparks' F&B outlets and hotel operations, and initiated new concepts at the waterpark. Colleague development is one of Hillier's main objectives, and introduced a rotation policy among his team to enable cross exposure, increasing knowledge and skill set. He has also relaunched a new and improved culinary school increasing the participation by 50%, introducing new trainings and forums to ensure all colleagues are up to date with industry trends and international food fashion. Hillier recently launched monthly gatherings in the hotels auditorium to allow the colleagues the chance to watch the latest food documentaries and TV series.
Debrup Mitra, executive chef, JW Marriott Hotel Dubai
Debrup Mitra joined the hotel five years ago as executive sous chef. After sjx months he was promoted to acting executive chef and after another six months’ probation period, he became the executive chef in 2013. He is in charge of the 11 restaurants and bars, banqueting operations and the outside catering business. Since joining, he has been instrumental in increasing the outside catering business, and has also expanded its services to Abu Dhabi. Employee engagement is important to Mitra, who has achieved high employee satisfaction and low turnover results through implementing innovative action plans. Mitra also auccessfully launched the new catering and events concept 'Meetings Imagined'.
Doxis Bekris, director of food & beverage and culinary operations, Raffles Dubai
Doxis Bekris joined Raffles Dubai in May 2016 as executive chef, and following his rapid success in the role he was promoted. He has introduced new menus across all F&B outlets, increasing the options for guests as well as reflecting his passion for fresh ingredients and flavours. The new menus generated an increase in guest satisfaction figures for F&B across many metrics. In the last year, he has successfully managed an extremely challenging project – to take over a third-party managed F&B outlet, bring the management in-house and relaunch the restaurant within an ambitiously short window of just one month.
Gaurav Gulati, executive chef, The H Dubai
Gaurav Gulati joined the H Dubai team as executive sous chef in 2012 and was promoted to executive chef in September 2016 . Gulati led the implementation of a new coffee shop concept, Urban on 4, in place of an older version of a coffee shop, and increased profits compared to one year ago. He also worked on the reconceptualisation of The Hollywood Brunch. He has also played a role in the opening of the hotel’s two new concepts - Zahira and Moombai & Co. Gulati has completely reinvigorated the breakfast, in-room dining and MICE offering, and also reduced food costs whilst improving guests satisfaction in his first six months as executive chef.
Girish Babu, executive chef, Media One Hotel
Girish Babu joined Media One in 2012 as executive chef. He manages a total of 33 chefs and 8 F&B revenue streams. Babu works on a number of cost-saving initiatives, and is always thinking of ways in which to provide outstanding customer care. Babu has also been great at encouraging team development; at least 75% of enthusiasts are internal promotions rather than external hires and 80% of the team have enjoyed more than three years of service. He supports his chefs in culinary competitions such as SIAL Middle East 2017 and where his team brought home a silver medal. He is also very keen to involve chefs in a scholarship programme run by ICCA – International Centre for Culinary Arts.
Rajiv Ranjan, executive chef, Mövenpick Hotel & Apartments Bur Dubai
Rajiv Ranjan started his career at Mövenpick Hotel & Apartments Bur Dubai as sous chef in 2010 and was promoted as executive chef in 2014. Over the past 12 months, Ranjan has played a big role in changing the F&B concept of the Friday Brunch at Fountain restaurant, creating a new outdoor catering concept and reducing food costs to support GOP. Thinking about his colleagues is important to him; Ranjan personally offered to improve the staff canteen without being asked to do so. He proposed to cook the meals personally and with the help of other team members from different departments, all of whom he trained personally. His team serves staff meals that are similar to the food quality provided to the hotel guests.
Steve Deconinck, executive chef, The Palace Downtown Dubai
Steve Deconinck manages a team of 69 chefs in the culinary operations at Palace Downtown, running six outlets, including Asado and Thiptara, in-room dining and event operations including outside catering. He has implemented a number of new cost saving initiatives in Palace Downtown as the pilot for EHG, including supplier tenders on behalf of the group, food wastage systems and breakage controls. Deconinck's motto is that the dish will only be as good as the ingredients sourced. One activation he undertakes every two weeks is to host an internal culinary competition between the chefs; after a winner is selected, he fine tunes the dish with them which then goes into one of the menus.
Sudqi Naddaf, executive chef, Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates Dubai
Jordanian national Sudqi Naddaf joined Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates as executive chef in 2011. He has also assumed the responsibilities of F&B director since the summer of 2016 and supports the F&B manager to run the entire department. He was instrumental in the successful completion of the $100 million renovation of the hotel, unveiled in 2016, and launched or refurbished four restaurants during this time. His work has resulted in an increase in covers as well as revenue for the property.