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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Gonging good times
By David Maguire |
October 11, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE inimitable microphone and camera hogging international hospitality consultant Fred Tibbitts rolled into Shanghai last month for a gala celebration of food, wine and backslapping.
The venue was the classy Westin Bund Center Shanghai and the guest list of 130 included a who's who of the region's better hotel and wine brand executives.
Formally titled "A summer evening in Shanghai with very special friends," it was the sixth annual such event and the theme was to "celebrate renewal," presumably of good times.
The guests were formally announced, "gonged" into the room and sipped Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne before sitting down to a four-course meal.
But the dinner was as much about recognizing hospitality industry achievements as it was of hob-nobbing with the siperati.
Tibbitts was a jack-in-the-box returning incessantly to the podium to introduce yet another speaker.
He facilitated the presentation of awards in his own name for "Excellence as a Humanitarian" to Professor Poon Chung-kwong, professor emeritus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and for "Excellence as an Asia Pacific Operator" to Martin B. Jones, vice president of Asia Pacific Starwood Hotels.
Tibbitts presented UNICEF China representative Annie S. C. Wu with a donation of fund raised by the dinner. Ten loyalty toasts followed the host's welcoming speech on the theme of "service being the highest calling."
Throughout all this activity, dinner was served and wine glasses were cleared en masse.
The meal consisted of crab meat lasagna, Tasmanian lamb noisettes, an exotic cheese selection including English handmade Ford Farm cheddar and an apple tart dessert.
Each of the first three courses was accompanied by six different wines and by the time dessert arrived not too many diners were looking for anything more than the closing sweet sauterne.
For the record, the wine highlights were a 2007 Montana sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, a 2005 Wolf Blass Grey label shiraz, a 2005 Cape Mentelle cabernet merlot and a 2005 Bridgeway zinfandel.
The venue was the classy Westin Bund Center Shanghai and the guest list of 130 included a who's who of the region's better hotel and wine brand executives.
Formally titled "A summer evening in Shanghai with very special friends," it was the sixth annual such event and the theme was to "celebrate renewal," presumably of good times.
The guests were formally announced, "gonged" into the room and sipped Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne before sitting down to a four-course meal.
But the dinner was as much about recognizing hospitality industry achievements as it was of hob-nobbing with the siperati.
Tibbitts was a jack-in-the-box returning incessantly to the podium to introduce yet another speaker.
He facilitated the presentation of awards in his own name for "Excellence as a Humanitarian" to Professor Poon Chung-kwong, professor emeritus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and for "Excellence as an Asia Pacific Operator" to Martin B. Jones, vice president of Asia Pacific Starwood Hotels.
Tibbitts presented UNICEF China representative Annie S. C. Wu with a donation of fund raised by the dinner. Ten loyalty toasts followed the host's welcoming speech on the theme of "service being the highest calling."
Throughout all this activity, dinner was served and wine glasses were cleared en masse.
The meal consisted of crab meat lasagna, Tasmanian lamb noisettes, an exotic cheese selection including English handmade Ford Farm cheddar and an apple tart dessert.
Each of the first three courses was accompanied by six different wines and by the time dessert arrived not too many diners were looking for anything more than the closing sweet sauterne.
For the record, the wine highlights were a 2007 Montana sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, a 2005 Wolf Blass Grey label shiraz, a 2005 Cape Mentelle cabernet merlot and a 2005 Bridgeway zinfandel.
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