Epicurean Lifestyle: In Conversation with Chefs
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“I will learn all my life in this industry”
Maciej Majewski, Executive Chef at Sofitel Warsaw Victoria, started with Accor 21 years ago and tells Duncan O’Rourke why being a chef is still the best job in the world
Hosted by Duncan O’Rourke, CEO Accor Northern Europe, the new industry podcast tells the stories of moments and lives in hospitality.
Maciej Majewski started his Accor career 21 years ago at the ibis Poznan following early experience in restaurant kitchens in Poznan from the age of 15. He spent the next 10 years moving quickly through the ranks of the hotel kitchens in ibis and Novotel hotels in Poland before moving to Sofitel Warsaw Victoria as Executive Chef in 2011. Since then he has earned accolades across the industry including “Best of Warsaw 2014” and the 2015 nationwide culinary challenge „Wine & Food Noble Night” by Noble Bank and Noble Concierge. In 2019 he was recognized as “The Chef of The Year” by Poland 100 Best Restaurants organization year later, in 2020, his restaurant, La Brasserie Moderne, won “The Best Restaurant in Poland” by Poland 100 Best Restaurants.
Inspired by the French bistro chefs and restauranteurs, such as Alain Ducasse and Yannick Alléno, Majewski unites his love of his native Polish culinary experiences with a modern approach to French cuisine. The menu at La Brasserie Moderne is his signature masterpiece.
He tells Duncan; “Many chefs have inspired me particularly French cuisine, of course Alain Ducasse, very classic, and Yannick Alléno, a bit of modernity. Daniel Humm, the Swiss chef of Madison Park in New York, I admire greatly, as well as many chefs from Poland. I must say my first chef when I was 15 years young and I was starting to learn to cook was an inspiration for me, too.”
The podcast episode discusses the changes in the industry during Maciej’s two-decade career, and the appeal of hospitality, particularly now as job creation soars as sector recovery gathers momentum: “The sky is the limit. Because for what we do, we don't have the limits. We can do everything. And this is the best thing in this industry.”
Duncan agrees and adds: “It's beautiful to be able to come into this industry. Because what you put in you get back and the sky's the limit. It just depends how far you want to go, and how far you want to push yourself.”
As the hospitality industry has reopened and recovered following lockdowns and restrictions, kitchen brigade jobs have opened up across Europe as people flock back to hotels and restaurants to reunite with friends, loved ones, colleagues and experience the joy of eating out once more. Maciej offers his advice to those just starting out in the sector or considering it for the first time: “I think that you'll never get bored in this job, even when you’ve been working like me for so many years in this industry. You don't need to be bored because every day you have some challenges and always opportunities to try something new. This keeps you strong.”
He adds: “If you start in this industry, especially in the kitchen, you have great opportunity to grow. And you can grow not only in the place what you work, but you can grow in our group, you can grow in the brands and you can travel. You start in Warsaw, but for five years, you can work in Dubai, if you want, no problem. It depends. Everything depends on you, and this is the great opportunity.”
A renowned Polish TV Chef, Maciej has appeared on Top Chef and made other culinary TV appearances. In fact he praises the role of culinary TV for the pace of change in the industry.
“We have many programmes like Top Chef and MasterChef that have helped make food important. So people, our guests, like cooking, people like to talk about the food, the wines, the provenance, and the expectation of our guests right now is very high. I very much appreciate our guests and their expectation, because here in the Sofitel, we are working in an open kitchen, so this is an excellent opportunity to have the guest conversation and I appreciate that.”
From the beginning of his career, Maciej Majewski was associated with the city of Poznań, where he gained experience and culinary skills by working first at independent French restaurants and since 2001 at Accor. He held different positions in the hotel kitchens, moving around the Group as he developed his craft, initially at ibis Poznań, further at ibis Częstochowa, ibis Kraków Centrum and Novotel Kraków Centrum. In 2005 he has become an executive chef at Novotel Kraków Centrum and in 2011 he joined the Sofitel Warsaw Victoria as Executive Chef. He opened La Brasserie Moderne restaurant at the Sofitel in 2014, creating and developing the concept of this restaurant. Menu a la carte, based on his conception, is a subtle combination of traditional French cuisine with Polish accents, presented in a modern twist.
The Heart of Hospitality podcast is part of a pan-European industry platform of the same name, built to tell stories of the sector and its people. Accor is inviting stories from across the industry to be shared via #HeartOfHospitality
To listen to the full episode, visit https://heart-of-hospitality.com/podcast/ or find the podcast on Spotify and other leading Podcast platforms.
For more information and more stories from hospitality, visit https://heart-of-hospitality.com/
ABOUT ACCOR
Accor is a world leading hospitality group consisting of more than 5,200 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues throughout 110 countries. The group has one of the industry’s most diverse and fully-integrated hospitality ecosystems encompassing luxury and premium brands, midscale and economy offerings, unique lifestyle concepts, entertainment and nightlife venues, restaurants and bars, branded private residences, shared accommodation properties, concierge services, co-working spaces and more. Accor also boasts an unrivalled portfolio of distinctive brands and mora than 260,000 team members worldwide. 68 million members benefit from the company’s comprehensive loyalty program ALL - Accor Live Limitless - a daily lifestyle companion that provides access to a wide variety of rewards, services and experiences. Through its Planet 21 – Acting Here, Accor Solidarity, RiiSE and ALL Heartist Fund initiatives, the group is focused on driving positive action through business ethics, responsible tourism, environmental sustainability, community engagement, diversity and inclusivity. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France and publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACRFY) in the United States. For more information visit group.accor.com or follow Accor on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Press contacts
Media Relations
Sarah Wilson and Agnieszka Kalinowska, Communications, Accor Northern Europe
sarah.wilson@accor.com
Agnieszka.KALINOWSKA@accor.com
NewsNE@accor.com
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