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Deborah
kdschwartzFiled under: Food & Beverage | Tags: Asheville NC, The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa
With Easter coming up, we decided to do a little research on the number of eggs used here at The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa. Eggs are obviously a breakfast staple, whether they be scrambled, fried or poached. But we also use eggs in many of our other recipes. Here at GPI, just about everything is made from scratch. We use eggs in many of our sauces, batters and dressings. We separate eggs to save the whites for omelets and the yolks for sauces. We even use eggs in our meat loaf and pancake batter! Care to guess how many eggs we use a year at GPI?
We will use 81,540 fresh extra large eggs this year!
Our “Eggspert”
Executive Chef Denny Trantham tells us that the majority of eggs used at GPI come from Eggland’s Best. Chef Trantham says that’s because the eggs are healthier. Eggland’s Best eggs contain 10 times more Vitamin E than ordinary eggs, four times more Vitamin D,115mg of Omega 3, shown to be beneficial to cardiac health, 25% less Saturated Fat, 75% more Vitamin B12, over 50% more Vitamin A, 15% more Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), 200 mcg of Lutein, shown to contribute to eye health, and 10% of the daily recommended intake of folic acid. Chef Trantham submits recipes to the company, which in turn posts them in their company newsletter and on their website. Chef Trantham is also the winner of the 1995 and 1997 American Egg Board’s “I Love Eggs” recipe contest. In 1995 he dazzled the judges with a Tasso Ham & Boursin Cheese Frittata with a Georgia Peach Compote. Chef Trantham “egged” to the top of the competition in 1997 with Southern Eggs Benedict with buttermilk biscuits, country ham and sawmill gravy.
Speaking of Chefs & Eggs
The proper name for a chef’s hat is a toque, but did you know that the number of pleats in a toque is related to eggs? From “A Pageant of Hats, Ancient and Modern,” by Ruch Edwards Kilgour, copyright 1958: “It was regarded as natural that any chef, worthy of the name, could cook an egg at least one hundred ways. The most-renowned chefs often boasted that they could serve their royal masters a different egg dish every day in the year, some of them so cleverly prepared, that aside from being highly palatable they had flavors as widely different as completely diverse kinds of foods. Today, noted chefs are seldom called upon to prove their prowess in this manner. Nevertheless, they still wear one hundred pleats on their hat, the old-time symbol of their skill in the egg department.
Easter Eggs
Our guests on Easter weekend are in for a special treat! Chef Trantham will be hosting an “Eggs 101” cooking seminar in the Great Hall. In addition to making hollandaise sauce for Eggs Benedict and demonstrating how to prepare the perfect omelet, GPI’s “eggspert” on all things egg will also take your questions. Want to take a guess what the most common request is from our guests? They want to know how to perfectly flip an egg without breaking it. Now that’s “eggciting!”
Filed under: Human Resources | Tags: Asheville NC, The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa
Here at The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa we refer to our co-workers as our family. Part of our mission statement is “Everyone Matters, Everything Counts” and that applies to our employees as well as our guests. Every year the staff at GPI votes on a Rock Solid Leader of the Year and an Employee of the Year. These employees are nominated by their co-workers. We would like to share parts of those nominations with you now as we introduce our 2009 Employee of the Year and Rock Solid Leader.
Rock Solid Leader –Dawn Barozzini
Dawn Barozzini has been with The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa since December, 2003. She did incredible work for the Resort in Reservations and in April, 2008, Dawn was promoted to the position of Revenue Analyst.
Dawn throws herself into every component of the Revenue Analyst position. She brings a high level of knowledge, energy and excitement to every meeting and/or Department that she works with. With Dawn’s previous Revenue Management, Reservations and Hospitality experience, she has earned the respect and built solid relationships with the RevMax group and all of the Departments she works with. Dawn is a strong example of a person who draws on all of her experiences and tells it like it is. She is honest and direct and in her position, this is absolutely necessary for success of not only herself, but The Grove Park Inn.
Dawn is the perfect candidate for Rock Solid Leader because she naturally encompasses the Value, Mission, Vision and Culture of The Grove Park Inn. It is just who she is. Anyone that Dawn has contact with is treated with the utmost respect, with the well being of the Company always in mind. Most recently I have had the pleasure of working with Dawn on our Cenium Team. She always gives 100% no matter what. Dawn is a motivating leader who can really get people to work. Dawn has keep such a positive attitude throughout the entire process and continues to keep us informed and excited about the future of The Grove Park Inn.
Employee of the Year – Elizabeth Manley
Elizabeth demonstrates common sense and good judgment every single day. She never panics when faced with a challenge. Everyone, employees and guests alike, receive the highest standard of care and service no matter what the situation. She is creative. Her commitment to the GPI family is paralleled by her commitment to her own personal family. She is the busy mother of two beautiful twin boys. She brings a sense of fun to the Reservations Department by always taking the time to find things to celebrate. Be it birthdays, anniversaries or ground hogs day, there are decorations and cookies. Her hard work directly affects our profitability. Elizabeth always goes above and beyond the call of duty. She provides Legendary Service not only to our guests but to every employee working at the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa.
It’s been my good fortune to work with Elizabeth for close to 5 years in the Reservations Department. For those that don’t know Elizabeth, she is Lead Agent Day Shift and most important the Trainer in Reservations. You will see her all over the Resort when she has a new agent. She shows them one end of the place to the other. Elizabeth sets her sights on making the new agent feel like part of the family, introduces the agent around, arranges shadowing in other departments and shows off all that the resort has to offer. When she is not with a trainee, Elizabeth is keeping everyone up to date on the latest information. From guest room maps to pictures of our specialty themed rooms Elizabeth keeps it all organized in the agents hands. She walks the GPI culture everyday without fail.
One of the things our guests ask about most is the work underway on our roof. Grove Park’s red, clay-tile, rolling roof is one of our signature landmarks. In preparation for our 100th birthday in 2013, we are restoring our historic main Inn to its original glory.
So why is it taking so long?
The roof restoration project is taking 18 months to minimize inconvenience to our guests. The entire project could have been completed in about half the time, had the entire Inn been scaffolded all at once. This would have made getting into and out of the resort difficult, and would have severely hampered our guests’ experience.
What guests may not realize about the scaffolding is that around certain parts of the resort it has been placed with the views of the guestroom windows in mind. The width of each scaffolding section is wider than the windows of the Main Inn. This allows our guests to still enjoy the magnificent views out of their guestroom windows without having a vertical metal bar staring them in the face. Obviously, the scaffolding is noticeable, but the view directly out of the window is unobstructed.
What’s different from this job than any other large roofing project?
The biggest difference between this job and other major projects is that GPI is restoring the dormers, hips and ridges; not the entire roof. This requires the company doing the work, Baker Roofing of Raleigh, to blend in their “new” work with the existing tile on the roof. This requires a lot of skill and effort so that the new portions of the roof don’t stick out as different from the rest of the roof.
Another difference is that each one of the dormers on the Main Inn varies in size. This makes the work very challenging as the roofers aren’t able to measure once and duplicate the process. They must measure and calculate their figures for each individual dormer before they can begin the tiling process.
Additional Tidbit:
All of the tile that is going on the roof is made in New Lexington, Ohio by Ludowicci Tile Company. Their tiles are on the rest of the roof as well.
We hope you’ll pardon our progress as we get ready for our centennial!
The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa is known the world over for its rich history. Our employees are also known for legendary service and we hope you find this new blog an extension of that. We hope to give you some insight into what makes us tick, and why we do things certain ways. It’s also why we decided to call our new blog The Grove Park Innsider – to keep you informed on what we’re doing here on Sunset Mountain from an insider’s perspective. In the days to come we’ll be telling you about a lot of our best assets, such as our world-class Spa, award-winning restaurants, Donald Ross golf course and again, GPI’s legendary service. E.W. Grove probably never considered things like blogs as he planned and built this wonderful Inn, but he was a visionary. We think Dr. Grove would be proud that we’re taking the big leap into the world of social media. We invite you to come along with us and hope you enjoy the ride.
The Grove Park Innsider 