Hospitality Design - December 2011 - 30

perspectives
what’s cooking

sketchbook

On the 8th oor of Macy’s Herald Square in New York, beyond the winter coats and swimsuits, sits De Gustibus, the 31-year-old cooking school run by James Beard Foundation alum Salvatore Rizzo. Big-name chefs, from Italian cookbook goddess Marcella Hazan to the omnipresent Geoffrey Zakarian to Boston’s Barbara Lynch have all led classes here over the past three decades, enthralling foodies and enthusiastic home cooks. The centerpiece of the school, however, needed a contemporary update, and to create its new state-of-the-art kitchen, unveiled this season, De Gustibus sought out high-end Italian furniture manufacturer, Snaidero USA. Susan Limone, who runs the company’s Northeast business and led the project, rst sat in on a few classes as design research. “I looked up and I wanted the chef and the food to stand out, not the cabinets. I didn’t want to do a wood grain with glass doors that showed off the dishes,” she says. So, she settled on soft feather gray—“not a sharp white”— without any hardware, “which made it very clean” and easy to maintain. “We added more cabinetry and stacked them higher to frame them out.”

The most vital part of the kitchen’s design, Limone points out, was durability. To ensure longevity, Snaidero integrated Miele appliances, Ceasarstone countertops, and Calligaris chairs “that went with the theme of stainless steel and charcoal. The runners in black tie it together.” An Alessi clock adds another burst of style while Tru g ush-mounted outlets blend function and aesthetics. “When you have a large kitchen like this it gets used and abused,” Limone says. “We wanted to give it a modern, fresh look, but the number one thing is that it has to hold up.”

mexico, for adults
Solmar Hotels & Resorts have been the haunt of couples and families headed to Cabo San Lucas since the original Solmar Hotel debuted in the 1970s. For its newest property, the 119-suite Grand Solmar at Land’s End in Los Cabos, which opened in May, the goal was ambitious: pure luxury. “Their other hotels are large and family oriented. They wanted to reinvent themselves,” explains Sergio Saenz, VP and senior designer of Dallas-based HKS Hill Glazier Studio, the architect for the project. “When they started there wasn’t a lot of competition and now there is.” HKS, having worked on Las Ventanas al Paraiso and One&Only Palmilla before it, had great insight into Cabo that allowed them to distill the spirit of Mexico while creating a polished, upscale resort. “The beauty of working in a place so many times is you get to know the city,” says Saenz. “What is the essence of how people view Mexico?” For Saenz and team, capturing a dramatic sense of place was key. Astounding views of the Arch, the area’s iconic natural rock formation, seems to grace the resort at every turn. So, a “raw sophistication of nature” was a guiding principle for Saenz, “which led to the development of outdoor spaces as indoor spaces,” like the lobby, reached via a golf cart. Here, shadow and vegetation play in the entryway and stairs carved into rocks lead down to the Paci c Ocean. For the interiors, HKS worked with Guadalajarabased designers AI, and the palette doesn’t deviate from the surroundings either. Guestrooms are strewn with a soft orange hue reminiscent of prickly pears, and muted marble adds class to the bathrooms. The property remains under construction, and will gradually introduce new suites, a spa, and lobby (the current one will become a VIP check-in) until the resort’s anticipated completion in 2013. “This resort has more elements in common with a boutique hotel than a timeshare,” notes Saenz. “We brought in the element of creating an experience within an experience.”

she’s crafty
Fashion and hospitality merge at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, where visitors to the storied property during next year’s Paris Fashion Week will see Anndra Neen jewelry, handcrafted in a Mexico City workshop, on display. The sisters behind the brand, Phoebe and Annette Stephens, snagged the 2011 Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize—and $40,000—for their glamorous line incorporating materials such as brass, nickel silver, copper, shells, and stones. “We work with artisans whose families come from a long line of silversmiths. We wanted to give back to Mexico by creating modern pieces that could compete in an international market,” says Phoebe. “The designs of Anndra Neen are meant to evoke a sense of history, of old world exclusivity, and luxury. We strive to create the sensation of beauty coupled with ease, where the feeling is one of specialness and comfort, where each detail has been attended to, and where the quality of the piece is impeccable.” The jewelry, then, is a perfect complement to the oneof-a-kind Dorchester Collection hotels uni ed by seamless elegance. “Each hotel is a world unto itself yet exempli es the collection’s standard of excellence,” points out Annette, just as “each collection from Anndra Neen evolves from a singular design perspective. Every piece within the collection captures the essence of this inspiration, while at the same time offering a different point of view. Each collection is a whole, yet each piece translates the inspiration differently; every detail is carefully crafted.”

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - December 2011