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The Making of a Five Diamond Award
They hold the most coveted symbol of excellence in the business.
Learn the secrets of two Boston luminaries.
Four Seasons’ Service Sparkles
By Megan R. Weeden |
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Photo by Berta A. Daniels
The Four Seasons’ Louis Douyon and Abderrahim Tlateelalaoui are eager to welcome hotel guests. |
The AAA Five Diamond Rating is one of the highest accolades a hotel or restaurant can receive, and those who achieve such status represent the ultimate in luxury and sophistication.
But, what does it really mean to be a AAA Five Diamond establishment? I recently spent a day behind the scenes at Four Seasons Boston to find out.
I pull up to the valet, and my door opens.
“Welcome to the Four Seasons,” the doorman says, with a welcoming smile. “Will you be checking in this afternoon?”
He points to the “house car” and lets me know it’s available if I’d like to be driven somewhere.
I instantly feel like a movie star.
My luggage is delivered to a deluxe suite overlooking the beautiful Public Garden, and it’s obvious every attention to detail has been paid. The dining room table is arranged with fresh fruit and flowers, and a handwritten note from hotel General Manager Bill Taylor welcomes me to the Four Seasons.
Separated by French doors, the bedroom has a king bed, a down duvet, and plush pillows.
The master bathroom is styled with dual Italian marble vanities, Asian white marble floors, and Murano-style glass lighting. There is a 6-foot soaking tub with a hand-held showerhead offering jet, massage, and mist options.
“Can I get you some ice, or would you like anything cleaned and pressed, Ms. Weeden?” asks the bellhop. “I hope you enjoy your stay with us at the Four Seasons. Please let us know if you need anything.”
A few moments later, my doorbell rings and room service brings a plate of tea sandwiches to tide me over until dinner.
With 273 guest rooms and about 500 employees, the Four Seasons is dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through innovation and the highest standards of hospitality.
So, how does Mr. Taylor ensure the hotel’s dedication to service gets carried through to each and every guest?
Rooms range from the moderate (with full marble bathrooms) to the presidential suite (complete with a 10-seat dining room and a baby-grand piano) – with many options in between.
“We believe our greatest assets are the people that work in our hotels,” he explains. “Our employees are extremely loyal and proud of what they do. Our turnover is very low. We don’t have to train them on the basics and can spend more time making the guests feel special.”
At 8 a.m., the housekeepers gather for a quick meeting.
“Good morning, ladies,” says Lorna Kennedy, Assistant Director of Housekeeping. “Today’s standard is name usage 100 percent of the time.”
The women practice entering and exiting a room while using the guest’s name and are now ready to start their day of using special touches to create flawless rooms.
“It may seem like a little thing to you, but to the guest, it’s a big thing because it doesn’t happen in other hotels,” Mr. Taylor says to the group. “Keep up the great work and thank you for what you’re doing.”
At 9 a.m., department managers sit in the employee cafeteria to review the day’s events, including a list of guests checking in, special requests, preferences, and stay histories.
One guest has asked for two extra foam pillows and that his headboard be raised six inches. Another frequent guest is visiting with his wife for their anniversary.
“What are we doing especially for him?” Mr. Taylor asks. “Let’s make him look good.”
Also on the agenda are travelers with children.
“A family is coming with a baby born in 2008. That’s a very young guest,” Mr. Taylor said. “Make sure you have the appropriate diapers.”
A little later, a team inspects a room that has been taken out of commission for repairs. They overturn seat cushions, examine woodwork, and scrutinize walls and wallpaper. They even check the position of the door number.
The engineer and director of rooms make notations to get any faulty items repaired or replaced.
In the kitchen of Aujourd’hui, the hotel’s Five Diamond restaurant, Monica Murulanda makes banana-squash ravioli from scratch for tonight’s menu. In the kitchen of the less formal Bristol Lounge, Executive Chef Brooke Vosika works on a new Red Sox-themed menu. Room service is busy putting the finishing touches on a special dessert for the guest celebrating his anniversary.
Forget something at home? The concierge’s “oh, dear” box contains items like cellphone and iPod chargers, toothbrushes, and curling irons.
To the concierge, there is no such thing as an odd request.
“Whether it’s knowing the best restaurants, the latest shows to see, or fulfilling a special request, it’s about making people’s stays memorable,” concierge David White says. “I had a guest who had just arrived from London and left his laptop in the airport. I made a bunch of calls and tracked it down.”
And that’s the Five Diamond difference — that level of service that makes everyone feel like a star, whether it’s their first time visiting or their 200th time visiting.
“It’s more than a fancy hotel,” Mr. Taylor said. “We’re truly passionate about getting it right.” 
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L’Espalier Chases Perfection
By Kimberley Edgar
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Photo by Peter Ricciardi
Chef de Cuisine James Hackney looks carefully over his dishes before sending them off to the dining room. |
The dance began years ago on the New Hampshire farm where he was raised.
That’s where acclaimed chef Frank McClelland began choreographing what has come to be regarded as one of the finest dining experiences in the Northeast – an evening at L’Espalier, the AAA Five Diamond restaurant that put haute cuisine on New England’s map.
Founded in 1978 in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, the restaurant makes its home in an 1880s brownstone on Gloucester Street, though it will move two blocks to Boylston Street in July.
It’s about mid-morning. The residential street is quiet, save a gentleman strolling and a purveyor wheeling a dolly of crates to a gilded black wrought-iron and glass-encased entrance that exudes Old World elegance.
The calm outside belies the bustle of activity inside the restaurant. At the top of the gracefully curving staircase that leads from the foyer to the main dining floor, Manager Paige Farrell pushes a vacuum, making last-minute preparations.
Up another flight of stairs, loaves of the restaurant’s distinctive, freshly baked sourdough fill brown paper bags on tables and chairs in the Library dining room, one of three in the restaurant.
Steps away, through a swinging door, is the heart of the operation – the kitchen. At about 19-by-30 feet, it’s a tight squeeze for Chef de Cuisine James Hackney and his staff – about 20 during peak hours on any given night.
“The benefit of a small kitchen for us is the ability to get creative,” Mr. Hackney notes as he checks orders and inventory.
Only this morning, a whole lamb arrived from Colorado and had to be broken down. It’s lying disassembled in a plastic bin in the refrigerator awaiting Mr. Hackney’s tender touch. There’s fish from Hawaii and local fishermen, rabbit and fresh produce, including a bundle of rhubarb.
A colorful bandanna tied at his brow, Mr. Hackney stands at a kitchen island in “the pass,” the main corridor where he expedites meals, working with prep and line cooks, a cook manning the cold station, pastry chefs and back waiters who run food to the dining rooms.
Kitchen surround sound is at full volume: Knives thump as they julienne vegetables. Dishes clatter as they’re stacked on shelves. Silverware clinks as back waiters set bread and butter on silver service trays.
The staff banters until the pace quickens for lunch, then conversation simmers down as everyone becomes intensely focused. “Behind you,” is about the only communication as the number of people navigating the ridiculously hot kitchen reaches critical mass.
Geoff Gardner, former L’Espalier sous chef and Mr. McClelland’s business partner with a sister restaurant, begins to describe the movement as a ballet but changes his mind.
“That’s too gentle,” he said. “It’s ballet in the dining room, but it’s full-contact ballet in the kitchen.”
Savory and sweet smells mingle with the scent of hard work to create a unique aroma: Today, frying squid flirts with smoky paprika and a hint of garlic.
The bouquet changes with the menu – and Mr. McClelland and crew are constantly reinventing the meal. “I never do anything twice,” he states. “And that’s the signature.”
One example of the chase for perfection at L’Espalier is the cheese service, which features selections from all over the world with a strong New England presence.
Employees rotate the cheeses in a ripening room, introducing a new offering nightly. Within a month, the selection of up to 24 cheeses is 50 percent different.
“It’s an amazing feat,” Mr. McClelland said. “I’ve eaten around the world, and there are very few restaurants capable of doing that.”
While the rhythm in the kitchen has grown to a frenetic pace, the service staff – including two sommeliers – performs a slow, soothing waltz with guests.
Inside the luxurious foyer, two receptionists greet guests, noting who has arrived and relaying the message upstairs via computer to Maitre d’ Louis Risoli, who moments later greets them by name.
Within one minute of being seated at their tables, guests are to be greeted again, this time by their server.
“We take the pleasure of our guests so seriously,” Ms. Farrell says. “We like to make sure we can ID the color of the guest’s eyes. It conveys a genuine, not a superficial, interest. It’s super, super important to us.”
Employees clue in to a guest’s needs so they can meet them before a guest even knows there’s a need. On this day, Ms. Farrell watches a tête-à-tête turn into a conversation for three and quietly swaps one centerpiece for another so the guests can see each other.
In the kitchen, the chefs anticipate dietary needs for religious holidays, including Passover, and certain allergies. And they’ve been known to sprint down the street to meet a request that’s not on the menu – or in the house.
“The waiters know the answer is – ‘Yes. What’s the question?’ – and the kitchen will jump through hoops to accommodate the guest,” Mr. Gardner said. “Ultimately, we aim to pamper people and care for them as much as humanly possible, from the moment they step out of their cars to the moment they get back in – and beyond.”
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L'Espalier: On the Move
By Kimberley Edgar
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The sun glows in the blue sky above, casting its beams across Boston.
On Gloucester Street – a quiet side bridge between the well-traveled Commonwealth Avenue and fashionable Newbury Street in one of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods – the rays alight on No. 30.
The gold lettering curved across the gentle arch at the top of the door of the sleek black wrought-iron and glass entrance comes alive.
“L’Espalier.”
The name glides off the tongue as smoothly as a sip of 2004 Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay.
And each step down the marble stairs and into the luxurious foyer brings one closer to an experience that will decorate one’s life much as espaliered fruit trees have decorated castle courtyards for centuries: mature fruit of the labors of an experienced staff that chases perfection each day.
Evolution is more than a theory here – it’s a way of life, and a large reason the restaurant has been so successful.
“It’s important we always challenge ourselves to higher heights to make the food better, to make the service better and to make the ambiance better,” said Geoff Gardner, former L’Espalier sous chef and chef de cuisine and partner with Chef and Proprietor Frank McClelland in another restaurant adventure, Sel de la Terre, at Long Wharf, in Boston. “That’s the way you achieve Five Diamonds, is to reach for the stars, to reach for excellence every single day,” he said.
One of the biggest evolutions on the horizon for the restaurant is a return to its roots on Boylston Street, though it will enjoy a new home in The Mandarin Oriental Boston.
Its sister restaurant, Sel de la Terre, will be side by side with it.
“We’re eager to begin writing the next chapter in our restaurants’ history at a world-class, luxury facility like the one on Boylston Street,” Mr. McClelland said. “This move will afford the L’Espalier and Sel de la Terre teams an opportunity to give more of ourselves to our guests and take our concepts to the next level of cuisine and service.”
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In the Berkshires, Wheatleigh Shines Brightest
By Molly Feit |
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| Wheatleigh’s Dining Room, in Lenox, exudes elegance. |
Tucked away in the Berkshires sits statuesque Wheatleigh. A completely restored 19th-century Italianate villa in Florentine palazzo style, nestled atop a knoll beside Lily Pond, Wheatleigh is a 19-room luxury hotel with a AAA Five Diamond restaurant.
The main objective of its staff is a warm, welcome reception for guests – of the hotel and restaurant alike.
“What I think would make Wheatleigh special is the family service,” said Restaurant Manager Benjamin Abbott. “This is something which you can see from the beginning on. We always have very personal service.”
The only Five Diamond restaurant in the Berkshires — and one of just three in Massachusetts — Wheatleigh’s Dining Room offers elegant cuisine steeped in European tradition.
Its multicultural staff – with members from Germany, Switzerland, France, India, Japan and elsewhere – are trained in what Mr. Abbott called “the Wheatleigh style” of family service, with focus on attentive yet unobtrusive care and comfort.
And the menu, updated seasonally, does not fail to impress. Chef Jeffrey Thompson infuses traditional French cuisine with European and American influences and emphasizes simplicity.
“What we’re trying to do is keep it nice and simple. So what we have written on our menu is what you will find on the plate, “ Mr. Abbott said. “You won’t be surprised.”
The Dining Room’s spring spread features a seven- to eight-course Chef’s Tasting menu, which includes plates such as hot Maine lobster with artichokes, celery root and vin jaune; saddle of rabbit with parsnips, hedgehogs and pistachio; and Broken Arrow Ranch venison with butternut squash and chestnuts.
For those with smaller appetites, The Dining Room offers a four- to five-course option, beginning with a choice of two starters – among them a parmesan gnocchi with celery root and perigord truffle.
The dinner features one main dish, including Jamison Farms lamb with sweet potato, swiss chard and rillette.
Guests can sample from an impressive cheese board, with selections from around the world. And Wheatleigh offers an impressive wine list, an attentive sommelier, and pairing suggestions for all menu items.
But Mr. Abbott says the main thing setting Wheatleigh apart from other establishments is the care it takes in serving its guests.
“We always try to make it really personal,” he said.
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Recipes from L'Espalier & Four Seasons
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Lobster Bisque
From Aujourd’hui at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston
Ingredients:
8 lobster heads
1 carrot
1 onion
2 celery sticks
1 leek
1 sprig of thyme
1 bayleaf
2 quarts lobster stock
3 quarts heavy cream
2 cans of tomato paste
blended oil
1 cup brandy
Clean and wash the lobster heads. Clean and cut the vegetables in to a small mirepoix. In a heavy bottomed pan heat up some blended oil and caramelise the lobster heads. In a separate frying pan caramelise the mirepoix, then add the tomato paste and cook out the veg and paste together. When the lobster heads have a good color, add the brandy and flambe. Then add the lobster stock and mirepoix, thyme, bayleaf and reduce by half. Add the cream and reduce by half again or until the bisque has a good lobster flavour. Pound the bisque and heads through a conical strainer and then through a chinois. Set aside and chill.
Butter poached Maine lobster with prosciutto and artichoke nage
From Chef de Cuisine James Hackney of L’Espalier in Boston
Yield 4 servings
Lobster:
4 1¼ lb lobsters
Water
Take 4 live lobsters, break off tails, claws, and knuckles. Take remaining lobster shells and clean out the head and body cavities. Trim gills. Rinse with cold water. Fill a large stock pot 1/3 full with water and bring to a simmer. Steam tails, claws and knuckles for 4 minutes. Cool and peel meat out of shells. Set aside, and reserve the knuckle meat for garnish.
Lobster butter:
2 lbs unsalted butter
4 lobster bodies, cleaned, gutted, gills trimmed
Place unsalted butter in a large sauté pan and simmer until melted. Steep lobster bodies in butter and simmer 1 hour. Strain. Set butter aside.
Artichoke and leek nage:
1 lb unsalted butter
2 lbs leeks, cleaned and diced
7 artichokes, cleaned, cooked and sliced
4 oz mascarpone cheese
2 cups heavy cream
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 sprigs of thyme
¼ cup lemon juice
salt
white pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
In large sautée pan, sweat leeks in butter until tender, approximately 20 minutes. Add 5 artichokes, cream, cheese, garlic, thyme, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Mix to marry the flavors, about 10 minutes.
Take off heat, let rest 5 minutes, puree and add lemon juice. Strain. Set aside.
Crispy fried artichokes:
Artichokes
Wondra flour (very finely milled flour that does not clump)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Unsalted butter
In medium sautée pan, melt ½ lb unsalted butter. Take remaining 2 artichokes and quarter. Toss in seasoned wondra flour (wondra, salt, white pepper, cayenne). Pan fry until crispy for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside.
Crispy pancetta:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Take slices of prosciutto and lay flat on hard surface. Place baking tray on top and flatten. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until crispy. Let rest on paper towel.
Lemon caper vinaigrette:
1 lb unsalted butter
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup cut capers
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 shallots, diced
½ bunch parsley, chopped
cooked lobster knuckle meat
In small sauce pan, melt butter until browned. Cool. Wisk in lemon juice. Add capers, garlic, shallots, parsley, salt, and pepper to taste. Mix together to semi-emulsify.
Pre-heat plates in oven.
To poach lobster, warm butter to 85-90 degrees. Drop lobster meat in butter, but do not boil, 1-2 minutes. Place in oven for 5-8 minutes until center of tail is warm.
Spoon nage in a swirl on plate. Place lobster tail and claw meat on top of nage.. Toss remaining knuckle meat in vinaigrette. Dress lobster with vinaigrette. Nestle fried artichokes around lobster. Garnish with pancetta slice.
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