A hotel and a kitchen each have a ladder, and the two look alike. Both start with a job that involves cleaning something, and both end in a role where most of the day goes on other people’s work. The eighty hoteliers and chefs I interviewed for my three books climbed one or the other, and several climbed both. Here are the rungs, with what the people who climbed them say about each.
The hotel
Where you start. Front desk agent, reservations agent, bell stand, housekeeping attendant, steward in the dish room, and the food and beverage floor: commis de rang, server, bartender, banquet waiter. Torsten van Dullemen, then general manager of The Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, began in luxury as a reservations agent at The Savoy in London, where he learned how to plan for guest arrivals, track their preferences and communicate with other departments. Peter Hopgood of Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort started as a pot scrubber.
Supervisor and assistant manager. The first rung with people under you: a housekeeping supervisor running a floor, an assistant front office manager running a shift, a room service supervisor running the order takers. Mariano Silvestri, then general manager of Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa, took his first leadership role as housekeeping supervisor at Park Hyatt Mendoza in Argentina, and says it set the tone for his entire career because it taught him to respect the work that happens out of the guest’s sight. George Cozonis of The Plaza was a room service supervisor when more than half his team called out, and learned, in his words, that you cannot win a war without soldiers.
Department head. Front office manager, executive housekeeper, restaurant manager, director of catering. You now own a budget, a schedule, a standard and the hiring for your department. Krister Svensson, then general manager of The St. Regis Bangkok, had his first leadership position as restaurant manager of a fine dining room in Dubai, in charge of twenty staff from all over the world.
The executive committee. The director of rooms, the director of food and beverage, and the heads of sales, finance, human resources and engineering, with a hotel manager, resident manager or executive assistant manager running the operation under the general manager. These are the people who hold the standard on the shifts the general manager does not see. Susanne Hatje, then general manager of Mandarin Oriental, New York, took her first leadership position as director of rooms at The Mark in New York and was later promoted to assistant manager of the property. Pedro Dias of The Surrey began as an assistant director of rooms.
General manager. The general manager selects and protects the team, walks the floor, rehearses the arrivals and answers to the owner for the numbers. Van Dullemen describes how the job has widened.
“Twenty years ago, guests checked in, guests checked out, and you focused on service. Today, if you don’t understand the legal aspect, the pace of technology, digital marketing, public affairs, and how to work with owners and shareholders, you cannot run a hotel successfully.” Torsten van Dullemen, then general manager of The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
Regional and corporate roles. Many of the general managers I interviewed have since moved above the single property. Aaron Kaupp, then general manager of Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris, is now Regional Vice President and Managing Director for Raffles in Dubai, the Seychelles and Bahrain. Stephen Ansell, then general manager of Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow, is Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at Hyatt.
The kitchen
Commis. The junior cook, assigned to a section under a chef de partie. The work is preparation: cleaning, cutting, portioning, keeping the station ready. Chan Yan Tak, who at Lung King Heen in Hong Kong became the first Chinese chef to hold three Michelin stars, began as a trainee whose role involved cleaning, preparing ingredients and assisting chefs during banquets in private homes.
Demi chef de partie and chef de partie. The chef de partie runs a section: sauce, fish, meat, garde manger, pastry. The demi chef is the deputy. You are expected to run a station alone through service. Guy Savoy’s apprenticeship with the Troisgros brothers was where he watched chefs pick up a pan, put down a plate or stir a sauce with such precision that he longed to reach the point where he could work as they did.
Junior and senior sous chef. The sous chef runs the pass when the chef is absent, writes the schedule, orders, and holds the standard for the brigade. Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin asks his sous chefs, and imposes on himself, to take notes whenever any of them has an idea.
Chef de cuisine or head chef. The person who runs the kitchen day to day. Where a chef owner sits above them, the chef de cuisine carries the menu and the brigade. David Kinch, then of Manresa, says he learned to rely on his chef de cuisine and wants that person to put their own stamp on the food.
Executive chef. In a hotel, the executive chef runs every kitchen in the building: restaurants, banquets, in room dining, the staff canteen. Guillaume Galliot holds the title at Caprice in Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, and his advice to anyone pursuing a culinary career is to learn all of the basics properly.
Chef owner or culinary director. Ownership, or a role across several kitchens. Pedro Subijana of Akelarre told me he became a leader and a businessman without even realizing it, because at the beginning he had no choice.
How the people in the book actually moved
The profiles in my first two books show a small number of routes, repeated.
Hotel school, then a management training program. Stephen Ansell studied hospitality and joined a management training program with Hilton International in Munich, which he calls the place he learned the most. It included six months in charge of stewarding. George Cozonis studied hotel management, believed he would be hired as a general manager on graduating, and found he could barely keep up answering telephones at the reception desk as a trainee. He finished his program at the Parker House in Boston and was offered the job of laundry manager. The Careers section has a separate page on the programs that exist today.
Stewarding or dishwashing, then up. Ayman Gharib, then general manager of Raffles Dubai and Sofitel Dubai Wafi, began as a steward in a restaurant chain in Lebanon, washing dishes, peeling onions and polishing champagne glasses. Svensson began as a steward in Stockholm. Tom Roelens, then general manager of Four Seasons Resort Lanaʻi, started in the kitchen washing dishes before moving to the floor as a commis de rang. Hatje apprenticed at the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in Hamburg and started in the laundry room.
“I started out in the laundry room and worked my way up. Starting from the bottom and rising through the ranks is absolutely critical. It teaches you every part of the operation, and you learn to respect and admire the work of your colleagues.” Susanne Hatje, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Food and beverage, then rooms, then the top. This is the lateral move most of the general managers made. Anneke Brown, then general manager of COMO The Treasury in Perth, began as a waitress and still believes the best hospitality people start in food and beverage, because a busy restaurant forces you to handle complaints, time pressure, the kitchen and strangers at once. Luc Delafosse led the stewarding department at The Savoy, became executive assistant manager of food and beverage at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, and two years later was offered the hotel manager position at a property in France. Christian A. Hassing of Mandarin Oriental, Singapore, went from bellboy to reception to apprenticeships in the restaurant, bar and kitchen before his first food and beverage management role. Kai Speth of The Reverie Saigon and Mahmoud Skaf of The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur, both trained as chefs before crossing to the hotel side.
Moving countries. The geographical lists at the head of each profile run long. Svensson’s career passed through Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Indonesia, China, Malaysia and Sweden. Roelens went from assistant director of catering in Dubai to executive assistant manager of a hotel in Bali. Each move was a rung.
Chefs who changed kitchens to learn. Emmanuel Stroobant’s first job was in a two Michelin-starred restaurant, and part of his training was being apprenticed out to other restaurants. José Avillez learned under Antoine Westermann, at Alain Ducasse’s school, in Éric Frechon’s kitchen at Le Bristol and at elBulli. Richard Ekkebus cooked for Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Passard and Guy Savoy, took an executive chef position in Mauritius, moved to Barbados after seven years, and arrived in Hong Kong before Amber opened. Each kitchen was chosen for what it could teach.
What slows people down and what speeds them up
The interviews agree on what slows a career: wanting the title before the work.
“Not every luxury hotelier has an academic background, and not everyone needs one. In fact, I would advocate for recent graduates to still begin at the bottom of the industry to gain an appreciation for core business operations. Do not expect nor seek a managerial role right out of college.” Krister Svensson, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Sjefke Jansen, then general manager of Belmond Grand Hotel Europe, names the same problem from the employer’s side: young employees eager to climb the ladder but not eager to put in the work and time required to progress. Kai Speth puts the remedy in one sentence.
“You have to think of your career as one of longevity, so be patient until you can really identify with an opportunity to learn and grow both personally and professionally.” Kai Speth, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
What speeds a career up is the opposite of a shortcut. Saying yes to the unglamorous department comes first. Cozonis took the laundry. Silvestri took housekeeping. Ansell took six months of stewarding. Each says the department they did not ask for taught them the most. Mobility comes next: Delafosse’s career turned on a conversation with a general manager while on holiday in Monaco, and on his willingness to leave London for a chief steward’s job on the promise of something better. A mentor is the one the interviews return to most. Taljinder Singh’s resident manager, Patu Keswani, constantly pushed him to do more and challenged him to take on projects over and above his duties. Cozonis offers the test he applies to every opportunity: do not focus on your next job, focus on a vision of where you would like to be eventually, and then ask of each role whether you will learn from it.
The people who reached the top spent longer on the lower rungs than they wanted to at the time, and now describe those years as the most useful ones they had.
For particular rungs, the site has a question on how to become a hotel general manager, a question on how long that takes, and a question on how to become an executive chef. The Roles section describes what each job in a luxury hotel and a kitchen involves day to day.