Alexander Kral is an Executive Chef at Hotel Borobudur Jakarta with extensive experience in the hospitality industry. He is well-versed in the logistical requirements and demanding culinary standards that characterize the food and beverage sector. He specializes in strategy planning, food and beverage cost analysis, catering, and culinary management.
Ignatius A. Anugraham has been in the industry for 37 years and is currently the Food and Beverage (F&B) Director at Hotel Borobudur Jakarta. His daily responsibilities encompass four key areas: financial, staff, guest experience and responsible business. Prior to his current Position, he held leadership positions such as Vice Chairman for Corporate Social Responsibility and Total Quality Manager.
Could you tell us about the roles and responsibilities you have held before, which have led to your current roles as an executive chef and food and beverage director?
Ignatius: I commenced my career in the hospitality industry from the grassroots level as a bartender, serving various restaurants throughout my journey. Hotel Borobudur Jakarta is my 20th hotel, extending my experience in the field. The most interesting element of this journey is working with multiple international five-star hotel chains like Starwood Marriot, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Shangri La. Every restaurant chain has its own culture and norms, but I was driven by the goal of providing customers with a consistent experience and generating potential revenue.
Alexander: I have evoked an interest in the hotel industry from my mother being an inspiration. She was working as a restaurant general minister, where my brother and I used to accompany her after school. This inherited curiosity and the thirst to learn more about hotel management and prompted me to continue my education in this sector. I started my journey from Europe to the Middle East, Egypt, and Doha for six years. Eventually, I joined Asia, went back to the Middle East and returned to Asia. Throughout all these years, I have owned a background restaurant command center, a five-star resort and a city hotel.
Hotel Borobudur Jakarta is leading all the efforts to enhance the food and beverage department, highly focused on quality, consistency and taste to provide customers with a great eating experience
What prevailing challenges have you witnessed in the food distribution process, and how have they impacted the food industry?
We have been shifting from one country to another to deliver our services, encountering different issues in each place. For instance, in Malaysia, accessing raw materials or imported goods is pretty easy compared to Indonesia due to the quota system, which limits the availability of imported goods. So, nothing is definite; rather, it depends on country to country.
What technologies are you integrating in Hotel Borobudur Jakarta to improve the food distribution process?
Ignatius: Before the surging demand for social media networks, hotels were running limitedly with manual labor. However, in the current time, digitalization has taken the industry to a new horizon and we have involved our business in social media platforms. For instance, through WhatsApp, customers can contact the outlet directly and place their orders remotely. Alexander: By leveraging technology, we can efficiently control our stocks by mechanizing our operations, which saves time and makes tasks easy to perform. Now, it is more like a drive share where everyone can access it easily. For instance, we have gained different experience with different hotel management systems for ordering supplies. Out of all the platforms, Oracle is the preferred system as it is easy to use, especially for global sourcing, where products can be ordered for various hotels.
What strategies do you employ to ensure high culinary standards within the food and beverages department?
Considering the dynamic nature of the hospitality industry, ensuring we have the right product to meet customer’s expectations and demands is important. We contact our suppliers and check with them about the availability of products, their quality and price before purchasing them in bulk. I take a proactive approach while designing the menu due to market volatility. For instance, I have worked in Europe for almost 20 years, and I have never experienced any compromise either with the availability of products or with the quality. However, this is not the case in Asia. So, be it any places, I always ensure that I have all the essential requirements before finalizing a product on the menu card for customer satisfaction.
What advice would you offer to other leaders and fellow peers in the hospitality sector?
Ignatius: The only advice I want to give is to create more leaders and not followers. Leaders should imbibe the traits that mold members into responsible leaders and pass on their expertise and knowledge to our next generation.
Alexander: I believe every member has the right to show their creativity and explore themselves in whichever job role they are assigned. Although it is important for leaders or supervisors to guide subordinates and direct them toward the right path, they should be allowed to experiment with new things and come up with innovative ideas. Leaders should be more of mentors than dictators.
