The Hospitality Mentor: Our New Website, Culinary Tourism, and ChatGPT Menus

We’re proud to announce The Hospitality Mentor website is finally here! I launched The Hospitality Mentor brand with our podcast a year ago, and it’s exciting to see how it’s grown to encompass a video series and this newsletter as it all comes together on this new website.

Just a year into launching the podcast, I’m also humbled to share The Hospitality Mentor was named a Top 10 Hospitality Podcast for 2023 by International Hospitality Institute , and I was also named a Top 25 Social Media Influencer in Hospitality out of hundreds of applicants for the second year in a row.

Thanks to everyone who listens, reads, watches, and engages with The Hospitality Mentor. Every like, comment, and share means the world to me, and I look forward to continuing to create content that inspires, educates, and empowers the hospitality community.

?? This issue is brought to you by Biscayne Coffee, delicious coffee roasted in Miami with the mission of saving Biscayne Bay. Use promo code MENTOR for 10% off your order at checkout. Don’t forget – we always donate 10% of your purchase to Biscayne Bay Foundation to help preserve the bay. ??

?? What's Hot in Hospitality

Known as culinary tourism, food is increasingly becoming a key factor in travel decisions – from the accommodations travelers book and the experiences they add to their itinerary, to prompting the trip to the destination itself. The Michelin Guide was literally created for that purpose – to inspire people to hit the road and travel to the world’s top restaurants that are worth going out of your way for. But these days it doesn’t even need to be a Michelin-star meal; it might be as simple as a casual pizza joint featured on Barstool’s One Bite Pizza reviews, but food lovers will actually book a trip just to seek out these top-rated institutions.

Famed Blackberry Farm in the Great Smoky Mountains is a luxury resort known for its cuisine that comes from its sprawling farmland and the surrounding region. The hotel offers three inventive gourmet restaurants, daily cooking demonstrations, and a team of chefs, gardeners, bakers, cheesemakers, foragers, butchers and more.?

Even cruise lines like Virgin Voyages have leaned into this foodie market, defying the stereotype of bad cruise buffets with their 20+ eateries featuring menus designed by Michelin-starred chefs included with the cruise fare. And when it comes to what to do or where to eat on your trip, new travel apps have popped up for foodies, like eatwith , which lets you share a meal with a local by booking a cooking class or a home-cooked meal.

Restaurants and hotels can take advantage of these food-obsessed travelers by designing unique, immersive experiences on-site. For a restaurant or bar, that might be an eye-popping menu item or over-the-top tableside presentation that becomes the talk of TikTok and Instagram.

For a hotel or vacation rental, that could be an on-property experience like curated offerings from the destination’s top local food & beverage artisans. For example, Maya Luxe - Riviera Maya Luxury Vacations , a collection of beachfront villa rentals in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, offers its guests the option to bring top local chefs into their homes to prepare local cuisine.

?? What I'm Sipping

As the rest of the country transitions into warmer weather this spring (here in Miami, it’s warm year-round), an Albari?o white wine from Martín Códax winery in Spain’s Rías Baixas region is a great choice to replace the typical Pinot Grigio or Rosé. Albari?o is my personal go-to wine for a warm day by the ocean because it offers excellent value as a lower-priced, high-quality wine option, and whenever I drink it, friends and family ask me what it is.

Martín Códax winery is a cooperative of about 50 Galician grape growers in the northwest corner of Spain, and Albari?o is their signature varietal. This up-and-coming drink is a crisp, elegant, medium-bodied white wine, with aromatic flavors of white peach, apricot, melon, pineapple, mango and honeysuckle. Next time you have guests over, plan a menu with seafood as the main course, and pair it with a versatile Albari?o.

?? What I'm Working On

We’re excited to unveil The Hospitality Mentor’s brand new website – a destination for discovering the people and places that make hospitality magical. Now you can find all of our podcast episodes, videos, and newsletters in one place! Dive into the personal stories of top hospitality professionals; get a behind-the-scenes look at luxury resorts, restaurants, and the hospitality leaders behind them; and sign up for the latest hospitality trends and insights delivered to your inbox.

Browse the site and reply in the comments with your favorite story you found on The Hospitality Mentor!

?? What I'm Inspired By

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, and while it might seem like it’s mainly a copywriting or marketing tool, there are so many ways we can leverage its artificial intelligence in the hospitality world, too. When you’re stumped on new ways to innovate for your guests, ChatGPT can be a great brainstorming tool to get ideas flowing and speed up the concept development process with the help of the world’s best mentors in your back pocket.

I’ve been using it lately to jumpstart ideation with my clients and wanted to share one way you could use it yourself. Need to plan a special menu for an upcoming event? Here are three ChatGPT prompts to get you started brainstorming a Michelin Star inspired menu like this one:

Prompt 1: Create a 3-course meal with two options per course for a luxury hotel.

Prompt 2: Make the food in the style of Chef Thomas Keller (or your chef of choice*)

*This is the truly impressive part of ChatGPT, since you can access inspiration from world-famous hospitality leaders at your fingertips

Prompt 3: Provide the detailed recipe for each of the items above

Just like ChatGPT will never fully replace the human insight and craft of a masterful writer, there’s no need to worry about it stealing our hospitality jobs either. Think of it as a virtual assistant or a personal mentor to help make you more efficient.?

?? Listen: The Podcast

Coming up on the Hospitality Mentor Podcast this month, listen to my conversations with Stephanie Farr , CEO and Founder of Maya Luxe, a collection of luxury beachfront villas and experiences in Mexico’s Riviera Maya; Geri Williams-Fitts , Chief People Officer at Highgate Hotels; and Norman Love Norman Love of Norman Love Confections, a gourmet chocolatier whose treats have been featured in Forbes, USA Today and Oprah Magazine.

?? Watch: On YouTube

So far our Hospitality Mentor video tours have focused on new restaurants and luxury resorts across South Florida, but I’m excited to share this new episode as we give you a taste of the Caribbean through the story of Chef Ga?lle Mussington from the island of St. Martin. We met Chef Ga?lle at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival last month, and she spoke to us about her passion for food, family, and the flavors of St. Martin, the tropical paradise that she calls home.

We’re looking forward to sharing more personal stories like this, as we highlight the faces behind the hospitality industry.

If you’ve read this far, send me a short reply and let me know what you enjoyed most from this newsletter. See you again in April!?

If you found this edition helpful, feel free to forward it on or leave a comment to help spread the word about The Hospitality Mentor. It only takes a few seconds and makes a huge difference.

Cheers,

Steve Turk, Founder and Host

The Hospitality Mentor