Northstar

www.travelweeklyweb.com www.travelweeklyweb.com JUNE 2014 | TRAVELWeekly AsiA ■ | 13 InsIder InsIgHts catering operation, 2 bars and an in-room dining service in a hotel with over 400 rooms. I am responsible not only for the culinary aspect of the operation including menus in the various restaurants, but also the business components of the operation including the management of over 100 cooks and support staff who work directly for me. When people think of me as a chef, they envision me in the kitchen, behind the grill, cooking for one of the restaurants or creating a new dish. But that is really only half my work. I also have budget meetings to discuss food costs and pricing, capital improvements, current expenditures and weekly performance numbers. I have human resources meetings to go over labour and staffing issues and I regularly meet with the banquet and catering sales team to talk about future events. We have a variety of staff meetings every day with all department heads getting together each morning to recap hotel events from the previous day, go over new business as well as discuss guest satisfaction ratings and upcoming corporate-sponsored initiatives. My day starts at 8:30am checking up on how our breakfast service has performed By 10:00am I am moving from meeting to meeting and checking in with my office or making phone calls. At 11:00am I am in the kitchens helping to prepare for the lunch service. By early afternoon I am again on the move, normally in operations meetings and planning sessions with everyone from the General Manager or Food and Beverage Director to vendors and purveyors who are introducing me to their newest or latest products. The most fun part of my day is in the late afternoon when I can go into the kitchen and work on new recipes and menu items with my sous chefs . I usually try to sneak in some paperwork before we start dinner service. by 6:30pm I am back in the kitchens expediting or working with the cooks and chefs to help them with dinner service. By 10:00pm my day is finally slowing down. At the end of service, one of my cooks may treat us all to a special dish they have prepared, usually a family recipe, which is always a great treat, or I will go out and eat some hawker food before going home. Although it may seem like my day is extraordinarily chaotic, which it can be, in reality you adjust and develop the ability to multi-task. It is all about organization and time management. Plus, I have the most wonderful staff including Sally , an amazing administrative assistant who keeps moving in the right direction. Of course some days are busier than others, but it is a profession of love and even after all these years, I still have the passion and the excitement for the work. 5. Are there any changes in restaurant concepts that we can expect at the hotel in the very near future? Toni Robertson: We actually have a number of very exciting things on the drawing board for the Food and Beverage operations at the Mandarin Oriental, but I think most of it is a little premature to announce right now. So we will have to keep that under wraps for a little longer. I can tell you that we will definitely impact the Singapore culinary scene and I am very excited about the future of the Mandarin Oriental's status as the preferred dining destination in Singapore. One change we are moving forward with right now is in Dolce Vita, our Italian restaurant. As I have mentioned before, Singaporeans have really become more sophisticated and mature in their culinary tastes and coupled with the increasing numbers of international visitors, we need to satisfy this more cultured palate. We will be introducing, in the near future, a new menu concept that is more refined and authentic which I think will better meet the expectations of our guests. There is no question that Dolce Vita will define the Italian dining experience Singapore and introduce a new way of enjoying Italian cuisine. 6. What is your favourite Singapore dish? Toni Robertson: I love Laksa and to be honest, I could eat it every day. My other favourite is Char Kway Teow. Both are not particularly the healthiest dishes, but I can't resist. I never seen a bowl of Laksa that I didn't like. With the curries and coconut milk, they very much remind me of Burmese dishes I grew up with. 7. Off work, are you more of a street food person or a fine dining person? Toni Robertson: I am definitely a 'street food' person. There has been a real transformation in my eating style over the years. When I was a new chef I used to go out whenever possible to the latest or most popular and trendy restaurants to "see the competition" and be inspired. Over time I began going more often to small family-run cafes and restaurants, even when I was traveling overseas, to enjoy and experience local and regional cuisines. Today I find that I eat for the pure joy and pleasure of eating and that means street food. One of things I love about Singapore is the tremendous variety and availability of hawker food. It is very much part of the national psyche and culture here and the quality of street food in Singapore is unsurpassed. I would recommend it to anyone visiting the country. Street food is my personal comfort food. I find it wonderfully relaxing when I get off work late in the evening, or on my day off to just grab a bite on the street, wherever I may be, sit down and just watch the people and the world around me go by. 8. What your signature dish? Toni Robertson: I know that many chefs have a signature dish they become known for, but when you oversee multiple restaurants, catering and banquet operations as I do, all with diverse and unique cuisine styles, then you must be constantly in a "creative" mode to meet the expectations of your guests and patrons. Not a day goes by when I do not work on new menu items. It is one of the primary differences between being a restaurant chef and a hotel chef. The hotel chef does not have the luxury of focusing on a single style and working within that "box." We must constantly be looking for new menu items, creating new dishes and finding inspiration in the latest trends. We are as likely to have a guest planning an event ask for Scottish or Indian cuisine as they are looking for Chinese or Mediterranean. Over my career as a hotel chef in some of the top properties in the world, I have run restaurants offering no fewer than 21 different styles including spa cuisine, seafood, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, California, French and global cuisine. I tend to see the culinary arts and cuisine as constantly evolving. Whereas a culinary trend may have lasted 5 or 6 years in the past, today we see trends change almost overnight. I need to be able to adapt and change just a quickly and be prepared to cook any cuisine style that my guests require. I would rather be known for the quality of all my dishes rather than just one.

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