benjamin buckley

Working holiday in Dubai for 6 months. Pre-opening of Cut by Wolfgang Puck at The Address Downtown (a flagship, 850 bedroom 5 hotel). Cut is a world renowned contemporary fine dining steak restaurant with 5 locations around the world.

Oversight of all Food & Beverage operations in this 53 bed, 4 red star property with 2 AA rosettes & holding 130 weddings per year. Labour provision & cost control for Restaurant, Bars, Conference and Banqueting departments. Beverage cost control and management; purchasing, stock taking, stock holding, pricing reviews. Full management responsibilities for a team of 2 HoDs, 2 assistant HoDs, 2 supervisors, 10 full time staff and 10-25 casuals. Induction, training & 'bedding in' of an entirely new Restaurant team (including manager & 6 full timers); bringing quickly up to brand / red star standard. Wrote, planned & delivered many trainings to red star standard, ensuring we maintained the hotels AA inspection scores, rosettes & red star status in 2012 and 2013. Implemented structured communication to the department, eliminated negativity and instilled a positive team environment. Created the hotel's 'Calendar of Events' and planned & organised the events. Assisted with the formulation and presentation of the hotels 3 year strategy to the owner and board members.

Quickly promoted to Conference & Banquetting Manager at Ettington Park after having impressed in my first 6 months as Assistant Restaurant & Bars Manager. Managing quality & service in the hotels largest revenue generating department (£1.4m). Running a variety of events including 90 weddings a year, private dining, conferences, meetings, team buildings and special events. Management of a team of 1 assistant manager, 2 supervisors and 20 casual staff.

Assistant Restaurant & Bar Manager at Ettington Park - a beautiful gothic country house hotel. Restaurant holds 2 rosettes & hotel is 4 red star (88% AA) quality. The oak room is a stunning period restaurant & offers fine dining to discerning guests. Responsible primarily for delivering service & quality in the operation. Rotas for a team of 10 restaurant and 5 bar staff. Duty management shifts. Beverage stock taking. Employee recruitment, training, development, disciplinaries and appraisals.

Exposure to many hotel departments in this 5 star hotel over the course of one year. F&B: Fine dining, casual dining, room service, conference & banquetting FO: Concierge

250 bedroom luxury central London hotel. Independently owned, part of the doyle collection. Assisting with overall management of 108 brasserie, bar, pantry, lobby, room service and meeting & events departments. 80+ F&B staff.

Supervision of various shifts across all F&B outlets (bar, lounge, restaurant & room service) simultaneously. Day to day control of the operations and directing 10 staff per shift. Mentoring, coaching, developing and performance managing a 'mentor group'

Returning to management in quality led UK establishments, this time in a more relaxed, friendly & unpretentious restaurant with rooms next to the beautiful beach in Camber. Brought in with the aim to drive service improvements, develop the team, implement structure, assist with the move to being more restaurant led & build on the local customer base. We run a variety of events which often involve well renowned chefs (Tom Aikens, Richard Neat, Pierre Koffmann, Marcus Eaves) or top wine producers (LIttle Beauty NZ, Chateau Musar Lebanon), demonstrating our unique positioning in the quality end of the market. Independently owned, with a high degree of autonomy & control, and with plans to expand there will be exciting times ahead and we will continue to do things differently and with great quality...

Activities and Societies: Food & Wine Society