New food and beverage manager on Novotel menu

MEDIA RELEASE

11 September 2007

New food and beverage manager on Novotel menu

Novotel Gardens Queenstown is making key staff appointments in anticipation of its $13 million refurbishment launch in January.

Kirk Dyson, who has been at Novotel Gardens Queenstown for two years, has been promoted from Executive Chef to Food and Beverage Manager.

Kirk recently assisted apprentice Janice Anderson to a final eight position in the Apprentice of the Year competition.  He was previously Executive Chef at the award-winning Soljans Estate in Auckland.

General Manager Carl Braddock says that he saw the obvious strength of leadership in the kitchen with Kirk as Executive Chef and two very capable Sous Chefs six months ago and wanted to try a new management approach.

“The time was ripe to experiment with splitting the kitchen into distinct breakfast and dinner roles, with the two Sous Chefs taking responsibility for one service each and Kirk using his broader abilities to overview the kitchen as well as the restaurant and bar.

“It has been tremendously successful, and Kirk thoroughly deserves his new title after leading this six month trial.

“He is innovative, recently creating a totally new wine list concept for Novotel Gardens, and understands the bigger picture where the rooms/food and beverage relationship is concerned.

"He's one in a million and we're proud to have him,” says Mr Braddock.

Kirk says the last six months have provided him with a great opportunity to be creative and hone his management skills.

“The F&B team and I have been working particularly hard on putting the ‘wow’ factor into Novotel breakfasts.  We see 90 percent of our customers at breakfast time so it’s a great opportunity to create a positive lasting impression of the hotel.  We’re counting down to the hotel’s big re-launch because that will be the acid test for our improvements.” 

The Novotel Gardens Queenstown development started in October 2006 and is on target to be completed by January 2008.  An additional 70 rooms will mean the hotel has 273 rooms on offer catering for up to 546 guests -- a 34% increase in potential guest numbers.  The extension will officially make the hotel Queenstown’s largest accommodation provider.

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