Back to hotel school, the first in the world
MILLIE: Visiting Lausanne, Switzerland after 40 years was a walk down memory lane for me. Friends Bernard Douchet and Bob Arnold had organized a grand reunion of the graduates from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne summer and winter courses 1971-1973. EHL is the oldest and first hotel school in the world.
Karla and I arrived at the train station in Lausanne from Zurich the day before the actual program and were met by my dear friend Susan Cunanan Bertschy and her daughter Anne Rita. We checked in at the Movenpick Hotel in Ouchy, where most of the entourage was staying.
An intimate dinner was arranged for some close friends of my batch at the restaurant of the hotel and it was good to see everyone together after such a long time. In attendance were Claire Waugh and John Millican, who drove from the UK, Bernard and Rita Douchet from Gstaad in Switzerland, Frank Ansel from the USA, who was formerly VP for food and beverage of Hyatt International and now owns a vineyard in Mendoza, Argentina, and Karl Isenberg, former president of Gast Im Schloss, the Castle Hotels Association in Germany, plus Karla and myself.
Karla felt at ease with my close friends, especially Frank, whom we have visited while based in Hong Kong and Chicago; Karl in his castles in Germany; and Bernard both in Manila and Gstaad, a fabulous ski resort frequented by many celebrities.
By four o’clock the next day, we were at Ecole Hoteliere at Chalet-a-Gobet, where we met the rest of the batch. It was a pleasure to see old, familiar faces, some who still looked the same despite graying hair and protruding tummies. Present were Daniel Desbaillet, former president of Hotel Inter-continental Asia-Pacific and COO Southeast Asia, Hedi Weber Dunne from the Peninsula Group, Fritz Sommerau of the Marco Polo Hotels in Hong Kong, Peter Wirth, Hernan Vanegas Pastrana, Francisco Alomar, Felix Dietrich, Olivier Guignard, Roberto Ruprecht, Renzo Notari, Herman Meier, and Max Hauser, among others. Thomas Hartleyb, deputy director of the alumni association of the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, briefed us.
KARLA: During the briefing, there was an introduction about how the school has grown in the last 40 years, moving from the original school in Avenue de Cour in Lausanne with some 500 students to Chalet-a-Gobet in 1976, and presently with 2,000 students. My mom’s sister, Marijo Reyes Feraren, was in the last batch out of Avenue de Cour and the first batch in Chalet-a-Gobet and even then, the school has grown. This was not my first time at the school. Mom and I actually took a trip down there when I was 13 years old, right before I graduated from grade school. After the school tour, on the train back to Geneva, mom started computing about how much it would cost her to send me there. And at that moment, she realized she could only afford to send me there for six months. I wanted it so badly that it even crossed our minds to have me adopted by a Swiss family, since Swiss citizens can avail of a 50-percent discount. Haha! I wonder how that would have turned out.
The presentation included the current programs the school now offers, followed by the much-awaited tour of the school facilities. The school has several food and beverage outlets, notably a snack bar, a free-flowing cafeteria, a fine dining restaurant and a wine bar. We were brought into the different kitchens, such as the butchery, garde manger, hot kitchen, bakery, patisserie, and even a chocolate room! Unlike other schools I’ve toured, I noticed that EHL has top-of-the-line and very modern equipment. If in other schools students are trained to work within their own stations like in a restaurant, at EHL they have industrial equipment to cater for huge events. They even have their own wine-tasting room on campus, where each station has its own sink, faucet and drain. Apart from that I was intrigued by their school cafeteria located in the middle of the building, which was connected to the kitchens as well. The students prepare the daily meals for everyone in the school. They do their prep in their respective class kitchens and finish the dishes upon order by the cafeteria counter. Students take rotations for shifts at the cafeteria as well, where some function as cashiers. Students are given top-up cards used to pay for their meals, or they may pay in cash or through credit card. Touring the cafeteria made me hungry, as usual, since they had different cuisines and stations, much like a food court. After the tour, we were invited to a welcome reception for cocktails and wines. Champagne and hors d’oeuvres flowed.
After the cocktails, we were directed to dinner at Le Berceau de Sens, the fine-dining room of EHL. We were served oyster perfumed organic bass tartar with grated radish and green apple seasoned with smoked salmon for appetizer. It was uniquely presented, and looked very fresh and dainty. For the main course, we had sirloin of beef with chanterelle mushrooms, straw potatoes and mustard seed-flavored young shoots. Next came a selection of mature cheeses, which I barely touched because it was just too much. And finally, for dessert, red berries and anise shortbread and anise-scented Chantilly with red berry sherbet and coulis, which I shared with Uncle Frank. The wines served were Pinot Blanc 2011 from Lutry, Canton de Vaud in Switzerland and Petite Cavale 2011 from the Famille Paul-Dubrule from Cucuron, Luberon in France, and since I didn’t have to drive, I enjoyed all the wines served!
MILLIE: The next day, we all trooped to a waiting bus to visit Gruyere and the chocolate factory of Cailler. But we promise to do another feature on this in the future.
In the evening, we gathered for cocktails, followed by a gala dinner at the Beau-Rivage Hotel in Ouchy, Lausanne. The surprise of the evening was the presence of one of our professors, chef Robert Lugeon, who, surprisingly, still remembered me!
KARLA: During the dinner at Beau-Rivage, mom and I were seated at different tables. Thankfully I was assigned to the English-speaking table, although I was the youngest one there. For appetizers, we had a tuna carpaccio with red pesto made of red and yellow bell peppers. That in itself could have been my meal. I had it with bread and butter. Somehow, no matter where I went in Switzerland, their butter was just sooo good. I could actually live there with just bread, butter, and cheese. Haha! Next came the gambas and taglierini pasta with olives and dried tomatoes. Taglierini is a narrower version of tagliatelle. I believe the hotel used fresh pasta for this dish, as it was absolutely exquisite. For our meat, we had veal with vegetable cremolata sided with an asparagus risotto. I could barely finish my piece of veal because I was saving space for the dessert, which sounded really good. We were served a velvety praline with homemade salted caramel ice cream. Even though I had tried to save space for dessert, I still couldn’t finish it. The wines served during the dinner were from the region — Villette from the Domaine de la Bolliataz and Mont-sur-Rolle from the Domaine Crochet.
MILLIE: It felt good to be surrounded by professionals and to be able to exchange and share ideas and experiences. We laughed about how we have become so picky and critical because we know the de rigueur of the trade and how we sometimes have to change our attitude and be more patient and understanding when a server makes a faux pas, knowing only too well it’s not an easy job.
For some who have retired, it was a continuing venture into the hotel and restaurant industry, either for themselves or their children. For others who still had the drive to pursue excellence in the hospitality field, they continue to share their expertise in the field of education. Which made me seriously ponder, as I approach retirement. I will most probably be busier than ever, immersing myself in education and skills training — as this is what the country needs today — and guiding Karla, looking over her shoulder as she involves herself in running the business, plus developing her new food projects. After all, hospitality is the oldest and best industry!
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