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July 14, 2006
Thirty years of keeping kosher
The Four Seasons Hotel is the Jewish community's go-to spot for
simchot in the city.
LEANNE JACOBSEN
When the Four Seasons Hotel opened its doors in Vancouver in 1976,
it immediately became the place to hold a kosher wedding, b'nai
mitzvah party or gala event. It was the only hotel with kosher capability
in the city at that time (the Hyatt kept a kosher kitchen from 1985-1999)
and its trademark level of service, combined with the ambience of
the facility itself, earned high praise from even the most discriminating
of social mavens.
Fast forward 30 years – 30 years of entertaining many of the
same faces at many of the same types of events, and the hotel staff
still manage to keep the experience as fresh as when the doors first
opened.
There's a lot of organizing involved in planning an event with kosher
catering – the Four Seasons doesn't offer kosher menus on a
daily basis. Catering director Todd Jeannotte said that it starts
with the event organizers themselves, "who are very passionate
about theming" the evening, right down to the smallest table
decoration, ensuring that the guests have a unique experience. From
there, it requires several weeks of planning by executive chef Rafael
Gonzalez and banquet chef Aaron Brooks and their staff, after which
tastings are offered to the organizers.
It also involves creating a unique menu, which must then be sent
to B.C. Kosher at least a month prior to an event, sourcing ingredients,
organizing schedules with BCK and blocking time not only in the
hotel's kosher kitchen, which needs a week of preparation, but –
if the event is large enough – in the main hotel kitchen as
well. This requires that one or more of the hotel's four main ovens
be shut down for at least 24 hours while BCK ensures everything
is kashered. In fact, while a reporter was touring the facilities,
mashgiach (kosher supervisor) Leon Blumenfeld was overseeing
preparations for an upcoming event that evening. A large blowtorch
he had just used on one of the main kitchen ovens was off to the
side, while upstairs in one of the banquet rooms, a bar mitzvah
was being celebrated.
One of the most important components of any event is the food and
the Four Seasons Vancouver staff pride themselves on being at the
top of their game. Brooks recently moved to the banquet chef position
after several years as the chef at the hotel's Chartwell restaurant
and Gonzalez, the new executive chef, arrived fresh from a stint
as executive sous-chef at the Pierre Hotel in New York. He promises
to add his own signature with new menus, throughout the hotel anticipated
by this fall.
New menus aside, Jeannotte said that, "Ninety-nine per cent
of all banquet menus are custom – rarely do we take anything
off our kosher menus, there are always tweaks to them."
But excellent food alone will not stand the test of a discriminating
patron. The level of service is critical. With more than 5,000 employee
service years at the Vancouver Four Seasons alone, the staff know
their clientele. The majority of banquet service staff has a minimum
of five years of service and several of them more than 10. In an
industry where many of the banquet employees are part-time, this
allows for a well-run show.
Another critical component of Four Seasons' service is their "à
la minute" policy. Food is never put in a heat box, as is the
practice of the vast majority of the industry, but is delivered
freshly plated to the guest.
There are currently 70 hotels worldwide in the Four Seasons chain
and not all of them have kosher facilities.
"There is no directive anywhere in the Four Seasons that we
offer a kosher kitchen," said Jeannotte, "but as a business
operator, we see it as an important component of the city."
It is, however, expensive to maintain such a facility. Not only
do you have the space set aside for the kitchen itself, but every
piece of equipment – from dishes and glasses to the smallest
vegetable knife – must be duplicated and kept separate. It
is in many ways a promise by the hotel and its staff to the Jewish
community to provide a facility where simchot and other events can
be celebrated with confidence in the expertise that ensures a memorable
– and kosher – occasion.
Leanne Jacobsen is sales and marketing manager for the
Independent and a freelance writer.
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