Behind the Banquets: Feasts, Finesse, and Flawless Service with Ibrahim Andraos, Assistant Director of Food & Beverage at The Four Seasons Park Lane.

What was your journey in hospitality and what led to you to the Four Seasons?

I grew up in Dubai during its incredible boom in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, surrounded by the city’s opulence and energy. Most kids wanted to be doctors or lawyers, but I was different—even at six or seven years old. I remember a school field trip to the Jumeriah Beach Hotel. While the other kids were restless, I was captivated. My teacher even told my mother, “Watch out for him on this!” That was the spark.

My roots are in Jordan, and every summer I visited my grandmother’s home, which happened to be near a culinary academy linked to my Alma mater. At 13 or 14, I began exploring my university options and booked a tour with my mum. I was that kid asking, “What’s the power on the kitchen extractors?”.

After more research, we found that the academy was affiliated with Les Roches Crans-Montana, a university in Switzerland with a rich culture of togetherness and amazing connections. It felt right, and I ended up studying there. To this day, I still connect with many of the friends I made during that time, many of whom work here today!

After university, I started my career at the Rosewood Hotel in Marketing and Communications, but it didn’t work out—I was a bit too young for a role of that scope. That experience humbled me, and I took some time to figure out my next step. I eventually joined The Doyle Collection at the Bloomsbury Hotel as a Banqueting Porter, where I rebuilt my confidence and quickly moved up to Head Waiter, and then a supervisor role at Sofitel St James. But just as I started in January 2020, the pandemic hit.

Everyone was furloughed, and I feared I’d lose a job I’d not even started. A year later, I returned to find I was the only one left in my department, so I was essentially thrown into leading it. From 2021 to 2024, I grew from an inexperienced supervisor to a fully-fledged Head of Department, managing a team of 20. This role shaped my career in ways I can’t overstate.

Now, I’m Head of Department for Banqueting at the Four Seasons and have been here for six months. The team is exceptional; everyone is highly skilled, and we’ve received fantastic feedback. I couldn’t be happier!

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What drew you to the Four Seasons?

There are “holy grail” companies in hospitality—the aspirational, historic institutions. Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane is one of them. It’s the first Four Seasons property outside of Canada and a significant part of the brand’s global expansion, and a hotel of many ‘firsts’ in hospitality – setting a new standard worldwide. This hotel has a reputation as a “make it” property: if you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere. It’s a challenging but immensely gratifying place to work.

The company as a whole, the name, the reputation, the brand – drew me in. I like to think of myself as hotelier, in the sense that I keep up with industry trends, my contacts across the board and know a lot more than the average person. It all contributes to the fact that this is an institution in London and as someone who stays informed on industry trends and values a prestigious brand, Four Seasons was an ideal fit for me.

What’s a typical day look like for you?

There isn’t really a “typical” day. That’s both the beauty and heartbreak of events. Every day brings unique clients, events, and team dynamics. In restaurants, you expect a flow of evening bookings, but in events, you have 250 people arrive at once. Just the other night, we planned for 300 guests, but 400 showed up! You have to think on your feet and pivot constantly.

Event planning requires a level of detail you don’t see elsewhere. It’s managing everything from food service gloves, to lighting, chilled wines, and even to the level of having sets of spare socks on hand in case a team member has worn the wrong color! No two days are alike, I can come in thinking it’s a chilled day and still be here at 9pm, calling everyone I can to come help and getting stuck in – not to paint it in a bad light – it’s fun! It’s interesting, compelling and a weird rush that unless you get it, you don’t – because the reality is – it’s a really hard job to have both professionally and privately. It’s hard to plan your life around this line of work. Thank God my wife is in hospitality & a saint!

What’s the most rewarding part and most challenging of your job?

The reward is definitely when an event wraps up, and you see the positive feedback roll in. Recognising team members for their hard work is fulfilling. On the flip side, the most challenging part is addressing mistakes, especially when feedback needs to be serious.

My wife has a nickname for me when I do have to get serious – “Banqueting Ibrahim” – when my eyebrows furrow and I have to get serious, it doesn’t happen very often but sometimes when you have 50 people to direct, you do have to be strict with standards to ensure they don’t slip. I much prefer to be on a friendlier side and personable level with staff.

At the beginning of my career, some of my managers were very difficult to work with, and I always said I would do it differently. I’m definitely more empathetic in my management style and I’m a firm believer that if your team is on your side on a personal level then they will be on your side when things go wrong.

There used to be a manager when I was an intern who used to walk in and say to me “you know what rhymes with party – latte! Make me latte!” and my insides literally churn thinking about it. This is the kind of stuff that I stay away from: making people stop doing what they’re doing to make me a coffee, denying holiday requests – the place won’t burn down if you have a wedding to attend. I believe in empathy, and I think my team respects that. I had managers who were tough, and I promised myself I’d lead differently. Building personal rapport with my team helps them stay on my side when things get tough.

With such an international hotel have you noticed any changes post Brexit and COVID?

Brexit and COVID drastically changed hospitality. Before the pandemic, there were about 8 million hospitality workers in the UK; when the industry reopened, only about a million returned. This meant doing the same work with a fraction of the staff, and it created a knowledge gap. In my first management role, I wanted to learn from seasoned colleagues, but many had left. Recruitment has been tough as younger generations gravitate towards jobs with instant gratification, like social media. So, you’re literally doing the same thing with 1/8 of the staff and the highly skilled and trained people from chefs, sommeliers, porters to old school European waiters who were passing knowledge down to the next generation, overnight they were all gone. I needed to figure things out on my own.

That scope has changed the way we’ve done recruiting and everything. Recruitment has been a more challenging than it previously was (pre-pandemic), because it seemed like no one wanted to work in hospitality. However, by listening to the younger generation whilst upholding our core values and standards, I’m inspired every day by working with a team of motivated, hard-working individuals that are helping to shape the future of hospitality.

Is there a particular event or moment you’ve worked on that stands out for you?

We recently had a huge corporate VIP client in. A very small amount of people who were very specific, not demanding – but knew what they wanted and would let you know. It was a huge piece of business for the hotel, and we smashed it. When I say we, I mean the whole team, everyone was amazing. The feedback we got was incredible and there was a couple of more personal moments – we got to really shine. We overheard there was an anniversary and did something special for them as a surprise. It was little touches that we poured into it that gave us awesome feedback. On that level, I was really happy with how it panned out.

I love how you always mention your team and how they deserve the credit!

Honestly, who are you without your team? If you’re a Bar Manager, you’re not making the cocktails, connecting with the guests, remembering orders and faces. A Restaurant Manager at a 100-seat restaurant can’t touch every single table and interact with every guest or everyone who is serving or keep track of dietary requirements and specific phase of the service. Your team is the core of everything you do. If you don’t get on board with your team and they don’t get on board with you – there’s a serious issue. When I give credit, I give it rightfully so – to the team as they are the ones who make it happen. I give instruction and direction but go out there and actual make it happen so without my team – I’m lost. From my side it’s, give credit where credit is due and 99% of the time it doesn’t fall with the head of department, it falls with the team actually doing the execution.

Any advice for anyone looking at getting into luxury hospitality?

Definitely: be humble and listen to advise given early on. Be careful who you get your advice from: as with any industry, you have people who have been in a job for ages and haven’t grown or developed and are stuck in a very specific way of thinking. Be careful to not be trapped in an old-school way of thinking when this is such an evolving industry and finally, do it because you love it – not because you have to. When you stop loving the industry and the intensity and daily challenges and struggles, it becomes you doing something for just the pay check and you can become incredibly unreasonable. You end up creating an environment where you’re bitter and no one wants to work with you.

QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS!

Favourite Pub: The Atlas, West Brompton

They have an amazing food menu. it’s one of those places where it doesn’t look like it’s going to be good but it’s insane. it’s not pretentious food; it’s throw some mash on the plate - but it’s so good.

Favourite Area of London: West

From a hospitality person, when you go West, I find it’s a great mixture of being lively enough to be still considered London but its still got that element of quiet and peacefulness. IT GIVES FROM RESPITE FROM THE DAILY GRIND.

Favourite Park: Holland Park

I'm not really a park person, I grew up in the Middle East so I'm used to sand! SO, PARKS don’t necessarily really do it for me but as far as parks go for me, Holland park is a great one!

Favourite Drink:

Coffee – MY GOD DO I DRINK THE STUFF! My go to is an espresso. It's a culture thing also,, I LOVE COFFEE and I have SO many a day.

or, alcohol wise, a Negroni– it's a perfect you can have it before or after dinner... i'ts got a great zing to it, it's perfect.

Favourite Market: Borough Market

Best Kept Secret: "Being kind costs nothing - so be kind!"