--- title: "Recipes for success: Why are restaurants important for hotels?" description: Jan Smeets, managing director at 'Recipe for Concept', explains how he became a food & beverage consultant and what his firm offers to hotels. --- # [Recipes for success: Why are restaurants important for hotels?](https://51120414.hs-sites.com/blog/recipes-success) Written by [Admin](https://51120414.hs-sites.com/blog/author/admin) | Nov 20, 2023 11:00:00 PM Restaurants are a key success factor for hotels; thus getting the right concept for a given property is crucial. [Jan Smeets](https://de.linkedin.com/in/jan-smeets-012b262), managing director at ['Recipe for Concept'](https://www.recipeforconcept.com/), explains how he became an F&B consultant and what his firm offers to hotels. ## Jan, please describe briefly what your firm does and how it is structured, number of employees, etc. **Recipe for Concept develops authentic, contemporary and holistic restaurant & bar concepts with a turnkey-framework approach.** We aim on establishing individual, authentic and fitting concepts, for both, our clients and their target group of guests. My team and I work with a network of professionals and are currently seeking talented colleagues to add to the team. ## Please explain how you got into this business; what sort of hospitality background do you have –hotel school, perhaps, or chef training? My father was a chef, so I grew up with the restaurant business. I started my ‘professional’ career as a kitchen hand in Germany and later in a bakery shop at Selfridges in London before studying at the Hotel Management School in Maastricht – before, during and after I have been working in the international upmarket hospitality industry ever since, with a strong focus on food & beverage with several food & beverage management positions. I decided to start Recipe for Concept after a couple of years in international concept development for a renowned brewery. ## What qualities/background would you look for if you were hiring a young person for your business? I AM hiring ;) so **I am looking for people with first-hand operational experience and an understanding of today's requirements** in an appealing restaurant concept from both, a guest experience perspective and the operators point of view. Most importantly though: common sense! ## What new trends do you see in hotel F&B, both in terms of format and cuisine? That is a difficult one and hard to generally state – apart from the existing trends such as hyper-local concepts, clean eating, veggie-centric cuisine. Gladly, there are many very good examples of where hotel F&B should move to – for a large proportion though, I would like to see more movements such as: - A relevant offer and well thought through concepts catering to hotel and local guests – give your guests something different than the standard international menu/cuisine… (what is that anyway) and same, same bar selection of drinks; - Secondly **look at F&B more from an experience point of view** – let's create exciting moments - Thirdly – let’s use more current technology - Lastly, especially for the 5*- star plus sector, make prices attractive and affordable again. I believe in local profile and positioning of your hotel though its food & beverage offering and thus it’s just ridiculous to charge 10€ and above for a bottle of mineral water… How cool would it be for an “average” guest to drink more than just 1! glass of wine and possibly order a full menu instead of just a main course. [**Related Article: Beyond Food & Beverage**](https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/beyond-food-beverage) ## Do you see a significant impact of millennials on hotel F&B practices? Yes, of course and hopefully more. Especially in terms of **sharing and tasting experience, presentation, waste reduction and sustainability, use of technology and marketing**. By the way, I am currently setting up a program of “green turnaround measures” for the food & beverage/hospitality industry together with an experienced “green entrepreneur”. It's not so much about being hippy-green, but **to introduce the methods of the circular economy and easy-to-implement ecological steps** in a 3-tier system. ## Since you are German-based and work mainly with German clients. What are some of the particularities of the German F&B market? In metropolitan regions: **a growing readiness to experiment with taste and discover new or unknown culinary horizons**. At the same time in more rural areas a strong sense for tradition and little trend-enthusiasm. Both have their up- and flipsides. ## Outsourcing of hotel restaurants has become a major trend? Do think this is a good idea? If so what structure would you recommend – lease, management contract, etc.? It depends on the hotel operator and again a brief answer is difficult. Good hotel operators **make a fantastic culinary experience possible if they are in a comfortable position not to mainly focus on profitability**. But if you work with an operator with little interest in food & beverage, it is indeed a good idea to work with an outsider to still offer a high quality food & beverage experience. Recommended structure? That’s pretty much up to market conditions and location characteristics.**You want your outsourced company to be able to make good money as well**. ## What career advice could you give for current hotel school graduates? **Focus on the right experience rather than a fast career progress** – if you are motivated, resilient, and passionate, the career ladder will automatically move you up – but with a stronger base of experience and knowledge. At the same time: **listen to your inner self, travel, experience and be open for old and new**.   [View full post](https://51120414.hs-sites.com/blog/recipes-success) ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Admin" }, "dateModified" : "2026-03-05T20:58:39.106Z", "datePublished" : "2023-11-20T23:00:00Z", "headline" : "Recipes for success: Why are restaurants important for hotels?", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 1280, "url" : "https://51120414.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/51120414/Imported_Blog_Media/fish-2105233.jpg", "width" : 1920 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://51120414.hs-sites.com/blog/recipes-success", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 60, "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png", "width" : 60 }, "name" : "blog" } } ```