Patrick Druet: A Hotel Manager in Shangri-La
China Today, February 7, 2017 Adjust font size:
Moving Provence to Shangri-La
Gao Han, who has worked at Linka Retreat for over a year, is Patrick’s secretary. She used to be a teacher of Chinese to foreign students at Yunnan Normal University. Her fluent English greatly facilitates the communication between Patrick and his Chinese employees, even though her boss can communicate quite well in Chinese.
For Gao Han, one of the special things about Patrick is that “He is not like a boss; it’s like he’s part of the family. He always puts himself in other people’s shoes, even working as a waiter to gain experience of different roles in order to facilitate his management.”
Patrick agrees with Gao Han. He doesn’t really like how things are done in big cities. In the city, workplaces have a strict hierarchy; people just sit in their own cubicles and follow the rules. People in this environment are quick to smile but rarely genuinely. So Patrick started from scratch and managed the hotel in his own way. The restaurant he established inside the hotel was deemed authentically French by hotel guests.
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The Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, the biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Yunnan, can be seen from the guestroom windows of Songtsam Linka Retreat. Photos by Yu Xiangjun |
“Provence is a holiday paradise for travelers with its beautiful scenery and delicious food,” he said, and wants to bring Provence’s food to Shangri-La. Every time he goes back to France on vacation, he returns with something French in his suitcase, such as tablecloths, dried lavender, and even local seasoning.
The Provence-themed restaurant at Songtsam Linka Retreat serves traditional French food such as crème-caramel. According to Patrick, more and more foreign visitors come here, and account for 20 percent in the high season.
At the hotel’s Western-style restaurant, however, all chefs are locals who have been professionally trained to cook French dishes. Patrick also has high standards for wine. He specially hired French wine suppliers from Kunming, Yunnan’s capital city, to train his employees. Most of the wine in the hotel is imported from France, Italy, and Australia.