Darryl Fujita
Chef de Cuisine, Orchids
Halekulani on the Beach, Waikiki

“I’ve received and fulfilled the gamut of culinary room service requests, all with a commitment to exceed our guests’ expectations. One experience, however, stands out in my mind. We were honored with accommodating a royal family, who occupied an entire floor with more than 60 guests. The group was comprised of different ages and a range of dietary considerations, and they preferred to dine privately. They requested that an international culinary spread be made available to them 24 hours a day. In addition to running all of our restaurants at Halekulani, my team and I checked into rooms at the hotel so that we could guarantee 24 hours of the finest, freshest, most indigenous spread of gourmet cuisine. We cooked around the clock.”

Elise Wiggins
Executive Chef, Panzano
Hotel Monaco, Denver

“I once had a couple who called room service and ordered a specially cooked burger and steak for their dog. They specified that there was to be absolutely no dairy on the plates but lots of chicken stock flavor in the meats. The steak needed to be well-done and served over risotto, of course. The burger, on the other hand, they requested medium rare with no salt—sodium was bad for ‘Snookems.’”

Paul Piscopo
Executive Chef, XYZ
W Hotel, San Francisco

“I had a man request that we bring him enough hot chocolate to fill up the bathtub in his room. He was adamant about it. Then the kitchen worked through the numbers and proposed what that quantity of hot chocolate was going to cost, as well as the cleanup deposit that would be necessary. He backed out of the order when we quoted him the price.

Brian Frakes
Executive Chef,
The Pfister, Milwaukee

“At the Pfister, we take great pride in accommodating our guests and exceeding their expectations. I carefully design our menus to cater to the health conscious, vegans, and vegetarians, as well as to educate our staff on allergies, gluten, carbohydrates, and nutritional information. Of course, there are always going to be odd requests, and our culinary team is prepared for the unexpected. For instance, we recently had a guest who must have had some dental work done. He called room service and asked to have a Cobb salad puréed for him and served with a straw. Doesn’t sound too appealing, but at least he enjoyed it … he called down the following night and ordered it again.”