Opryland, built in 1977, was an undisputed leader in the convention business for years. But it grew stale. Just five years ago, it was so dated it felt “like 1985,” according to many familiar with the property before Gaylord ushered in new management. The changes have been aggressive and fast. Opryland today is about reviving its original prominence and innovation—a rebirth. And this includes a major commitment to revolutionizing food & beverage— using a unique [to the industry] entrepreneurial approach.

“You can’t fall out of a ditch.” That was Peter D’Andrea’s comment when asked about the challenge of taking on the position of F&B director at Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville.

In perpetual motion—mentally and physically—Peter covers 10 to 12 miles a day. And walking with him through this massive resort kingdom provides a unique opportunity to witness on-the-spot change.

Everyone knows him, and most refer to him as “Chef.” His antennae and eyes are everywhere. Suggestions, corrections, and feedback are constant and immediate. What you see is what you get. What he says is what he means. Peter personifies the Gaylord culture. Keeping him “in a ditch” would be impossible.

Something big has happened at the largest nongaming resort in the country. Seems like everyone in Nashville has a connection to the resort, and they tell you nothing is like it used to be ... except for the Southern charm and hospitality. But it is no longer a “Southern” hotel.

View From the Top
Things worked pretty well for a long time at Opryland Hotel Nashville. Its legacy was as an innovator with high standards. “But, eventually, there was no challenge to stay current ... that’s when a property can lose its personality,” says John Caparella, executive VP and chief operating officer for Gaylord Hotels.

When Gaylord’s new leadership team, headed by Colin Reed and Mike Rose, came in to rebrand Opryland and expand into other areas of the country, one of the first things they did was change the Nashville property name to Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. All of the other properties—including outside Orlando, between Dallas and Fort Worth, and a new property planned to open in 2008 in Prince Georges County, Maryland, in the Washington, D.C., market—incorporate Gaylord into their names, as well as reflect their locale.

The name change was significant, symbolic, just the beginning. They also invested about $85 million in wayfinding and room renovations, built the Relåche Spa, and committed to reconcepting food & beverage.

“It’s extremely important [with food & beverage] to know who we are competing with, to understand that we can’t be all things to all people,” says Caparella. This attitude, the determination to find the niche they can dominate, drives the company. “As a result, Gaylord has assumed a unique entrepreneurial perspective, which is reflected in its hiring practices.”

An example [as it relates to food & beverage], he explains, is that in most properties, there is one executive chef in charge of all F&B venues but not at the Gaylord properties. Instead, each one has its own executive chef, or chef de cuisine. At Gaylord Opryland, there is an F&B director. But there is also an executive chef of convention services, a chef de cuisine of Ristorante Volare, a chef de cuisine of Old Hickory Steakhouse, and on and on. This attracts experts in every single area. The expectation: “Do what you do best,” Caparella says.

The approach encourages individuality and builds a team, a dream team, overflowing with creativity, vitality, and passion for their work.

“Passion can be a double-edged sword,” muses Giorgi DiLemis, Gaylord Hotel’s VP of food & beverage—and a perceived visionary. This [passion] must be expressed within a framework of strong brand standards that support the culture of the company, he emphasizes. “Make sure your directions are clear, and let them do their best.”

This is not a new way of looking at an accounting system but a new way of looking at and creating a culture. “The [leaders] take a global approach. We are dealing with people who understand being ahead of the pack. Once you think you are O.K. you are not O.K. ... you must constantly be evolving,” DiLemis says.

Thinking Big
Group bookings account for more than 80 percent of Gaylord’s business. And they excel in their capacity as hosts to conventions and exhibitions, earning the highest rating in the Meeting News Planners’ Hotel Preference Poll, notably placing above all others in the “Banquet/Catering Services” and “Quality of Food” categories.

Senior VP-GM Arthur Keith has set the bar high for standards of service and quality at Gaylord Opryland, the largest nongaming combined hotel and convention center under one roof in the continental United States and the “crown jewel” of the Gaylord properties.

It’s understood that staff are Gaylord’s most important commodity. They are not just “employees.” They are STARS. And they focus on the qualities embodied by their name: Smiles, Teamwork, Attitude, Reliability, Service with a passion.

Keith rarely utters a sentence without referring to his STARS: what he wants to do for them, what he has done for them, what he expects from them. A Cornell graduate and most recently from Harrahs Las Vegas, he appears to be relaxed and approachable. Detail oriented without micro-managing, he has a mantra his STARS are expected to memorize and act on:

1. Think big.
2. Act small. Demonstrate the ability to execute the details.
3. Fail fast. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
4. Learn constantly.

In other words, Keith rewards success—and failure. The only thing he punishes is inactivity. There are incentives to take risks.

One specific reward is the quarterly incentive program, a three-tier program that rewards every employee with a $50, $100, or $150 bonus when the property achieves excellent ratings from surveys mailed out after guests check out. Done electronically by Maritz Research Company, it’s a small but tangible example and reminder that they are first and foremost a team.

Keith believes the biggest mistake a leader can make is to think he or she has all the answers. “You have to involve a lot of folks.”

He and many others attribute the property’s success to the ability to “get the tools.” But “the most important tool” he emphasizes, “is the culture ... not something you can easily put your arms around.”

F&B Revolution/Evolution
Passion. How many ways can you say or demonstrate it? Coupled with commitment, passion comes in every style and flavor when experiencing the creativity of Gaylord Opryland’s food & beverage STARS.

He came four years ago as a chef. Now food & beverage director, Peter D’Andrea knew people don’t come to Opryland for Tennessee cuisine. They may take Goo Goos, the local candy made from chocolate, caramel, marshmallows and peanuts, home to the kids. But they want more than that or fried chicken and Maxwell House coffee (a famous Nashville drink).

They really did serve a lot of fried chicken, bar-b-que, and collard greens. “And banquet food,” D’Andrea says, “usually consisted of a slab of meat, frozen vegetables, and a pile of mashed potatoes.”

“There was more focus on the atrium than food.” There was no kitchen next to the largest ballroom, for example, and plated food could sit in a hotbox for 45 minutes before being served. “Now, through batch cooking and implementing five lines, plating for thousands happens in five minutes, not forty-five,” D’Andrea says.

D’Andrea knew guests come from all over the country and world, bringing with them a variety of needs and growing expectations. Gaylord Opryland is located in the Bible Belt, but their customers are not. At the very least, they want the finest wines, best sushi, freshest breads, genuine Italian cuisine, and the thickest most succulent steaks. The numerous F&B accolades Opryland now receives suggest they are providing that—for starters.

“At Gaylord Hotels properties, flawless service and good food are no more than an entry point,” says D’Andrea. “What we strive to achieve is an experience.”

With a staff of about 1,200, including 275 cooks and 13 kitchens, it took him a year to a year and a half to make an impact. D’Andrea replaced 40 to 50 percent of the F&B staff in both the front and back of the house.

The focus was on retraining on the basics, food safety, ensuring they had the best-quality food, recruiting, and developing a five-year strategic plan.

Staying Ahead of the Pack
Does the concept of not having one executive chef in charge of all F&B work? “There’s no need for it. I’m so culinarily driven ... and I spend a lot of time with Giorgi DiLemis, who is a true visionary,” says D’Andrea.

The “experience,” according to DiLemis, must carry through all of their three-meal restaurants. And creating and staying ahead of the trends is part of it.

The trends? Marrying culinary flavors and beverages, microbrews, and small plates are big. “And there is a huge focus on tableside and/or interactive dining in the restaurants and banquet & catering,” D’Andrea says.

New concepts are continually being born or massaged at Gaylord Opryland. Flourishing are cheese and cordial carts. On the drawing board are a ciacetti (“small bites”) cart and a martini cart where martinis are mixed tableside and distinguished by unusual garnishes such as cactus leaves, quail eggs, chocolate, oysters, and raspberries— a concept that also can be used butler-style with in-room dining.

The Old Hickory Steakhouse has made the cheese cart a brand standard. Gaylord Opryland’s maitre de fromage, Richard Peterson, who trained at the Artisanal Cheese Center in New York City, sets out 10 to 20 carefully coordinated varieties of cheese. The capture rate is nearly 50 percent; revenues are $14,000 to $20,000 a month in each Old Hickory restaurant. “Initially, says D’Andrea, customers used the cheese cart more for appetizers, but it’s changing ... more and more it’s a dessert choice.”

The next big thing is the new buffet concept, with a working name of “American Harvest.” Doing away with the old-style buffet at Rachels, a market concept with about six interactive stations is being designed, including a bakery, produce stand, specialty kitchen with sauté and seafood items, and carving and dessert stations. Located by the “river,” there will be live music and a sense of being outdoors.

A wine bar, Enoteca, a concept dating back to ancient Rome where people met to enjoy food and wine, is being introduced at Ristorante Volare. One of the goals here is to provide a place for women travelers to relax and feel more comfortable than they might in a traditional bar setting.

The Delta’s entertainment complex, with continual live shows, is also being dramatically altered by opening up and combining the spaces currently used by several bars and lounges.

DiLemis says “we analyze ourselves every day.” These new concepts, he says, come from everywhere, often from the field. “You must create an atmosphere where your people have the confidence to speak up and offer ideas and opinions— no matter how big or small. “One woman recently suggested having a small stool for women’s purses, something I’d never thought of.”

And D’Andrea makes sure he gets the right person to take a concept and run with it. When looking for a sushi chef, he went to the best sushi restaurant in Nashville and asked owner Peter Hua if he could recommend someone. Hua ended up at Opryland, and Wasabis Sushi Bar now brings in $20,000 a month. When looking for a Northern Italian chef, he attracted Maurizio Bussolino, originally from Neive, Italy, in the hills of Piemonte, who has also worked for Marriott as well as Galileo in Washington, D.C., and Bellini in Sarasota.

Banquet & Catering
For a Toys ‘R Us tasting, the pastry chefs created a Jack in the Box confection, but Geoffrey the Giraffe popped out instead of Jack. The Dallas Cowboys’ group was wowed by a solid chocolate football helmet created for a centerpiece. Do these STARS have fun? You bet.

With about 1,200 meetings a year, banquet & catering accounts for 60 percent of Opryland’s food & beverage revenue, about $55 million. One of D’Andrea’s first moves was to bring in Michael Swann as executive chef of conference services, someone he knew from his days as Marriott’s Corporate Executive Chef.

A Gold Platter Elite winner two years in a row, “Michael is an unbelievable chef,” says D’Andrea. “His mission has always been to bring quality restaurant-style food into the banquet hall.”

Don’t expect D’Andrea and Chef Swann to agree on everything. D’Andrea has an aversion to mixed entrées—serving meat and seafood together on one plate. He may suggest, instead, offering the fish as an appetizer and meat as the entrée. Swann, however, says one of his most popular dishes is surf & turf. But D’Andrea and Chef Swann work closely together on creating and staying ahead of banquet & catering trends.

“We are about mass customization,” says Chef Swann. Meetings planners often expect to have limited choices at a large meeting ... but our niche is to think with a restaurant mentality.” We are encouraged to never take a cookie-cutter approach.

Even within one group, you may have as many as 10 subgroups, he says, break-off groups that ask for something different. At the Proctor and Gamble meeting with 2,000 people, the Gillette subgroup wanted a South Beach Theme. And being versed in many areas, Chef Swann easily pulled it off. He is doing more kosher banquets, too, with many layers of complexity.

What did he set out to change when he was hired two years ago? “I looked at portion size, sauces, plate presentation, and menus. Portion size has a lot to do with putting the right items together ... as for sauces, I eliminated flour which masks flavors, and use natural reductions.

“I approach a plate as a canvas, like a painting. There should be no more than four components and a sauce. There must be a healthy balance, with an emphasis on flavor profiles and proportion. Food should speak for itself ... that’s easier today because of the availability of designer products.

“Most importantly, I wanted people to understand I was a good cook. I am really involved with the cooking piece, unlike many executive chefs who are more managerial. I follow the food. I interact, demonstrate, teach,” Chef Swann says.

What are typical menu development steps? “I develop a menu—broken down into breakfast, lunch, and dinner—and hand it off to the catering department to ensure it’s perfect for a client. We go through it together and then make a presentation with digital photos and a power point presentation.” But the site visits are the most fun, he says, especially with repeat customers where there is a comfort level.

Even though he refers to “simple selections,” it’s not what most people, who eat the same thing for breakfast day after day, would call simple. A continental breakfast offers five to seven fruits and a large pastry selection. And plated entrées can be downright extravagant. Two favorites are peaches and cream french toast and sweet potato hashbrowns. That’s the kind of Southern cuisine guests can now expect at Gaylord Opryland. And there are several other popular“new Southern” dishes.

The biggest banquet trends:

• Residential. Appetizers may be passed at the table, like at home, and people love it.
• Bringing the kitchen to the customers. Action stations let you show your expertise. And demonstration kitchens, such as making Mexican corncakes in front of guests, are enjoyed by everyone.
• Offering choices. Letting guests go through and build their own plates is in demand. Cook-to-order can work well with 2,000 people. “It’s awesome, and they appreciate it.” Risotto stations where guests choose their items—mushrooms, asparagus, etc.—are popular.
• Receptions in place of sit-down dinners every night. It breaks up the formality and lets attendees mingle and network. The big banquet, more and more, is reserved for the last night.
• Reaching out for special requests. There is growing demand for vegetarian dishes and dishes that consider allergies.

Not an Island
Does D’Andrea miss cooking? He cooks whenever he gets the chance. Gaylord takes their show on the road several times a year at NSO (National Sales Office) events. These chef extravaganzas bring together chefs from all of the Gaylord Hotels properties to dazzle potential customers. That’s when D’Andrea gets to perform. Last month, a hundred or so lucky people were invited to an elegant reception in the gardens of a private Georgetown mansion, followed by a formal sit-down dinner and dessert buffet. In September, they will host a similar function in Napa.

A big part of D’Andrea’s job is to inspire, motivate, and educate. And since Gaylord Opryland has always been an integral part of the Nashville community, it’s only natural to take it outside of the resort. For the last two years, D’Andrea has mentored students for the National Restaurant Association NRAEF scholarship foundation. He also teaches a Junior Achievement class in the middle schools on personal economics. And to recharge, he takes road trips on his Harley.

How do the STARS stay charged up, engaged? “When you are part of the process,” says DiLemis, “you buy into it.” And put another way by Chef Swann, “there are no heroes, only hero sandwiches.”.

Margaret Rose Caro is the editor of HOTEL F&B EXECUTIVE.