Loews Hotels播客探讨会议餐饮策略：以互动体验与本地化设计强化参会旅程

F&B is the main course of the session experience, not an offput moment between sessions.

Intentional culinary design can create connection, reinforce a meeting’s message, sustain attention and make an event feel genuinely distinctive. This episode reframes F&B from a logistical line item into a strategic part of the attendee journey. Rather than asking, “What should we serve?”, the conversation explores, “What do we want attendees to feel, do, and remember at this point in the program?”

In this Meetings Today podcast, Madeleine Willis is joined by Chef Nando Belmonte, complex executive chef for Loews Sapphire Falls Resort and Loews Royal Pacific Resort, and Mark Weiss, senior vice president of food & beverage and design for Loews Hotels & Co. Willis and her guests discuss why food is the focal part of any gathering, meeting and celebration.

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Transcript:

Editors note: The following transcription was exported from Microsoft Transcribe and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Madeleine Willis: Welcome to this Meetings Today podcast. I'm your host, Madeleine Willis, content developer, departments and social media. You may have heard my name in the credits of our Eventualists podcast, but I'm stepping out of the shadows to bring you a conversation about F&B's strategic part of the attendee journey at Lowe's Hotels and Universal.

Today I'm joined by two guests, Chef Nando Belmonte, complex executive chef for Lowe's Sapphire Falls Resort and Lowe's Royal Pacific Resort, and Mark Weiss, senior vice president of food and beverage and design for Lowe's Hotels and Company.

Thank you both for joining me today.

Mark Weiss: Nice to be here.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Thank you.

Madeleine Willis: When meeting planners hear culinary, they often first think about menus, budgets, dietary requirements. Mark, why don't you kick us off? Why should they view it as a strategic experience tool?

Mark Weiss: Often, I think we can do a lot more when we are in contact with the planner themselves as early as possible. If you think about, you know, the things that we do creatively, we've got such amazing teams at the property level that come up with some incredible, creative and memorable experiences. And once we connect, you know, with the planners immediately, it goes far above what you think about in terms of just planning menus and budgets.

Nando, feel free to weigh in, but you've done some incredible things on your end.

Chef Nando Belmonte: The answer really simply is that we can give them everything they want. We can create that experience with the food, with the ambiance. I think that's why it's strategic that we get involved early on and really understand what the group wants or the planner at least wants.

Madeleine Willis: You kind of touched on this a little bit. It's more than the budget and it's getting in contact as early as possible to make a memorable meal. More than making excellent food, what makes a culinary experience memorable for attendees?

Mark Weiss: I think today it's about those interactive experiences, right? You know, when you are attending events and you're with 200, 300 people, it's less and less about where the guests want to sit down and go to a two, three hour sit down experiences, I think there's a lot more interactive need today. So, you know, walking up to a live action station or, I remember Nando, you did this many, many years ago.

I don't know if you recall this, but remember when you did 15 green eggs all around the event, and you were cooking right there in front of the guests with an incredible experience with fresh food on a live fire grill. That memory still sticks with me. I think this was well over like eight or nine years ago when you did that. It is those types of unique experiences that you can create when you speak to the planners early, when you really sort of paint a picture, what can be done. These live action stations do not have to just be walking up and you're carving a piece of chicken or something like that. It can go far above that. And this was one of those experiences that I recall you did for us, which was really amazing.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Right. Yeah. I would also add that, you know, the ambiance, the service level, the lighting, the music, wherever it may be, all that comes into play. I think when we have a theme of some sort, whether it be international or whatever, and these are just examples, we can create those different stations where people come up and maybe they're eating something that they've never eaten before. And that's really an experience where the chef can talk about it. Yeah, that is the experience that we want to give them.

Madeleine Willis: And Nando, tell me a little bit about your background and your culinary experience and how you apply that into your work each day. We ran a sponsored content piece about Lowe's Portofino Bay Hotel, about a chef that was born in Bangkok and how he incorporated his childhood flavors into his cooking and it influenced what he brought to table for groups.

What would you say is your background and your experiences and how do you bring that to the table for groups today?

Chef Nando Belmonte: Yeah, well, my background is pretty vast. I've been in different countries. I was born in Italy, grew up in Australia and came here to the United States in '95. So of course, cuisine in Italy. We all know it to be what it is. And it's very popular, let's call it. And I think my early childhood, of course, is with your mother making gnocchi, making raviolis, learning the ways of the people and the food. Then, when I was a teenager, actually, I was in Australia at that point and started in the industry and worked my way through restaurants and then came into hotels.

Once I started with hotels, I kind of never looked back. I loved it because there was a lot more to do, a lot more to see, a lot more to learn from different chefs instead of being in one restaurant with one chef. So, I grew into hotels and then I came out in 1995 and started here in Orlando. But I, you know, I travel a lot. I love food. It's all about, you know, taking in what people are doing at that time. And it's important to bring it back. And maybe I see things when I travel that I may say, you know what, this can be a good station.

For instance, we've been to Asia several times, Thailand specifically, and I've seen like the soups, right? So, we created a station with make your own soup. So, you create the broth delicious and then all the ingredients around it with some noodles and vegetables and other things that they can add. And that's a station today on our menu. It's very successful. People love it. They smell it. There's the aromas and those are like some of those things that we've done. And you know, I've learned through my years of experience in my in the industry.

Madeleine Willis: Yeah, I went to Italy once. I took one cooking class, but I'm not going to kind of pretend to be an expert here.

What should planners consider to ensure that culinary programming is inclusive across dietary needs, cultural preferences, religious requirements and accessibility considerations?

Chef Nando Belmonte: Yes, those are a big, big part of what we do. Our menus are all labeled. our buffets or stations, whatever that may be, are all labeled accordingly. So, everyone knows, you know, if it's vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, nut free, all that.

And also, we do some religious, cultural lifestyles. We don't actually do kosher, but we do have a partner here locally that we've actually had. This year it actually happened where they were asked to come out and create one of the rooms into a kosher room for about 100 people. The group was over 1000, and they had 100 that were koshers. So, we created a space for them where the vendor came out and worked with us and helped us kind of cater to these folks. And it was extremely successful. We're probably going to try and sell it as well now because it worked out really well for us. Yeah, we do it all.

The other thing about us here at Loews Hotels, we kind of sell ourselves as a 95% scratch kitchen, right? What does that mean? We make our own sauces. We make our own dressings. We make things that most hotels don't do. And why do we do it? Well, we control the ingredients. So, when it comes to things like allergies, I'm not reading a label, I'm actually changing an ingredient. For instance, soy sauce we use here at the hotels, it's all gluten free. And so when we make a sauce, I don't have to look at a label. I know straight away I can tell the guests it's gluten free, so.

Madeleine Willis: And I know we talked earlier about it's best for a planner to get involved with the F&B process as early as possible. But when you're looking at that event agenda, how do you assess and identify where F&B can have the greatest impact?

Chef Nando Belmonte: I think when we talk to the planners, I know we start with sites, they come out, they look at the hotel. We usually will do an F&B experience and then they go out and they choose us, and when they come out to plan a meeting, it's a kind of an all-day event where the meeting planner and our conference team get together and organize it all and plan it.

When it comes to the F&B part of it, the chefs are involved. They get about an hour or two hours with them, and we try and assess what the objective is of the meeting, whether it's again, it's educational or whatever it may be. Then, you know some meeting planners are very savvy. It tends to be a better relationship, better understanding, but some not so much, so we kind of give him ideas of this good work. This is what we've done before. So, I think it is at the early stages that we want to get ahead if there is allergies or anything like that, we get involved earlier on. We've done halal kosher. I mean, I can talk on and on. I mean, the planner really tells us what they need and we make it happen.

Mark Weiss: Yeah, I can add to that. I mean, we are now adding kitchens throughout our portfolio that are available as complete independent kitchens to accommodate that. But also, you know, have those experiences even in the kitchen, right, where the meeting planners are, as Nando pointed out, part of an experience when they first visit the hotels. And when there are these unique dietary or unique religious events that need to take place, we've got these independent kitchens that are completely standalone from the operation in multiple locations in our hotels. As a matter of fact, we just completed building one specifically for that reason. So, I think it is a very big deal in the business today to make that available.

Madeleine Willis: And you guys talk about these food stations. Do you have any other activities or engaging options for attendees to get involved with the cooking process like classes or some kind of like instructional education?

Chef Nando Belmonte: Yeah, we have. We have done that as well where we do a dish. It could be an appetizer depending again, depending on what the planner wants. But it could be one meal. It could be several, you know, like an appetizer and an entree. We've done all of that where we're actually showing how to cook and how to sear, season all the important things, you know, marinating, which brings flavor to maybe a piece of meat, chicken, beef, whatever it may be. We have done them not at large scale. Probably the biggest we've done is probably 200 where we had 200 cutting boards and all of that and ingredients obviously. You know we have all the ingredients precut, preset so we don't like to see anyone using a knife just for safety purposes, but everything else is being shown to them it may be you know making a vinaigrette it's that simple right putting a salad together maybe searing something in a pan and then have a chef go out and put it in the oven comes back and then how do we present it and may have sides so we make the sides so we've done all of those before I think they were popular you know a few years ago we haven't had anything like that since COVID.

But those are really fun. And of course, they're a little bit more expensive because there's a lot of prep. There's a lotof chefs on the floor that need to be there for, you know, backup if they need anything. So, it's a little bit more expensive for the guests. So that maybe that's why, you know, it hasn't happened, you know, in the last four or five years.

Madeleine Willis: Right, yeah. I know budgets are increasing and travel costs are increasing. So that might be a harder add on for planners when they're looking at their budgets. I will say, though, I relate to you on the 'we don't want anybody using any knives,' because I recently took a sushi making class at a resort. And while I did a good job, the scariest part about it was they gave me a huge knife. Even just sitting there and watching the other people do it, I'm like, oh man, that knife is really close to your finger. That was very intimidating.

Chef Nando Belmonte: We've actually done sushi before as well with our sushi chef. We do have a sushi chef here at Royal Pacific. And we have done it. And usually when we've done that, we make the guests make the roll. We have all the ingredients precut everything. The guest makes the roll and then it goes to the chef and the chef cuts it.

Madeleine Willis: There you go. Eliminate the risk there.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Yeah.

Mark Weiss: You know what the great thing about those cooking classes is obviously when the guests make the food, they can't really say they don't like it because they made it themselves. It's the best thing ever.

Madeleine Willis: No complaints. There's no one to blame but yourself, right?

So, we talk about these classes and these stations, but why do shared food experiences create connection so effectively?

Mark Weiss: I think it goes back to entertaining guests at home, right? If you think about something as simple as that, as when you get started and you welcome your friends and family and guests into your own home. How special that really is when you cook a meal and how every time you do that, you look back saying, well, that was a great night. May that be for family or friends.

I think it goes back to hotels too. You're really welcoming those guests into the hotel, but then you've got that personal touch at these action stations. You've got guests, interacting with each other while they're waiting for a dish to be plated in front of them or an experience and they get to chat with each other rather than a sit-down dinner where they only chat with the person right next to them so I think these interactive experiences are constantly finding their way back into it. And it's nothing new. I think it's been, obviously in the industry, it's been on like this for so many years, but it's those type of experiences that guests bond over a great meal, over, you know, standing together and then able to talk to multiple people at the same time when it's also interactive. Go ahead, add on top of that.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Yeah, I mean, yeah, you've said it all, Mark. I think it brings people together breaking bread, you know, just, whatever you're doing and talking about it. I think it's very communal. Yeah. I mean, I can't really add that much more than that. I think you said it all. Yes.

Madeleine Willis: And I like what you said to Mark about it's nothing new. As you were speaking, I was thinking about it, that's what brings together people at the holidays. It's a shared meal that's like a staple or a centerpiece of when families get together is food. So, food is really what is the connecting component here.

Mark Weiss: Yeah, I always feel like the quality of a hotel, the quality of food, is what can really define a hotel, those experiences and bonding over food. I do it myself. When I travel, and if I'm not traveling within our own hotels, I will look for something as simple as, well, what is the coffee experience like in a hotel? Sometimes for me, if it's like a business hotel in a major city and we're not there, what does that coffee experience look like? And if they have a great coffee counter with a very specific experience, then I will book that hotel for that specific reason. I think same is true for coffee breaks that we do with local coffee vendors and so on to try to make these experiences really come to life. But yeah, I think about that all the time.

Madeleine Willis: And more on that, those experiences, what service styles, I know we talked a lot about stations, but also communal tables, plated meals, chef led moments or local tasting experiences are especially effective for networking. I know we talked about earlier, you know, sharing those meals and getting to talk to one or two people. So what experiences are especially effective for networking and why?

Mark Weiss: Yeah, maybe talk a little bit about our local farm projects that we do with Flavor by Loews, right? I mean, bringing in beekeepers with their honey, bringing in local coffee roasters. All over the country, we've got this program where we bring those experiences to our banquet guests and our meeting planners where you have your coffee break in the morning and then we have a beekeeper there with honey and some of their setups. And that experience is unique, right? And Nando, you've got a bunch of that you activate all the time.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Yes. So, as you talk about honey, we have a local partner, Flavor by Loews, that actually brought out in 2016 when we did the national here at Sapphire Falls Resort, and he came out. Do you remember that, Mark?

Mark Weiss: Yeah, I do. It was awesome.

Chef Nando Belmonte: And there was bees and people were like, first of all, they saw this wooden structure and they were looking inside and they realized there was all bees amongst them, of course, was the queen bee. And there was about 15,000 bees.

Mark Weiss: They were contained. Yeah, but I think those are the type of things that are amazing, right? When you have a break with 200 people or 300 people and you get that as an experience. Then, I think you made some honey drinks and some ice creams and all these things that for that particular break were all related around the honey experience.

The next day, it could be something completely different with a different flavor partner that we have. And most of our hotels, they've engaged with five to six flavor partners of different varieties. Some are honey, in Nashville, we do a hot sauce partner, somebody that makes hot sauces. And we have those on our breaks, which is really fun stuff. And now you asked about chef tables, we've done some, really unique experiences where it's family style chef's tables that go as long as, you know, 50 people sitting at one table with all those sort of attributes all planted in the middle of the table, like a long, you know, I think Nando, this is right up your alley, like an Italian family dinner, one long table with all these experiences on there, which makes it all unique.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Very unique, yes, and you know we like to always showcase our local producers, farmers, call them what you like, because those are the guys that grow things, make things, produce them and bring them to us and we want to showcase that and it's also educational. The group might be coming from up north, they come here to Florida, and they think all we have is oranges, but we have a lot more than that, I assure you.

Madeleine Willis: I like that you say that it's unique and those kind of experiences are a good conversation starter. Like if you're just standing next to someone you've never met before in your entire life and you have this unique experience in front of you, you turn to them and you ask them, you know, like what are you getting or have you seen anything like this before? It's a great piece of the puzzle that really just uplifts everyone in the room.

I have just one more question for you guys here. How can, and we're talking about this, you guys are acing this. We've covered a lot of this. Nando just made a joke about oranges and having more than oranges, but how can local cuisine and regional storytelling make an event feel more distinctive and rooted in the destination? Do you use oranges, Nando, or no?

Chef Nando Belmonte: No, yeah, no. Much more than that. We have a pork supplier, a goat supplier right here in and around our area within 100 miles. We have local seafood from the coast that we have a vendor that comes out and microgreens and greens, vegetables, tomato, peppers. All from Micco down here in South right by Melbourne, Micco, Florida, mushroom grow, believe it or not, incredible. And then of course the honey. And if you can create stations, and so actually on our menu where we create a station for all of these. And it's actually comes together well because you've got proteins, you've got greens, you've got all sorts of things, honey. So you can make dessert happen with the honey, you can create appetizers with greens and vegetables, and then you have your proteins. And we've actually, we used to have a farmers market once upon a time where we actually invited the farmer to stand there at the station while we were talking about their product and what we made and then a lot of people got a lot out of it. They would ask them a lot of questions or is where is your farm? You know all that good stuff. It was so much fun. So we've done that before. Yes.

Madeleine Willis: Anything you want to add on that, Mark?

Mark Weiss: I think for us, as a company, it's such a philosophy, right? We're so instilled in that throughout all our hotels where, you know, we task the hotels to do exactly what Nando just said. I think it's one of our strong points as well as, you know, our quality of food, the way that we purchase, the way that we ensure that the quality is there wherever we go, everything is made from scratch and we work closely with our partners throughout the country for that reason. So no, I think he said it all, and it makes it such a unique experience.

Madeleine Willis: Yeah, it's unique. As you said, your foods are made from scratch. And when Nando touched on the microgreens, that's even like a sustainability practice. So, you guys cover all the bases there.

Thank you so much for joining me today. This has been another episode of the Meetings Today podcast. A huge thank you to both of my guests, Chef Nando and Mark Wise. Thank you guys for being here today.

Mark Weiss: You're welcome.

Chef Nando Belmonte: Thank you.

Madeleine Willis: I'm Meetings Today's Madeline Willis. Thank you for joining us.