I
was working at the Floriade, where I worked with many Hotello’s who got me enthusiastic about Hotelschool The Hague. However, before I started I took quite some gap years, but gained quite a lot of work experience in hospitality. The Hotelschool was great! However, it took me six and a half years to complete it. I enjoyed living in Skotel a lot, even though I grew up around the corner. My favourite lecturers were Mr. Gallicano, Mr. Ouwehand, Mr. Vos and Mr. Van de Kreeke. They had a lot of knowledge in the field of food and beverage, which is where my interest lay as well. I did my first internship in Dubai, where I worked as an F&B intern for a Thai chain. For my second internship I was the Beverage Manager for a large Marriott Hotel in China. I was meant to stay in China after my graduation, but the place I was going to work for ended up being a big scam, so my plan crashed. I returned to Amsterdam and ended up working at the Conservatorium Hotel as the Bar Manager during their opening period, after which I went on to become a manager for a few restaurants in Amsterdam. Then, I got an offer to become co-owner of a new concept: Bar Hugo. We have now been open for one year. Bar Hugo is a great cocktail bar, but we are also a restaurant. The cuisine is French oriented and is influenced by different flavours from around the world. Many neighbours form the basis of our loyal guests. The bar culture in Amsterdam is strongly emerging. There has been an explosion over the past few years of good bars and restaurants in the area. We have not yet suffered from the competition, but Amsterdam is very sensitive to trends, and people often forget the good places that already exist when something new comes along.
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In the future I want to work less in operations, and I hope to have opened a new concept. In five years I still hope to be working in Amsterdam, having opened a few more successful places. I also started a consultancy project, which hopefully will grow over the next few years. Why do I want to stay in Amsterdam? I actually do not have a bond with any place outside of Amsterdam here in the Netherlands. I was born and raised in Amsterdam, and even studied here. I would, however, love to live abroad, but I do not see that happening any time soon. Perhaps in ten to fifteen years. A subject I did not find useful during my time at Hotelschool The Hague, but now consider being useful is Managerial Finance. I had to re-sit it, and I hated it, but it turns out to be quite handy in retrospect. I do not regret that it took me six and a half years to complete the study. I always worked a lot outside of school hours, and that definitely helps me now. At school I always made sure that the group projects went well. My advice for current students is that it is important to be aware of what you want to do in the future. Seeing as the study is so broad, a lot of people do not know what they want, but being able to specialise is an important tip!