Currently working in collaboration with the client and BLEE HALLIGAN architects www.bleehalligan.co.uk on a 50 room off grid resort in Kodaikonal, Southern India.
I was appointed Executive Assistant General Manager, opening of the 5 star Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Kampala Uganda in 2007, where we were challenged to launch without a soft-opening and whose first 36 guests were the Heads of state of the participating commonwealth countries of C.H.O.G.M. (Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting).
These included Helen Clark (NZ) Gordon Brown (UK) and Thabo Mbeki (SA). My official appointment was Executive Assistant General Manager, head of Food and Beverage.”
‘CHOGM 2007 was a roaring success’
New Vision Uganda
Selected Projects:
Hotel Touring Geneva Switzerland
Food and Beverage, Front Office Manager
Hotels Camino Real Mexico City
Executive Assistant Food and Beverage Manager
Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, Kampala, Uganda.
Executive Opening Team. Assistant General Manager
Camino Real, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Executive Opening Team Food and Beverage.
Oneminutesouth, Lake Victoria Bulago Island, Uganda
Start up Manager and Chef
Rwakobo Rock Lodge, Uganda.
Relief Manager F&B Consultation
@the River, Ishasha, Uganda.
Consultant: Bush Camping Experience. Lake Edward Flats
Lindsey Hotel Lubowa, Uganda
General Manager
Our Green Zebra tomatoes. Photo © Johanna Gibbons FLI
“The good guys in the Organic food movement…the service was remarkably good and unfussy”
London Evening Standard
“Everything we tried was just great…Fennel and Chestnut was fantastic”
Time Out London Restaurant Guide
I have designed and built over 7 café/bar/restaurant operations. Working with discipline, I have never spent more than the allocated budget and often brought the project in under budget. In some operations I have designed the kitchens and supervised the contractual building work, in others I have personally supervised building work and quantified materials and equipment to be purchased.
Selected start-up Projects:
Que Pasa? Mexican Bar and Restaurant. Kampala, Uganda.
Design and Build of Kitchens, Menu Engineering, Equipment purchasing, staff training.
Otters Bar and Restaurant. Kampala, Uganda.
Construction of Kitchen
Deli Delivery. Kampala, Uganda.
Construction Kitchens, Menu Engineering.
Waterfront Club. Entebbe, Uganda.
Entebbe Theatre. Entebbe, Uganda.
Kitchen design in collaboration with architects.
Construction of Club Kitchens, Menu Engineering and Staff Training.
Primate Lodge. Uganda
Renovation of Kitchens, Menu Engineering and Staff Training.
Quiet Revolution. Old Street. London, UK.
Design and Build of Café and Kitchens, Menu Engineering and Design, Staff Training.
Quiet Revolution. Marylebone, London, UK.
Menu Engineering and Design, Staff Training.
Quiet Revolution. Covent Garden. London, UK.
Kitchen and Restaurant design, Menu Engineering, Staff training.
Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
My experiance includes creating products from a concept idea to listings and delivery to major supermarkets. Designing manufacturing production processes to conform with strict food safety requirements. Design and build of manufacturing factory.
Press statements include;
The Quiet Revolution Fresh Organic Gazpacho Soup
“Highly enjoyable for something so ethical!”
The Times Weekend
“The Quiet Revolution has come up trumps again with a wonderful Fresh Organic Tomato Pasta Sauce”
BBC Good Food Magazine
Selected Start up projects:
Pret a Manger. London, UK.
Sampling an Organic range of soups and Salads.
Buxton Foods – The Stamp Collection. London, UK.
Sampling an organic and gluten and dairy free range of sauces.
The Quiet Revolution. London, UK.
Design and build of manufacturing plant producing 500 litre batches. First Organic Soup product to be stocked by Sainsbury Supermarket UK
Deli Delivery. Kampala, Uganda.
Design and build of kitchens and Pizza Oven for home delivery food service.
Elderberry preparation.Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Green walnuts, sliced and ready for pickling.
“It is important to start with sourcing local quality ingredients whenever possible. Local ingredients can mean ease of purchase and freshness of product. A quality food product can often require less manipulation which makes the end product of a higher quality and more cost effective.
I believe in clean bold flavours which have echoes of our culinary past, when survival techniques were a necessity. My working method involves ongoing research into culinary histories and ancient techniques of food production and preparation.”
Alexander Blee
In over 30 years of food production I have worked in the following broad categories:
Batch cooking of over 500 litre volumes
Mexican
Wood fired
Organic Vegetarian
Sourdough Bread
Italian Pastas and Pizzas
Alcohol Infusions
Gastronomic Bistro
Flavoured Smoked Barbeque
Wild Mediterranean Herbs
Salads / Wild Foraging
Kitchen Garden Cooking
Soups and Sauces
Pacific Rim
French Provincial
Wild Meat
Fresh Fish / Marinated Raw Fish / Sushi
Smoked Food
Slow cooked / Marinated
Preserves, Chutneys, Vinegars and Jams
Tarts, Brioche, Compote, Stewed Fruits
Sub Saharan African
North African
Middle Eastern
“Alexander is engagingly honest and contagiously enthusiastic, he is indeed quite a revolution himself...twice winner of the prestigious Soil Association Organic Food Awards”
Food Illustrated magazine
“I was very impressed…in terms of quality, it’s the way food should be”
NPN Magazine: Raymond Blanc (3 Star Michelin Chef)
Our harvest. Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Autumn foraging - sloes,blackberries,crab apples,hips. Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Photo ©Johanna Gibbons FLI
Open flame charring organic cabbage.