H-Hotels Group hires new Area Manager for Northern Germany and fills Food Designer position for the first time
The H-Hotels Group is expanding its management team with Roland Szeremlei as the new Area Manager for Northern Germany. His predecessor Oliver Kurscheid has left the company. The company with six hotel brands also fills the position of Food Designer for the first time with top chef Kai Neumann.
Hungarian-born Roland Szeremlei is responsible for the Hyperion Hotel Hamburg as well as the H4 Hotel Hamburg-Bergedorf, the H+ Hotel Bremen, the H+ Hotel Stade and the H+ Hotel Lübeck City Centre. The five hotels have a total of 900 rooms. ‘Roland Szeremlei has perfected the role of host during his international career and with the numerous foreign languages he speaks. He will focus on customer satisfaction, the development of his team and the profitability of the businesses,’ says Thomas Haas, CEO of the H-Hotels Group. For the 49-year-old Szeremlei, a high level of professionalism is the basis of a successful hotel business. ‘For me, this includes above all charm, punctuality and reliability,’ says Szeremlei.
Previously, Roland Szeremlei held positions as General Manager and Opening General Manager at Radission Hotels. His positions have included Belfast, Birmingham, Budapest, Gdansk, Vienna and Zurich. He first took on the role of Cluster General Manager for the approximately 360 rooms of the Park Inn by Radisson Frankfurt Airport and the legendary first grand hotel in Europe, the Radisson Blu Schwarzer Bock in Wiesbaden. Most recently, the hotel professional was responsible for the largest Cluster General Manager position at Flemings in Frankfurt with around 500 rooms and 14 conference rooms.
Food designer Kai Neumann will reinterpret the menus of the H-Hotels Group and inspire the chefs of the 60 hotels across Europe. ‘Delicious, extraordinary, creative, prepared with passion - these are the characteristics that should characterise our food. We want our hotel restaurants to become a centre of attraction for both in-house and external guests,’ says Thomas Haas.
Kai Neumann, who trained as a retail salesman and later became a salesman, was initially a hobby chef. He learnt the basics and tricks of the trade from his grandmother, who was a chef in a restaurant. Over time, Kai Neumann received more and more requests to cook at events as a freelancer. ‘At some point, I had to decide on a passion,’ says Kai Neumann. The job offer from caterer ‘The Foodists’ to become a creative chef and head chef paved the way for a new path. Whether big and pompous or small and refined, it has to be creative for the top chef. The food specialist showcased his ingenuity at the Berlinale with 3,000 guests and at the Echo Awards with 2,500 guests. Celebrities such as the photographer Helene Koelbl, Barbara Becker and Wim Wenders hired him as an event chef. The professional has also worked in unusual settings: he has prepared eight courses for 100 guests on a mountain pasture without electricity. By now, many television viewers will be familiar with the 51-year-old. Kai Neumann has cooked in the final of the Sat1 shows ‘the Taste’ and ‘Total gesund’, for Pro 7‘s “Galileo” and Kabel1’s ‘Abenteuer Leben’.
The Oldenburg-born chef's style is characterised by earthy, woody and floral notes. ‘I like to use wild herbs, extracts of birch leaves, pine needles and wood, which give the dishes unusual flavours,’ explains Kai Neumann. He also transfers old cooking techniques to the present day and changes them so that the basic ingredients of the dishes vary slightly in flavour. ‘In teamwork with the chefs of the individual hotels, we will change the perspective on the menus and prepare fresh, fancy dishes,’ announces food designer Kai Neumann.