Tristan’s journey, shaped by both hands-on and strategic roles, has pushed him to continually elevate gastronomic excellence and redefine customer experiences at places with unique identities. A true visionary, he is shaping the future direction of luxury dining by balancing innovation with tradition, all while respecting the distinctive DNA of each establishment.
In this interview,h e shares his insights on leadership, his challenges, and his approach to the luxury hospitality sector. An inspiring conversation that takes us to the heart of high-end gastronomy and the management of iconic hotels.
Hello Tristan ! What inspired you to pursue a career in hospitality and gastronomy? Was it a calling from the start or did your path evolve through experiences over time?
When I was young during summer holidays I was often going to the restaurant in the south of France with my family. The place was called A Maurin des Maures, a family style restaurant owned by Dédé where all the village would meet for Diner and drink. A beautiful mix between the locals and the families that were coming there for generations for holidays. Everyone knew each other, it was the heart of the Village. I always liked to be with the waiters, socialize with everyone. It led me to take the order at my table, then my ants’ ones... until I did a summer season as bar back.
At the age of 15, I wanted to enroll into the hospitality school in France. To be sure my parents asked me to have an experience in a different place. I had my first experience at Le Relais at Hôtel Plaza Athénée, my first step into the luxury hospitality and knew straight away that it was for me. Working with talented and inspiring people, learning how to prepare the steak tartare at the table, silver service... Since then, I never stopped working in luxury hospitality. I need to be proud of what I do. I am a perfectionist.
However, I always thought it was important to learn as much as you can, so I worked in various departments at the beginning of my career, such as RM, finance... to come back stronger to F&B in order to specialize and grow.
I always knew I wanted to grow in this specialty.
Having worked both on the ground in operational management at renowned hotels and in more strategic roles focusing on innovation and development, which experience had the greatest impact on how you approach customer experience?
The guest is as the centre of Dorchester Collection business. So regardless of whether you work in one of our hotels or at the corporate office, everything we do and every decision we make needs to focus on the guest. We call this guest centricity. So, essentially it has to be both.
You cannot talk about guest experience and have a global view without field experience and truly understand the needs of our guests. Yet the operations teams benefit from the high-level view that head office can bring in order to stay consistent across the collection. You also need to be curious, learn from other industries and keep an open mind because you can transfer learnings from different sectors and levels.
At a moment, in my career, I also understand that I learn a lot by having first-hand experience in our hotels around the world. You see things you do not usually see when you are working long shifts in the operation.
At a more strategic level you need to have the bigger picture and understand how you can support your team through your strategies. You need to guide them in the right direction but also provide the freedom for them to be creative and show their personality. Not everyone is comfortable or has the skillset to implement strategies but it’s always worth considering that an idea that works in one location might not work in another and for different reasons. If that is the case then you must look at the culture of the teams, the processes in place and potentially the technology that will assist.
As Corporate Director of Food & Beverage at Dorchester Collection, you oversee the F&B vision of several world-renowned hotels. How would you define your main mission today?
Our company’s vision is to be treasured by guests, cherished by employees and celebrated worldwide and our ‘We Care’ philosophy, alongside our values of passion, personality, respect, working together and creativity, sits at the centre of everything we do. Dorchester Collection continuously invest in our employees and one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is nurturing the world-class talent we are lucky to have as part of our company.
My main mission is to support and guide my team. I am lucky enough to have 10 amazing F&B Directors and Executive chefs. My job is to make sure they have the tools to be able to take care of our guests. I see my role as a facilitator first, to help them build their case, take a step back to be more strategic, to defend them.
The other side of my function is to bring make sure the vision and the global strategy is aligned with local hotel strategy, I also need to find synergies, exchange best practices, implement guidelines that help us to achieve consistency within the hotel but also across the collection, and last but not least, I also challenge my team to give their best. With freedom comes accountability, therefore they need to have an ownership mindset.
Your role brings you to manage establishments with very distinct identities. How do you ensure coherence while respecting the unique DNA of each location?
That is the beauty of our company, it is a Collection, not a standardised group. The choice of word is very important. There is a big difference, and we live by it.
It is not always an easy task, but I am a believer in the importance of having a good structure to support the team in order to let them express themselves within the define frame. Our guest are looking for real and true experience, we have amazing individuals, they need the freedom to be able to express themselves.
What do you believe is the greatest challenge for a Food & Beverage leader today?
The greatest challenge is to stay true to yourself, to the brand Identity, vision, values in an everchanging world. It is easy to try to feet to the demand and to lose yourself on the way.
Looking back, what is the most valuable lesson you've learned working in luxury hospitality and gastronomy?
That having the best food, drink, service, music, tableware, design, knowledge, the list goes on... will just take you at the same level as others. You need to have experience, fun, create memories, all the emotional relationship that goes beyond waiter/guest usual level and be consistent to reach the top.
To finish on a personal note, if you were...
- A season of the year: I love them all for different reasons, but I would say winter, because it is cold at first sight, but next to a fire you can enjoy a warm and memorable moment.
- A piece of music: RESPECT for Aretha Franklin
- A travel destination: the beach, you can do everything, from a nice and calm retreat with your family to an amazing full moon party.
- An inspiring quote: “Be Yourself; everyone else is taken” Oscar Wilde
