Anna Payet was clear. “Breakfast should be to enjoy.” And so he transmitted it to the Roca brothers while they gestured the idea of the Casa Cacao hotel ,. Five years after its opening, the Breakfast of the establishment was recognized as the best in Spain in the Boutique Hotel category, a prize awarded last January by Madrid Fusion. Since then, Payet says they have had an “avalanche” of customers, and that a large majority of those they call to stay ask about the first meal of the day. “We serve it on a terrace overlooking the center of Girona. It consists of seven steps and in the middle is our star dish: the egg villaroy. The accompaniment of this is changing according to seasonal vegetables. ”The sweet brooch could not be missing, with very present chocolate. All served at the table by a room team that explains each dish to the diner.
“For us, breakfast is vital for the client to want to come to our hotel. It is a very important point of attraction,” says Payet. Those who do not stay, can go to take the brunch From Tuesday to Sunday from 12.30 for a price of 55 euros. “It is identical to breakfast, but we add one more dish. It is having a lot of acceptance. Both local people and tourists housed in other places that come to try it.”
Payet’s words coincide at many points with those of Diego del Río, executive chef of Boho Club, which took the award for best breakfast in the Gran Hotel category. “It has been crazy since we won the prize. We have seen ourselves a little overwhelmed,” he acknowledges from the river. The chef highlights the large number of external customers approaching to try the first meal of the day for 35 euros. “There is a change of habits in travelers. When they arrive at the destination they look for gastronomy options in the surroundings for breakfast, which has become fashionable.”
In the, breakfast was served the letter, “but customers asked me to buffet.” Now they offer that modality and on demand serve eggs in different elaborations. The chef does not hesitate to say that breakfast “is a claim when choosing accommodation.”
Before Casa Cocoa and Boho Club, the winner of the best breakfast in Spain, last year, in a first edition in which there was only one category. His executive chef, Lutz Bösing, has “14 years” serving breakfast to the letter for a reason. “In the morning I am not the best humor and I hate having to get up to take the things of the buffet,” he says between smiles. Already in a more serious tone, he ensures that the first meal of the day “has to be easy and if they serve you at the table, better.” “It is a luxury that agrees with the philosophy of the hotel,” he says, and says that the establishment has 70 rooms and in the kitchen there are sufficient staff to satisfy customer requests.
From the award, Bösing has noticed that “external people want to prove it”, and believe that there is more and more interest from both the audience and hoteliers in the award, with a greater number of participants in the latest edition of Madrid Fusion. The president of the gastronomic appointment, José Carlos Capel, explains that this recognition arose to Azuzar to hotel companies to put more efforts in the breakfasts “that were very abandoned.” “As an impenitent traveler, I have to endure very bad breakfasts,” he says, as he recognizes an “improvement” and increasingly a greater “restlessness” of hotels for doing well. Although in his opinion the buffes are uncomfortable, he acknowledges what travelers like the most, who enjoy walking and filling their food dishes. This gastronomic offer has evolved in the last decade, says Sergio Mellado, food and beverage director, which every year analyzes which products consume guests and the expense they suppose. “The sausages, for example, are now eaten, which allows us to bet on Iberians. The intake of fruits, cereals and dairy has risen.” The data collected allow them to adapt to the trends, among which Mellado highlights a greater concern for healthy eating, a point where all the sources consulted coincide. “There are those who think that what comes out most, for example Cruasán, must be the cheapest. It is a mistake because you play your image.”
Mellado defines a hotel as a set of services, “not just a bed”, in which “the three d: rest, shower and breakfast.” The gastronomic offer “is fundamental” and a more important decision factor of what is believed. Of course, he adds, usually behind the price and location. Another of the trends in which the interviewees coincide is the importance that the proximity products are acquiring. “Small hotels help us to have a more complete experience. Not only in terms of food, we also take into account elements such as decoration, work of local designers or artisans,” says Anna Payet. For its part, Sergio del Río highlights the importance of this commitment to the close in the economy of the area. As an example of this point, Payet says that many of Casa Cocoa clients end up buying in the position that the Charcutero that provides them with some products that serve in the first meal of the day has.
On changes in breakfast, Fabio de Vero, business consultant specialized in hospitality, considers that it is due to a change in hotel chains. “Before they saw gastronomy as a problem. They even left it in the hands of external operators. Little by little they have realized that it is part of the guest experience and begin to understand that it can be a source of income. If you do not take care of it, the client can go.”
A good gastronomic offer can also serve for the local client to lose the fear of entering a five -star hotel, and see it as one more place to go in their city. It is from Madrid. “The evolution is to be a meeting point for people who live here, not just a hotel,” explains Laura del Pozo, director of Communication and Public Relations. Among the different proposals of the hotel, which are changing throughout the year, one of the fundamentals is the brunch of Sundays, which has a price from 120 euros and in which news is introduced, “so that it is not something static.” Since May, and until July 13, a Mexican station has been incorporated in collaboration with Karla Cova Villa that includes a selection of typical dishes of the American country, but with a touch of author. And it is accompanied with an exhibition of pieces of Huakal, Mexican brand of artisanal decoration. A union of gastronomy and art that also occurs in one of the brunch that has recently returned to the city. The one that offers Sundays and is enlivened with live opera music for 125 euros.
