A FOGGY DAY IN BEIJING

Beijing, Day 3

(One week to go before the House of Switzerland Beijing 2008 officially opens its doors)

Incredible!

The first guest (he preferred to stay anonymous) is already waiting in the doorway…

The author of the lines’ day started with a visit of the Westin Beijing Chaoyang to meet Dan Aylmer, the hotel's general manager, César Ritz alumnus and one of my first (and best) students when I started to work in Le Bouveret, many years ago (I will not give any precise numbers as we both look much younger than our age). And, what a surprise, I also met the Rooms Division Management Trainee, Zachary Fournier, who is a real Valaisan and looks very familiar to someone I know back home…

From left to right: Zachary Fournier, the author of these lines, Daniel Aylmer

(no, the GM does not have long green hair, there is an ornamental plant in the background!)

Back at the HoS everybody was busy, Stephanie with the planning of future events, Hakon and Fides in the kitchen, Emily and Cathy doing mise en place for the restaurant, Manuel and Julian melting in the steam bath (also called dishwashing area).

The organized chaos, 3:

Steph and Filippa, the event manager for GammaCatering, have full control.

Happy chefs cook good food: Fides and Hakon.

Were the napkins really donated by the Red Cross?

Julian is practicing the Swiss National Anthem, hoping to get promoted to the main stage on the 1st of August.

In the afternoon I finally met my room mate from the HoS Torino 2006 in Sestriere (and director of the House of Switzerland in Beijing), Manuel Salchli from PresenceSuisse who arrived yesterday. It is fantastic to have him around again, and over a coffee we exchanged with Hakon a lot of great memories from the good old days in the Italian alps.

Good to see you !!!

Mr. Manuel Salchli, followed by his bodyguards.

At the end of the evening Tom and Tach Alkhalloufi ,who were my students and later my trainees in the F&B department at the Institut Hôtelier “César Ritz”, came to visit us at the HoS . After a visit of the facilities we spontaneously decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant (there is quite a large choice here in Beijing), before the author of these lines went back to the hotel to continue working on our Olympic blog. CK

From left to right: Chen, Tom's wife, Tom, the author, and Tach

(the bottle of Fendant is hidden under the table).