Hotel Management School Les Roches

My first job was at the Ritz Hotel. I was barely 18 years old. The marble floor in the lobby, the Italian restaurant, and the coffee shop were all enticing. I was hooked on the glamour of the hotel business. It was something, I wanted to pursue further. I was looking at different schools like Cornell, Hawaii, and Nevada. A friend of mine was heading to Les Roches. I got some information from him and slept on it. I looked at all the permutations and combinations and realized I would come out ahead going to Les Roches. One of the better decisions of my life.

A few weeks before I was heading to Les Roches, I was informed that the school had caught on fire. We would be living in Hotel Central in Crans-Montana.

As I headed to Sierre, from Geneva, the train passes between Lac Leman on one side and the beautiful wineries on the other side. Beauty hits you. It uplifts your soul. I was excited.

From Sierre, I took the world’s longest funicular at 4192 meters. This was my first time on a funicular. Slowly, slowly the funicular fights and climbs the mountain. C’est Bluche, the conductor announced. I had arrived at the stop.

I check with the admissions office. Miss Clivaz and  Miss Roduit welcome me. After processing my ID and the payment, I am all set to go. The bus would take me to Hotel Central.

I barely check in to my room. An hour later, Donny Wowor comes into my room. Donny had just done a course in English and is my roommate. He tells me, he is living off-campus. I have a room all to my self.

I am in Service 1. I am still in touch with my classmates Lily, Kang Nee, Michelle, Gigi, Clive, Ton-Joost, David and Max. Janak and I get together quarterly for lunch. In service, I made lifelong friends with Ton-Joost, Alan, Yalon, Honny, and Didi.

I will always remember Mr. Schnyder’s wine classes and Miss Poggio’s French classes. Ortiz, Rankl and Fournier headed service. Fournier always reminded us in his French accent that he went to Rochester Institute of Technology. The language teachers were Mr. Sherry and Mr. Berry. Finally the guardian angels of Petit Paradis, Gilberte et Armand Mounir. One of the favorite rites of passage was to attend La Pacha nightclub. The whole of Les Roches was jam-packed listening to the tunes.

The classes were held mostly in Mirabeau. The Malaysians, Indonesians, and Singaporeans were always told not to bring hot sauce to the table. We had to taste European food with all its flair.

The trip to Gruyere and the Beard cutlery factory were the highlights. Everyone looked forward to the cultural night. You got a chance to eat and taste different foods from all over the world. However, the trip to the abattoir in Cher-mignon will be etched in our memories.

Derek always knocked on my door every Sunday morning to go to church. I never went. John Leo would organize Bible lessons on campus, I never attended a single one.

During our first break, Alan and I headed to Paris. It was the first time, I was in a TGV heading at 200km/hr from Lausanne to Paris. Oh yeah. Talk about two foodies and fashion geeks heading to the food and fashion capital of the earth.

The first year, I was at school, Les Roches wins the Grand Prize Triumph of European Excellence founded by Rene Cassin, Noble Peace Prize recipient. We all get a chance to serve at Dinner. It was my first experience serving at a state banquet. It is something that will always be embedded in my mind.

The summer batch was fun with the good weather and it was time to look for a stage. I headed off to Hotel De La Paix in Geneva.

During my first week at Hotel De La Paix, Geneva, Mauro Berta the Maître D’hôtel wins the best Maître’ D award in Europe. De La Paix was this 200-year-old hotel with many residents of royal blood. Lalin joins me from Les Roches and Udo Hamm joins from Lausanne. It was the start of an amazing life long friendship. Udo with all his connections would take us to the UN in Geneva. Udo is still the only Swiss friend that I made and he lives in Zurich. Udo was the F&B stagiaire and had access to the cellar.

I cannot share some of the crazy things, I did with Udo, but let’s just say, I got to taste some of the best Lafite, Margaux, La-Tour, and Haut-Brion. It was amazing to see some of the bottles lying there for like forty or fifty years. The highlight was tasting a 1920’s Chateau d’Yquem. That flavor drinking it in a 200-year-old cellar where there was no F & B electronic control will be with me till I die.

At Dinner, every night was like ok Natasha Kinski and her family are sitting on that table, the German ambassador is on that table, the Czar’s family is on that table, the Egyptian gun runner is on that table. The wife of the arms dealer wanted her ashtray changed after every flick of her cigarette. The prize for doing that. You got 10 Swiss Francs every time.

The Geneva car show is famous all over the world. Rolls Royce since the beginning chose De La Paix to show off its latest model. One got a chance to meet and serve the who’s who of the car world.

After my stage was over, I asked if I could work in reception for two weeks. Mr. Olav Vaage, the GM himself from Lausanne agreed with pay. Bien sur, Gerald.

I was loaded with six months of tips and headed to London for a couple of weeks before Kitchen.

I have to be honest. I was not looking forward to the kitchen. I had never cooked in my life. The thought of getting grease all over me and smelling at the end of the day was not my idea of work.

We were housed in Hotel Bristol in Montana. The girls were still at Hotel Mirabeau.

Chef Bider with his chak chak, Chef Bertini talked more about his diving than cuisine, Chef Rey in a la carte, I never understood a word he said. Oh yes, pastry Chef Harris with his sarcastic English and Chef Luetolf with his put it in the hofer (excuse me, oven).

I learned to cut vegetables, meat, and fish in every form and cook it using various methods. I learned to eat snails, snakes, and even horses (yes, disgusting to a North American).

I hated butchery. Mr. Emery could not speak English and the whole instruction was in French. I will never forget Glen Garcia and me were told to cut this whole leg of a cow. It took the two of us, to carry it from the fridge. After the amazing instructions, we look at each other and say do we know what we are doing. We just dug in our knives and just started cutting. Mon Dieu, le viande cest cher. Cest la merde. Check out the translation.

Then came the trip to Cher-Mignon. The slaughterhouse. The day we attended, it was the huge Valaisanne cows getting slaughtered. Farmers were famous for making the cows drink water before being weighed. Each cow was weighed and discounted for drinking water. They got an electric shock to the brain. Hung up and one knife to the heart. Within 10 seconds, the skin is taken and you saw the whole raw flesh.

I liked the kitchen demonstration. You sat for six hours seeing the chef’s cook and got to taste all the food. It was during this time that a young pastry chef called Dominique Stoeckli joined. From our time, he is the only staff member left.

Honny Khatwani was my roommate and we are friends till today. Just last week we were talking about all the ethnic problems going around in the world. At Les Roches, Yal (Jewish), Kabir (Muslim), Honny (Hindu) and I were buddies.

It was time for stage again. I headed to Hotel de la Rose in Fribourg. Statira and Thitiporn were also doing their management stage at reception.

I got a chance to work with Chef Robert Vielgrader. The guy spoke perfect English. However, he only spoke to me in French. Let’s just say that by the end of stage, my French was pretty decent. After stage, Statira, Thitiporn and me headed to Austria for 10 days. After the trip, I headed back to school.

As I got into the third year, the new building was getting constructed. The Diploma would also be from the Swiss Hotel Association. We would be the first batch to be given that diploma. Mr. Maes would teach accounting. Max would drive him nuts with his jokes. The German classes were boring. I am still not sure how I passed. Economics was fun. Mr. May taught housekeeping and public speaking.

The new building was ready by June. For the opening ceremony, the who’s who of Valais and Switzerland was there. The management students had to coordinate the whole event which was an amazing experience.

The farewell dinner was emotional. Everyone had tears in their eyes. Three years were over. We knew that there is a good chance we would not be seeing each other. 120 joined the first year, it was down to less than 90 the second year and less than 60 graduates. The hotel business is demanding.

In the last month of the school, Ortiz taps me on the shoulder and asked me if I would be interested in working for the school. I was barely 21 and the thought of teaching 120 students was a little frightening. I told him I would think about it. John, Berndt and I ended up doing our stage at school.

It was an amazing time and I built some life long friendships. I learned a lot about leadership, communication and delegating.

As I was taking the funicular for the last time heading to Sierre, my time at boarding school, university residence had come to an end. It was a ten-year stint and I knew the days of my bed is made, the clothes getting washed and getting my meals done were over. I backpacked Europe extensively before heading to Dubai. It was in Berlin I ran into Honny and Joanne.

I get asked a lot if the $ 200,000 tuition is worth it. In Europe, hospitality is a tradition. In North America, you do it while you are doing something else and you get good tips. I learned about food, culture, studying with more than 100 nationalities. That kind of experience is hard to find. The skills I learned at Les Roches prepared me for life.

Out of all the dating couples, only Glen and Leefen ended up at the altar and are still happily married with two beautiful daughters.

I wish I could send the president or prime minister of every country to Les Roches. However, that is not realistic. Here is my call to action to every Les Roches graduate. You are an ambassador of peace. You need to be the game-changer in society. You need to tell people that we are all the same and the same blood runs through us. Make friends with everyone in your class. You will learn so many things from each human being that will prepare you for life.

Les Roches is just not a school. It is a way of life.

Photo Credits: Craft Based Learning by Les Roches Global Hospitality CC BY-SA 2.0, Switzerland by Dennis Jarvis CC BY-SA 2.0, Les Roches by Studyplacesdotcom CC BY-SA 2.0, Funicular by Cristian Ruz, CC BY-SA 2.0, Esperando el Funicular by Cristian Ruz, Sierre Crans Montana Funicular by mostlybytrain CC BY-SA 2.0, Hotel de la Paix Geneva by Hotel de la Paix Geneva CC BY-SA 2.0, Winter Menu by Hotel de la Paix Geneva CC BY-SA 2.0

The author is grateful to studyplacesdotcom for providing most of the pictures in this article. CC BY-SA 2.0