park hyatt masters of food & wine gets its hands dirty

August 29th, 2011

While officially launching January, 2012, this September the Park Hyatt hotel brand begins the transformation of its acclaimed Masters of Food & Wine event into the new Park Hyatt ‘masters’, a global series of seasonally- and locally-inspired culinary weekend workshops that will take place four times per year at the change of the seasons. Through engaging and interactive programming, both resident and visiting gourmands and oenophiles can become ‘masters’ of regional cuisine. The new Park Hyatt ‘masters’ will preview its fresh philosophy and lighter programming across 19 Park Hyatt hotels internationally during the weekend of September 23, 2011. The official launch of Park Hyatt masters in January 2012, and all future quarterly Park Hyatt masters programs, will take place on the same date at all Park Hyatt hotels worldwide.

Led by Park Hyatt chefs and sommeliers, masters-in-training will learn about top-notch, seasonal cuisine in three hands-on ‘courses’ on the designated day:

In the Field: Interaction with artisanal food or beverage purveyors

In the Kitchen: Onsite cooking and prep workshops

In the Moment: Tips on service and presentation

“Our guests actively request one-of-a-kind, culturally rich experiences that have a take-home element, particularly in food and beverage,” says Achim Lenders, vice president of food and beverage, international, for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts. “It is a natural evolution to transform our Park Hyatt Masters event into something more simple and interactive; pairing guests with local chefs and vintners to become masters themselves, and letting guests see the destination through local eyes.”

Individual hotel itineraries showcasing regional produce and producers during the September preview include:

  • Park Hyatt Zurich will host a Swiss grape harvest, a workshop on Switzerland’s female winemakers, and a boat trip across Lake Zurich to a winery for a bottling lesson and picnic.
  • Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Southern California will start the day with a farmer’s breakfast, then a visit Carlsbad Aquafarm where participants will meet the resort’s seafood purveyor, followed by a local wine and cheese tasting.
  • Park Hyatt Mendoza will host an interactive cooking class with special recipes created for it based on a signature olive oil produced in a nearby grove exclusively for the hotel’s restaurant.
  • Park Hyatt Maldives will take guests by boat to a nearby island to meet a local grower and after selecting ingredients, they will head back to the resort, first stopping to fish for their dinner in the waters surrounding Hadahaa Island. The day concludes with a chef-led cooking class on traditional Maldivian cuisine using the fresh ingredients collected that day.

The quarterly Park Hyatt masters events will take place around the turn of each season on the weekends of January 13-15, March 23-25, June 24-26 and September 21-23, 2012. All classes will be limited in size to ensure maximum interaction for each master-to-be, which, depending on the property, will be between eight and 25 guests. Participating guests will be provided with recipes and/or tasting notes associated with their experience, and photos and videos of Park Hyatt masters demonstrations will be shared with the Park Hyatt masters community on the brand’s Facebook page – facebook.com/parkhyatt.

Participating Park Hyatt hotels for the preview of Park Hyatt masters in September (as of August 2011) include:

In North America – Aviara (Carlsbad, Calif.), Beaver Creek, Chicago, Toronto, Washington
In South America – Mendoza, Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires
In Europe – Hamburg, Paris, Istanbul, Zurich
In Southwest Asia – Goa, Maldives
In the Middle East – Jeddah, Dubai
In Asia – Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Saigon

Workshop itineraries and pricing will vary from place to place and will be available to reserve directly through each hotel’s concierge. Beginning August 1, more details about the global program, the calendar of events, pricing and additions to participating properties will be available at www.mastersfoodandwine.com.

 

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