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cover story
January 2013 Gulf Gourmet
January 2013 Gulf Gourmet
cover story
The
Godfather
In an exclusive tête-à-tête with Aquin George, the multi-faceted Andy
Cuthbert talks about his stellar journey thus far in the hospitality industry
Trying to fit the story of
Andy Cuthbert’s career into
a magazine article is like
trying to stuff a giraffe into a
suitcase. Just an hour after hearing
him speak, you are overwhelmed by
the amount of information you have
absorbed. You come out feeling that
perhaps a book is more apt to cover
his narrative.
The thing is that the Australian,
born and raised in Melbourne, dons
many hats. To begin with, he’s the
General Manager for Conference,
Events and Jumeriah Hospitality
based out of Madinat Jumeirah.
Under this role, he looks after all the
conferences and events in the hotel,
integrates the outside catering
division that moved from Emirates
Towers to Madinat Jumeirah, and he
coordinates the company’s approach
in terms of conference and events
by looking at strategy and strategic
alignment of all Jumeirah properties
for banqueting and conferencing.
He also gets involved with the Asia
office working on developments
in countries such as China and
Indonesia, looking at the F&B side
of side of things including kitchen
plans, F&B concepts, restaurant
concepts, and in his words,
“anything the company wants me to
handle. I do the entire spectrum of
banqueting and outside catering.”
While I’m still deciphering his
“spectrum” of responsibilities, I
realise that he’s got more on his
plate. Andy is also the Chairman of
the Emirates Culinary Guild, which
as most Chefs in the UAE know, is
responsible for uniting and uplifting
thousands of chefs working in this
country. The Guild has improved the
culinary standards of the UAE to
such an extent that it breaks world
records, sweeps culinary Olympic
medals, brings home medals from all
major chef competitions worldwide,
trains young chefs and organises
the biggest Chef competitions in the
region, such as Salon Culinaire and
Sial Middle East.
And that’s not all. Andy is the
Chairman of the World Association
of Chefs Societies (WACS) Young
Chefs Development team! Also,
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