Marriott in the Kitchen

A New Game in Town

For the 70 million people said to be playing Facebook generated games at any one time, there is now a new option. Rather than worrying about when to harvest the cyber vegetables or feed the virtual goats, gamers can now feel the rush of adrenaline that comes naturally to chefs on a restaurant line, especially when tickets start to back up and the servers get grouchy…or is it the chefs?

  Launched today on Facebook and accessible by visiting the the Marriott Careers page, www.facebook.com/marriottjobsandcareers,  My Marriott Hotel™ offers a virtual glimpse into what happens in the heart of the hotel, the kitchen. Gamers set up their facility by selecting equipment and ingredients, planning a menu, and ultimately preparing the orders for waiting guests. As I said in my first blog, “You’re only as good as your last meal”. Here, the chef watches for guest satisfaction (by way of a clean and green returned plate) while balancing the restaurant manager mood as the restaurant gets busier and busier. Serve a lot of meals to happy customers, the manager smiles…make the manager deal with disappointed guests, not so many smiles.

 

We started working on this many months ago with the idea of linking the unique opportunities of a career in hospitality with the surge in social online gaming. Available globally and in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Mandarin), My Marriott Hotel™ will build on the kitchen experience with future modules of restaurant service, housekeeping, front desk, etc. Each of these departments represent where the majority of today's hotel leaders started their careers, and with 50,000 positions to fill this year alone, we hope to be tapping the prospect of a hospitality career of those playing the My Marriott Hotel™ game.

 

As part of the launch, over 350 Marriott HQ Associates joined our test kitchen team for a tour through the game and a non-virtual snack. With mini burgers flying off the grill, it gave the sense of playing the game for real. There is nothing more exciting than a busy restaurant, so if you want to try running one of your own, check out the game and how it works on You Tube at http://bit.ly/MyMarriottHotelOverview .  

What’s on YOUR plate today? Check out the game and see what’s cooking!

Best Poke Recipe in Hawaii

In 1979, I left Seattle to take a job as  the banquet chef at a hotel near San Francisco, California. Then operated by Omni hotels, that hotel is now the San Mateo Marriott.  Two years later in 1981, I jumped at the opportunity to move to the Big Island of Hawaii to open a new resort for Sheraton, the Sheraton Royal Waikoloa...now the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort and Spa. Maybe I was just early, but it seems nearly every hotel I have worked at eventually becomes a Marriott!

Hot Shoppes' Link to Social Media

   The first "social media" outlets were the local restaurants were people would gather regularly to share stories, catch up on old friends, meet new friends, and establish lifelong relationships. before we had Facebook and Twitter, we had the local drive in and coffee shop. In Washington and all along the I-95 corridor, Hot Shoppes was that place. Not being from the Washington area, it has amazed me how many native Washingtonians  have such vivid memories of their experiences at Hot Shoppes. Long married couples who had their first date there, skipped school to meet there, or worked their first job in one of the iconic drive-ins. J Willard Marriott created such an amazing destination, long before the concept of destination restaurants became in vogue.

The last Hot Shoppes closed in December 1999. Facebook started in August 2005.  Social media is now online and Hot Shoppes has its own fanpage on Facebook. "Friends of The Mighty Mo and Hot Shoppes" is a group page with now over 1,000 members, all with amazing stories of their personal memories of their times spent at Hot Shoppes. These memories always include the Mighty Mo. A simple burger-triple split bun, two patties, lettuce, cheese, and of course the Mighty Mo Sauce. Eerily similar to another iconic burger, the Mighty Mo was served at Hot Shoppes since the 1940's, and named after the WWII battleship Missouri, the Mighty Mo. Now, some 60 years later, the Mighty Mo lives on...on the pages of Facebook.

   

You can still find the Mighty Mo in some of our hotels such as the Key Bridge Marriott, just across the river from the first Hot Shoppes.

Make your own Mo by adding the classic Mighty Mo sauce:

Mighty Mo Sauce

1/2 cup     ketchup

1/4 cup     chili sauce

1 1/2 tsp   A-1 sauce

1/2 tsp     Worcestershire sauce

2 drops     Tabasco sauce

1/2 cup     chopped fine pickles

1 1/4 cup  mayonnaise

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl combine the ketchup, chili sauce, A-1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce and

tabasco sauce.

2. Add the chopped pickles.

3. Add the mayonnaise and stir until well blended.

 

What's on YOUR plate today?

Connecting Marriott Chefs and Foothill Farmers

A while back I spoke about the great work Jean-Pierre Marechal was doing from the Charlotte Marriott City Center with a network of North Carolina farmers. Soon, Jean-Pierre will be featured on the CBS World News Tonight with Katie Couric at the end of the broadcast as part of the "American Hero" segment showcasing the success of their simple idea of connecting farmers and chefs.

Begun as an idea to enable transformation of the textile towns and tobacco farms into sustainable communities, the Foothills Connect project was the brainchild of Tim Will, a retired telecom exec who had relocated to the Appalachians. Initially, the goal was to provide broadband service to the over 6,000 small farms, each with 5-20 arable acres. Most of these plots were no longer farmed, having given way to the textile industry until the 90's bust. The area needed a new industry.

Through divine luck, Tim met Jean-Pierre and discovered that what Charlotte's restaurants needed was access to fresh, local produce. "If farmers will grow what I need at a reasonable price, I'll buy theirs instead of having it trucked from California or Florida...and, I'll tell my chef friends to do the same" said JP, which was all Tim needed to hear.

 

With JP championing the chefs, Tim built an online ordering and communication network that has grown to 87 farmers in just two years. Jim Searcy is the most active farmer in the co-op, now growing 70 different crops that  two years ago had not even been considered. His produce can be found now on many Charlotte restaurant menus, including of course the first to offer local Rutherford County produce, Chef Marechel's Savannah Red at the Charlotte Marriott.

 

These accomplishments are garnering national attention, including the recent Purpose Prize award and $100,000 grant won by Foothills Connect. Providing viable sustainability through a dedicated chef's passion and network, Jean-Pierre Marechel has proven that by working with his community, a chef can make a real difference.

Read more about the Purpose Prize and Tim Will.

http://www.encore.org/prize/nominate?ref=winners.cfm

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/1020170.html

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/reinventing/articles/purpose_prize_winner_helps_farmers_and_chefs_connect.html 

What's on YOUR plate today?

The Marriott Test Kitchen is Cooking!

 

I've discussed the Marriott Test Kitchen many times in this blog.  There is always a flurry of activity in this 1st floor facility and the word is getting out about its many functions.  It was recently featured in Fortune magazine and USA Today.  As I told you a few weeks ago, BLT chef-owner Laurent Tourondel cooked burgers from BLT Burger for Mr. Marriott, who also discussed the lunch in his blog, Marriott On The Move. The main question I generally get is “what do you do in the test kitchen?”

That’s a great question with many great answers. What it is NOT is an executive dining room.

The test kitchen provides a wonderful platform for our talented hotel chefs to work with the corporate culinary team as they develop key program menu items, signature dishes, food promotions, beverage promotions, etc. In September and October, the Food and Beverage teams of the soon-to-open JW San Antonio and the under remodel Harbor Beach Marriott spent time in the test kitchen working through their menu ideas and concept strategies. There are menu program workshops, train the trainer courses, photo shoots and hotel specific culinary development. And, they all revolve around Marriott's CookSmart principles….deliver simple, fresh chef-crafted food.  In addition, the facility provides a forum for senior leadership to view and discuss the many interpretations of today's food trends and how they are incorporated into our global culinary philosophy. 

Bart Hosmer, Thomas Rebler, and the rest of the culinary team are constantly manning the stoves and shooting wonderful photos of food in development, providing actionable and realistic solutions to the challenge of keeping our menus exciting, approachable, and guest appropriate. Whether it be Renaissance targeted breakfast signatures, Marriott lounge menus, SpringHill Suites breakfast muffins, JW Organic strategies, or Courtyard Bistro seasonal promotion items, the Test Kitchen is where the ideas come to life. 

Occasionally when the kitchen is not busy developing new items, there are the hosted luncheons for development groups looking to understand the Marriott F&B roles and how it will impact their acquisition,  tours with industry executives, and sales professionals focused on marketing our great brands. Product and specification reviews are held regularly, with many vendors jockeying for a chance to show their latest products. It is a busy place that hopefully benefits all of our culinary operations in the global Marriott community and your dining experience in our hotels.

Cooking in the Test Kitchen is on my plate today.  What's on YOUR plate today?

A New Champions in Boston

A new sports bar recently opened in Boston. Reopened actually, since the Champions Sports Bar has been a local favorite for many years in this sports obsessed city. Champions Sports Bar is a global concept and in 31 hotels including Warsaw, Shanghai, Dubai, and Frankfurt. The American Sports Bar is iconic. I was just in Frankfurt and was able to watch F-1 Racing, Premier league football (soccer), and a Steelers game all at the same time, all with an order of wings and a platter of local sausages and kraut. A true global experience!

This new look Champions on the second level of the Boston Copley Marriott is filled with tv's, including a huge 12 x 24-foot screen centered in the main bar area. The bar itself is framed in a wall of screens, backdropped by fiber optics that change in a wave of color. Very cool and comfortable, a great place to watch a game. With dozens of beers, micro to macro, crafted cocktails based on fresh juices, and wines for every taste, this bar is a long way from the "pitchers of beer and greasy nacho crowd."

Sports bar food has also come a long way, and the menu at the new Champions balances tradition with  a new style of casual. No sports bar is complete without chicken wings. Here you'll find Kung Pao wings alongside three levels of spicy buffalo wings.

Mini burger sliders and sliders of a great bbq pulled pork, and a Boston mini lobster roll, perfect for social snacking. Of course, full size burgers are king, especially when customized with add-ons designed to make each a personal, custom burger.

  

The new Champions also brings marinanted skirt steak, rubbed in garlic butter; a simple grilled fish that changes depending on the Gloucester daily catch; a beautifully pressed cuban sandwich, big fish tacos, and some of the best meatballs made from the Chefs own Grandmother's recipe.

 

Mike Panasuk, Executive Chef, and Jack Rutigliano, Director of Food and Beverage, are really proud of this new Champions, and they should be as it really is a great refuge in one of America's first cities. Hotels magazine did a great review on the space . 
 

 When in Boston, check it out at the Boston Copley Marriott.

What's on YOUR plate today?