Matthew Dahlkemper is executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Dubai International Financial Centre. He spoke with HOTELS on his view of the evolving role the executive plays in the industry.
Dahlkemper holds up a shark for inspection. ?
HOTELS: What’s working and not working within the traditional model?
Matthew Dahlkemper: A lot of the purchasing can become askew if your purchaser isn’t from a food background. I once worked in a hotel where our purchaser was previously a sous chef. It makes life a lot easier when you don’t have to explain what something is that needs to be sourced. Or, when you receive the wrong product, are they able to tell the difference? Chefs are very particular about their products. Some people in (administrative) roles without food backgrounds can’t grasp that.
H: How do you see the roles of executive chef and F&B director evolving?
MD: I see more executive chefs transitioning to food and beverage director roles. It is difficult for an F&B director to tell a chef how to cook if they haven’t had legitimate kitchen experience. F&B directors should be more fixated on driving the front-of-house operations with support from the chef to drive the programming forward. Executive chefs have the responsibility of an entire operation, and in a hotel, they must have equal involvement in all of their outlets, room service and banqueting.
H: What is it about an executive chef that makes the kitchen run and is critical, versus three chefs de cuisine?
MD: Executive chefs can consider the operation as a whole as opposed to singular outlet minded chefs de cuisine. The executive chef should not only be able to run that outlet, but be able to support and guide the front-of-house as well as help plan any sort of programming with the chef de cuisine. Presumably, the chef de cuisine should have someone who can guide them and (offer criticism). That can’t always be the F&B director because most of the time they don’t understand enough about kitchen dynamics or how that particular outlet needs to actually run.
H: Is the top-down mentality an old way of thinking, or is there still a place for the executive chef?
MD: There is definitely purpose to the executive chef. Their role is to guide and nurture those below them and to be the brainchild of the actual operation… Executive chefs are the teachers who spread their knowledge through the front and back-of-house, and most importantly the holder of all things consistency related.
