(^5) Vanessa Glain
F&B DIRECTOR
Eden Rock, St Barths
“When my sta are having a bad day,
I say, ‘Hey, look at the view from your
oce’”— and she points towards the
Caribbean Sea. Originally from close to
St.Tropez, Vanessa has had an ongoing
love aair with this enchanted island,
working on and o at Eden Rock for
the last 12 years, moving from waitress
to leading the charge at the new-look
Martin Brudzinski-designed Sand Bar
restaurant. She credits some rigorous
training at Zuma in London. “And
maybe because I’m not a party girl, I
turn up to work,” she says. “Oh, and I’m
a perfectionist.” She likes the breakfast
shift most: “It’s my chance to make
guests happy for the whole day.” It’d be
hard not to be happy here. Two years
after Hurricane Irma, Eden Rock’s fresh
new incarnation is a total blow away.
(^6) Dominique Caubel
THERAPIST
Malabar Retreats, Zimbabwe
He’s not saying it’s easy but this master
of Lu Jong, a traditional slow-moving
exercise from Tibet, promises this
practice will heal body, head and heart.
“But only if you do 15 minutes a day,”
he pleads. Dominique, of the Comoros
Islands, has a way with language, with
the way he moves. He also laughs a lot.
He makes it fun although the physical
training, the breathing practice, is
tough. His dedication makes his job
seem more like public service than a
private class. “I love people and want
them to be happy,’’ he says, and I believe
him. Then the pain starts, because he
has developed a complementary body
treatment combining Chinese and
Ayurvedic techniques, as well as Reiki
and Karuna therapies. It’s an epiphany,
(^1) Roberto Wirth
GENERAL MANAGER
The Hassler, Rome
We are on the seventh-oor terrace
overlooking the Spanish Steps.
Someone knocks over a coee. Born
deaf and with the accident out of sight,
Roberto can’t hear the breaking china
but he notices my eyes, my expression,
and he signals to his team to remedy
what’s unfolding behind. It gives some
indication how in-tune this man is.
“Deafness is not a disability,” he tells
me. Born in 1950 into one of Rome’s
great hotelier families, he was not
anointed as the next in line. But after
learning to speak and lip-read—in
Italian and English—he took on The
Hassler and made it his own. He cuts
an impressive gure, using his eyes “to
play, to communicate” with those
around him. “I couldn’t do it without
my team,” he says, and that’s no false
modesty. But who in the world works
alone? Perhaps it’s Roberto’s other
heightened senses that make him so
perceptive, so knowing.
(^2) Clair Ratcliffe-Speakman
DOORMAN
Coworth Park, U.K.
Friendly but not eusive, down-to-earth
and “not frightened of hard work” (her
words), Clair makes a refreshing rst
impression. She knows instantly
whether a guest needs to fast track to
their room, or prefers to linger and
mention the family of ducklings that
just crossed the road. “It’s about reading
the guest,” she says, noticing even a
sni£e; she’s been known to send hot
honey and lemon to rooms of guests
who might be unwell, extra pillows if
someone has an injury, and soft slippers
to women returning from nearby Ascot
after a day at the races wearing heels.
(^3) Arnaud Baumard
CONCIERGE
Hotel Beau-Rivage, Geneva
With classic Swiss service, he can do the
big stu: one guest wanted a leather
jacket only found in Shanghai. Sorted. A
former guest wanted the hotel’s house
Chat-Botté chocolates dispatched to him in
perfect condition (by private jet, it
turned out). Sorted. But it’s the tiny
touches that make Arnaud shine. When
guests want to explore Lake Geneva, he
gives them ferry tickets free of charge;
he replaces a torn 200 Swiss franc note
with a crisp new one (“it’s easier for me to
pop to the bank later,” he tells the
guest); in the restaurant, he discreetly
shifts the cigar-smoking Cuban
ambassador away from a family with
kids. All done almost unnoticeably.
(^4) Jirapa Kaosarang
CHEF
Soneva Kiri, Thailand
More than 20 years ago, a couple
stopped by Phang Nga Bay and had
a low-key rudimentary dinner on the
beach. The cook Jirapa Kaosarang,
known as Khun Benz (the nickname
comes from being driven home from
hospital as a baby in a Mercedes), was
barbecuing on a half-cut oil drum, and
making Hor Mok, steamed sh with
red curry paste. “It was the best Thai
meal Eva and I ever had,” says Sonu
Shivdasani, the co-owner with his wife
of the ve-star Soneva properties. They
oered her a job at their agship hotel
in the Maldives; a decade later, when
they opened a property in Thailand, she
returned home to launch the resort’s
restaurant. She uses locally caught sh
and ingredients from the hotel’s organic
garden, cooking signatures such as
Mieng Kam in a betel-nut leaf wrap and
Panaeng Gai chicken curry.
FANTASY HOTEL
Picture your perfect hotel with sta
poached from around the world.
Here is our dream team...
VANITY FAIR ILLUSTRATION BY KASIQ JUNGWOO NOVEMBER 2019
Travel Imaginings
11-19-Travel-Fantasy-Hotel.indd 54 17/09/2019 15:59
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(sharon)
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