BEST HOTEL DINING

Hotel dining is lifting its game, writes Dan Stock

IN Bangkok, when you arrive for your reservation at David Thompson’s Michelin-starred Nahm, you enter via the lobby of the Como Hotel.

In Hong Kong, Lung King Heen offers three-Michelinstar dim sum on the fourth floor of the Four Seasons.

In London, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal takes over the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental on the edge of Hyde Park, while in New York the best hotel restaurants are simply known as Manhattan’s best restaurants.

Here in Australia, not since Paul Wilson at Melbourne’s Park Hyatt’s Radii restaurant, or perhaps even the days of Meehans at the Grand Chancellor in Hobart, have hotels been famed for their food.But that’s changing.

The Ritz-Carlton is coming to Melbourne. So, too, the ultra-trendy W Hotel and in Hobart, Mona already has the restaurant — and some accommodation with the hotel on the way.

Against this backdrop of a five-star hotel boom, established operators are upping their food and beverage game.

No longer will a beige buffet or banquet-style chicken or beef cut it with discerning travellers who are increasingly planning their itinerary around our country’s famed food and wine offering.

For the savvy hotelier, this represents not a challenge, but opportunity. Accor Pacific food and beverage strategy director Kevin Milner says transforming hotel restaurants into destination dining locations in their own right is a key pillar of the group’s food and beverage game plan.

“When you travel abroad, in Asia for instance, hotel dining is a cool thing to do,” Kevin says.

“Here, if people want to go to a cool restaurant or cool bar, they don’t go to a hotel. There’s certainly the reputation they are pretty flat. But if we use the hotel environment as a positive, then there’s huge opportunity.”

The group is three years into a five-year transformation plan, rebranding and refurbishing restaurants and bars across the Accor group.

The Hyatt Group will operatethe new $40 million hotel in Hobart’s bus mall, which was approved by the Hobart City Council last year.

Designed by Neal Mackintosh, of JAWS Architects, the 63m-high hotel will be five star with a restaurant, bar and function rooms.

In addition to the Hyatt, other hotels coming to Hobart include the Crowne Plaza Hotel, a 296-room hotel by Singaporean company Fragrance Group, a Vibe Hotel by international hotelier Toga Far East Hotels. All will offer new food and beverage options.

The luxury MACq 01 opened last June and boasts Old Wharf restaurant, led by Saffire Freycinet’s former Head Chef Simon Pockran. It’s surrounded by the capitals best restaurants and bars, including the beautifully crafted Atmosphere.

Destination dining

THE arrival of upmarket grill Landscape at the Henry Jones Art Hotel in 2016 followed the addition of Peacock and Jones, a tapas-style wine bar, and the closure of Henry’s, the hotel’s former flagship restaurant. Now the hotel offers two distinct dining experiences at opposite ends of the historic jam factory. Taking landscape art as a point of inspiration, the restaurant space features an original work by British-born colonial artist John Glover, famous for some of the earliest post-settlement depictions of the Tasmanian landscape. In the kitchen, executive chef Ollie Mellers, along with executive sous chef Nathaniel Embrey, has designed an a la carte menu of ‘reimagined classics’ that changes monthly and showcases mostly Tasmanian seafood, vegetables and fire-grilled steaks. He provides a premium dining experience centred on Tasmanian and Australian steaks as well as local seafood. As Mellers explains, “We’re not locking ourselves into a menu, which keeps it interesting and keeps the chefs engaged in the kitchen. Changing the menu means that the produce is always at its best.” Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda – a regular Art Hotel patron – provided feedback on the Landscape menu in the early days of its development. “Tetsuya has been a big inspiration. He came into the [Henry’s] kitchen during service one night and sat down with a glass of pinot while I was plating up, and the first thing he said is ‘you need more seafood’,” Mellers says. “People just want to try Tasmanian seafood, and I want to show tourists and guests what we can do here in Tasmania.” The asado grill is the undisputed star of the kitchen armoury, where sherry, bourbon and port-infused whisky barrel offcuts are fired to create smoky flavours and aromas to signature steaks and other ingredients. Mellers, who was head chef and caterer at Blundstone Arena after working in the kitchens of Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay in the UK, sees it as essential: “I honestly couldn’t serve the best steak in Hobart without this grill. The difference between the three different types of wood and what they do to the food is

Now the hotel offers two distinct dining experiences at opposite ends of the historic jam factory LANDSCAPE EXECUTIVE CHEF OLLI MELLERS( LEFT)

phenomenal.” Mellers describes the chance to tell a local story through food as “once in a lifetime”. “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this and now that I’m back I would never live anywhere else again, especially as a chef,” he says.

Party on a plate

It’s breakfast that Matt Stone and Jo Barrett are focusing on perfecting with the aim of leaving lasting memories.

Next month, the beating heart of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival will be on Flinders St, when for 10 days the Hotel Lindrum will be transformed into the House of Food and Wine Hotel. It will be the place where nightly international chef collaborators will cook a series of sustainable dinners. There’s a bar where the best Victorian wines, beers and spirits will be served, while the state’s best produce will be offered across a bar menu, for inroom dining and for breakfast.

Matt and Jo have been charged with transforming the food and drink offering over the 10 days at the hotel. It’s a big change from their day-to-day life cooking at Oakridge in the Yarra Valley, which is currently ranked at 14th in Victoria in the delicious. 100.

“In the restaurant it’s on our terms in a lot of ways, in a hotel it’s a completely different experience. Guests are staying, so we have to consider all the needs, not just one individual meal. We’ve had to think about how we can wow guests in different ways,” Matt says.

Jo agrees: “In a hotel, that’s the crazy thing you’re at people’s beck and call all the time.

“But on the other hand you get to really complete the experience. It’s open to the public, so they can have a cocktail, try some food, the vibe will be awesome.”

The duo is planning “an epic hotel spread” for breakfast, with freshly milled flour going into all-Victorian croissants, for instance, along with a traditional breakfast items given a native ingredient twist.

Matt says it’s an exciting time for hotels across the country.

“The new wave of hotels that are opening have really refined their offering, bringing it in line with what a lot of modern chefs are doing and producing. They are moving towards what is contemporary Australian food.”

Andy is also hopeful this change gains momentum.

“With any luck there should be a turning point and realisation from hotels that we’re the food capital of Australia. It’s a great opportunity to have fantastic restaurants within the hotels, and get good people to deliver the job, which can only do good things for the industry.” Kevin from Accor agrees. “As we develop better venues, restaurants and bars, we attract better talent, and they stay with us for a long time. People want to work in cool places,” he says.

And we want to eat and drink in them.

“We’ve had to think about how we can wow guests in different ways” MATT STONE ON THE HOTEL LIN DRUM STAY