Read the supporting article and provide detailed answers to the case questions below.

Jim Gemignani is executive chef at the 1,500-room Marriott Hotel in San Francisco. Chef Jim, as his associates call him, is responsible for the quality of food, guest, and associate satisfaction and for financial satisfaction in terms of results. With more than 200 associates in eight departments, Chef Jim has an interesting challenge. He makes time to be innovative by researching food trends and comparative shopping. Currently, American cuisine is in, as are free-standing restaurants in hotels. An ongoing part of American cuisine is the healthy food that Chef Jim says has not yet found a niche.

Hotels are building identity into their restaurants by branding or creating their own brand name. Marriott, for example, has Pizza Hut pizzas on the room service menu. Marriott hotels have created their own tiers of restaurants. JWs is the formal restaurant, Tuscany's is a North­ern Italian-themed restaurant, The American Grill has replaced the old coffee shop, and Kimoko is a Japanese restaurant. As a company, Mar­riott decided to go nationwide with the first three of these concepts. This has simplified menus and improved food quality and presentation, and yet regional specials allow for individual creativity on the part of the chef.

When asked about his personal philosophy, Chef Jim says that in this day and age, one needs to embrace change and build teams; the guest is an important part of the team. Chef Jim's biggest challenge is keeping guests and associates happy. He is also director of food service outlets, which now gives him a front-of-the-house perspective. Among his great­est accomplishments are seeing his associates develop — twenty are now executive chefs — retaining 96 percent of his opening team, and being voted Chef of the Year\yy the San Francisco Chefs Association.

Chef Jim's advice: «It's tough not to have a formal education, but remember that you need a combination of «hands on» and formal train­ing. If you're going to be a leader, you must start at the bottom and work your way up; otherwise, you will become a superior and not know how to relate to your associates» [1, 172].

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