Hong Kong Open: feeding the fanatics out on the fairways
- The planning behind the Hong Kong Open’s food needs are staggering, hundreds of employees feeding thousands of guests on a daily basis
- All of this handled by the JW Marriott Hong Kong, out on the golf course, ‘building restaurants on site’, less than two months after Typhoon Mangkhut ravished the grounds
Since 2006, JW Marriott Hong Kong has been handling the daunting task of feeding everyone at the Hong Kong Open, as Philippe Mauron said “building restaurants on site”.
Mauron, the director of food & beverage for the JW Marriott Hong Kong, said he was getting about four hours sleep each night as he oversees more than 100 staffers feeding more than a 1,000 people a day.
All of this outside the hotel, smack dab in the middle of the golf course, which feels like it would be a logistical hurricane given the hotel is physically in Admiralty some 50 kilometres away.
“You have the chaos that you have in any restaurant at any location, but it takes on a totally different dimension here because you’re on your own. Suddenly if you have peak moments, and you don’t have staff, you can’t take them from another outlet.”
The Hong Kong Open is celebrating its 60th year, an event that attracts close to 50,000 spectators over five days in Fanling. Kicking off the European Tour, the tournament has become Hong Kong’s marquee golf event and requires the Hong Kong Golf Club to scale up in preparation.
