It?s well known, but always bears repeating, that the reputation of a hotel stands ? and can fall ? on just a few well-established pillars: service, location, and the assured delivery of a flawless luxury experience. Over the past few decades, however, a new reputational benchmark has established itself in the hospitality sector, not least in five-star luxury hotels.
A brief tour of the food vocabulary we hear as a matter of routine in our daily lives gives a flavour of what?s been going on in the food revolution. Provenance. Authenticity. Seasonal. Local. Artisan. Food preparation as performance is now worthy of prime-time entertainment, and agenda-setting celebrity chefs command the attention of headline writers and politicians.
Food has always been integral to the luxury hospitality industry. The kitchens of the world?s leading hotels have been steered to perfection by generations of chefs, sommeliers, saucier?s and sous chefs; it?s only recently that we have come to know their names, queue to buy their lavishly designed books, and tune in to watch them cook on TV. Along the way, this continuing education of the nation?s palate and the ubiquity of food personalities have worked a minor transformation in the food and drink sector as a career choice.
Few enter with ambitions for fortune, glory and media fame; few desire it, and still fewer achieve it. Even so, the appeal of the luxury hotel restaurant is easily understood. These are the kitchens that create the taste by which they are judged. These are the kitchens where reputations are made, where a luxury hotel becomes a destination restaurant. These are the kitchens where food and drink achieve the dizzying status of high art, an expression of nutritional, culinary and sensory perfection.
A career in luxury hotel kitchens can, and often does, start elsewhere. Entry-level opportunities are in good supply, particularly in seasonal hospitality, and are a good grounding in the skills demanded by the luxury hotel kitchen.
Competition for the most junior roles in luxury kitchens is understandably high. Those who combine post-16 training and qualifications with some work experience in catering, from waiting tables to kitchen porter, are favourably received. The principles of catering apply everywhere: basic food hygiene and preparation, and the ability to work as part of a team.
And it is quite a team. In almost all restaurants where food and drink is destined for luxury tables, there?s an ensemble hard at work in the kitchen ? and an unvaryingly strict hierarchy too. The kitchen brigade system (or brigade de cuisine) was established by Savoy chef Georges Escoffier in the 1890s to arrest the tide of chaos that threatened to overwhelm the busy kitchen, and it?s still in place today. Some roles have vanished, replaced by labour-saving devices, but even in the smallest kitchen, a truncated version of the brigade hierarchy is firmly established.
Working up through the ranks is a well-trodden route. Luxury food and drink is no exception; this is a sector that, over time, rewards creativity, innovation, and experience gained over the stock-pot or stationed at the grill. From chef and saucier to commis (junior) chef and apprentice, all have learned their craft at the sharp end of kitchen operations.
A career in luxury restaurants and hotels is undoubtedly rewarding, and indisputably demanding. Hours can be long and unsocial, and the ability to work co-operatively in a relatively confined space is not given to everyone. For those whose culinary heart beats a little faster at the prospect of working at the beating heart of gastronomy, however, it?s hard to imagine a better place to be.
The best chefs, it is said, are those who have worked their way through the ranks, who know the detailed operations of every station in the kitchen, and have more than a passing knowledge of the sommelier?s art. If there is glamour, it?s usually glamour in the older sense of the word: enchantment. Magic. The casting of spells.