Starwood in talks to bring W and aloft to Malaysia

STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which owns and operates hotels under nine brands, including Sheraton, Westin and Le Meridien, is in talks to bring two more hotel brands into Malaysia, namely W and aloft.

"We are in two pretty advanced (stage of) discussions in Kuala Lumpur. We are looking at (introducing) a W and an aloft brand," its senior vice-president acquisition and development for Asia Pacific, Matthew Fry, told Business Times in a recent interview in Singapore.

He said one negotiation was for a W hotel and residences that will be built from scratch, and may be ready in four years should the deal be sealed.

"The Kuala Lumpur City Centre and the Bukit Bintang areas are the focus for our W brand," he added.
On its aloft brand, Fry said that there could be one in Malaysia within the next 18 months. The location could be in Kuala Lumpur, Johor or Sabah.

"aloft, basically, has the DNA of, and is the spin-off of W. The hotel measures about 28 sq m compared with a W hotel, which is about 42 sq m to 48 sq m or bigger," he said. "aloft does not have as much public space, and the food and beverage offerings are not as elaborate."

W is described as one which provides the "wow" factor and a holistic lifestyle experience integrated into the brand's sensibility through contemporary restaurant concepts, glamorous nightlife experience and signature spas.

Meanwhile, Fry said that Starwood sees a lot of activities around Johor, especially in the east coast of the state, and would consider this area to have Starwood's representation.

Currently, Starwood operates five hotel brands in Malaysia and has confirmed a sixth - The St Regis.

The hotels operating in Malaysia include Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu, Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur, The Westin Kuala Lumpur and The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa.

In December 2009, it took over the management of The Andaman in Langkawi from General Hotel Management, and is now operating the property as a Luxury Collection.

The Starwood group also operates the Four Points by Sheraton Kuching and is scheduled to open the Four Points by Sheraton Sandakan in March 2011.

It has also confirmed the opening of The St Regis Hotels and Residences Kuala Lumpur in 2014.

Yet another brand which it operates in Malaysia is the Sheraton Langkawi Beach Resort. It also part owns and manages the Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur.

On plans to divest its stake in Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur, Fry said: "Our long-term strategy is to divest real estate holdings. At one point Starwood owned 190 hotels and we are now down to about high-50s.

"The long-term strategy is to divest our hotel ownership and become more of a management/franchise fee-based business. At one point 80 per cent of our income was from our own hotels and 20 per cent from fees. Our goal is to switch that.

"We are not actively looking (to sell). This particular estate (Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur) has not been discussed," he said.

The hotel is jointly owned by Indonesia's Rajawali group and Starwood.

Bid Farewell to El Bulli

El Bulli to Close Permanently

By ANDREW FERREN

Sergio Perez/Reuters Ferran Adrià at the International Gastronomy Summit in Madrid in January.

Ferran Adrià, the Catalan chef who for two decades has been the leading catalyst and inspiration for avant-garde cuisine, has decided to permanently close his restaurant El Bulli, considered by many to be the world’s greatest, and to replace it with an academy for advanced culinary study, Mr. Adrià said in an interview on Friday.

In January, Mr. Adrià had said that the restaurant would go on a hiatus starting in 2012 , but that it would reopen in 2014. For many years El Bulli, in the Mediterranean town of Roses, north of Barcelona, closed for half the year so Mr. Adrià and his chefs could spend the off months developing new techniques, like the foams, airs and other culinary wizardry that he has created.

He told The Wall Street Journal at that time that his research would “be focused on sustaining and growing our brand however possible. A brand with goals like ours requires a big capital investment.’’

On Friday he said he decided to close the restaurant for good because he and his partner, Juli Soler, had been losing a half million Euros a year on the restaurant and his cooking workshop in Barcelona.

“At that level of contribution,’’ he said of the losses, “I think we would rather see the money go to something larger that expands the concept and spirit of what El Bulli represents.’’

He said he would use that money — which he earns mostly from consultancies and other businesses — to establish his new academy and to finance scholarships so the world’s most talented cooks can attend.

“We had planned to use the two years to see how El Bulli could evolve,’’ Mr. Adrià said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been looking at many options, but yesterday we decided that the foundation would be the most satisfying.’’

He said of the demands of the restaurant, “at that bestial pace, it would be impossible to continue.’’

Adrià said the academy would be “a place for free thinking and kicking around ideas’’ about food. The El Bulli academy would likely work with many cooking schools around the world and would seek students — perhaps 25 in the first year — who had the highest levels of professional training.

“Throughout the history of El Bulli we’ve made seemingly drastic decisions in order to maintain our level of creativity,’’ he said.

Mr. Adrià, 47, arrived at El Bulli in 1983, when it was a French restaurant. Soon he took charge of the kitchen and by the 1990s it became known as a laboratory for daring innovation.

“Mr. Adrià’s idea, as he describes it, was simply to ‘do new things with old concepts,’’’ Mark Bittman wrote in 2006. “So, seeing chicken curry as a concept and determining to do something that hadn’t been done before, he developed a dish, now famous, in which the sauce is solid and the chicken liquid.’’

In 1997 he won three Michelin stars. He has since been proclaimed by many to be the greatest chef in the world. He has been widely influential in the spread of “molecular gastronomy’’ — a term he has renounced.

The restaurant will reopen for six months on June 15 after its winter break and will close for good in December 2011.

The 3,000 people on the waiting list for one of about four dozen seats, will just have to hope that someday Mr. Adrià will open another restaurant.

He said that has no plans to, but the academy might be open for breakfast, or an occasional lunch. (And he is the director of gastronomy at El Bulli Hacienda Benazuza hotel near Sevilla.)

“Everything new looks strange,’’ Mr. Adrià.

Migrated to http://www.humblerboy.com

Dear readers, I have successfully migrated my blog from http://humblerboy.blogspot.com to http://www.humblerboy.com as of 5th February 2010.

Also, do check out from time to time for my food review in Adelaide Foodies showcasing the best foods that you mustn't missed out while you are on your holiday trip here in Adelaide, Australia.

Cheers,
William

Top 20 High Performance Schools

Of recent, the Government of Malaysia under the Education Ministry have came up with a list of schools that are of "High Performance School" list. But of the 20 schools that have been announced recently, it causes uproar amongst many quarters of Malaysians who thinks certain schools are left out even-though they were qualified.

There are even a few states that were not even in the Top 20 of the list at all. Why were there clusters in certain states? How was the evaluation being done? Of that 4 are from Kuala Lumpur, 2 are from each states of Selangor, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Kedah respectively and, 1 from each state in Cyberjaya, Perak, Penang, Malacca, Putrajaya, Perlis respectively.

Where is Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Sarawak, and Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan? Are they lacking of something? I don't think so. How do they actually evaluate these Top 20 schools? That is what I want to know. How do you judge a school is a High Performance School? That is so subjective to measure how a school is performing well. There may be schools who are performing extremely well, but they are not in the list.

Instead of a High Performance School, why not list the opposite with Top 20 instead? I am sure we are also interested to see such schools in the country.

Such Top 20 High Performance School list would have motivated the Top 20 schools in the country but it doesn't motivate schools who are equally competitive with those on the list. Imagine this would leave other students and even teachers disparity than good. As I have left my high school for approximately 6 years now and is always in the loop with my former alma mater and my batch mates.

I am sure all my 400-odd high school batch mates would disagree with such ratings. It has done more harm than good in my own opinion.

Why spend $20 million by giving to these Top 20 so-called "High Performance Schools?" Spend it on training these teachers who complained "Saya tak fasih Bahasa Inggeris lah. Tak boleh ajar Sains & Matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris". Go spend on them on training.

My friend BITES OFF her bf's NIPPLE during *ahem*

I nearly fall off from my chair laughing at this but I can't help but to blog about this. Approximately 3:30am on 30th January 2010 (to be specific, Adelaide, Australia's time), I suddenly received a phone call. I thought what happened.

My friend told me that she accidentally bite off here boyfriend's nipple during *ahem* just now. So, since was panicked and didn't know what to do, she called me up asking what to do next.

My answer was: WTF? Go to hospital lah, what else? You want him to bleed to death is it.

Lesson to learn guys: Go slow, don't be too excited. That nipple is fragile and not your regular KFC fried chicken ok.

World's Best Restaurant: Reservations Get Tougher

Given the excitement surrounding the press conference in Madrid on Tuesday, you'd have thought that Jennifer Aniston were announcing that she and Brad Pitt had gotten back together. But no. Here at Madrid Fusion, an annual international culinary conference, the news is all about chefs, and no news is bigger than that of Ferran Adrià, the chef of elBulli, reputedly the best restaurant — and the toughest reservation — in the world. To the accompaniment of dozens of flashing cameras and a live feed for Spain's main television channel, one of the masters of the culinary universe declared that he would be closing his restaurant to the public for two years beginning in 2012.

It's not a definitive end to the restaurant that has been voted the best in the world five times (including in 2009) by Restaurant magazine, the recognized arbiter of such things. Adrià and his team will still be working at elBulli, developing ideas and trying to figure out what comes next. But he says the restaurant's current format is finished. "When we come back in 2014, it's not going to be the same," Adrià says.

Although rumors of elBulli's closing have circulated for years, the news still came as a mild earthquake in culinary circles. Frequently referred to as the founder of molecular gastronomy — a term the chef himself reviles — Adrià and his team have revolutionized modern cuisine with their constant search for new techniques and ingredients. In their hands, olive oil has been "spherified" until it takes on the shape and texture of caviar, and Gorgonzola cheese has been transformed with liquid nitrogen into a frozen globe that looked like nothing so much as a dinosaur egg. Dinner at elBulli, which consists of 30 or so courses, is a unique experience that has diners routinely laughing in delighted surprise at the new sensations provoked by the food on their plate.

The lucky few diners, one should say. Eight thousand people get reservations at elBulli each year, a mere fraction of the million who request them. (The restaurant is open only about half the year.) Indeed, despite its 230-euro price tag, dinner at every table for the six months that the restaurant is open is assigned in a single day. And now that it's clear that this year's reservations lottery may well be elBulli's penultimate, the number of gourmands clamoring to get in will surely grow.

The change will bring other sacrifices as well: Adrià and his team will have to relinquish their three Michelin stars, for example, and no one knows how they'll pay for the two years of inquiry without customers to finance them. But citing a desire to spend more time with his family, the chef says he needs a break from serving food to figure out what comes next. "We still want to be creating in 2020," he says, "but for that to be possible, we have to normalize our lives."

Adrià refused to speculate on what elBulli will be like once the two years are over, emphasizing repeatedly that at this point, he has no set plans. He did suggest, however, that although elBulli would once again feed customers, research would likely take on a greater priority than cooking. And he joked — if it was indeed a joke — that in whatever new outfit he comes up with, he might just have one table.

When journalists in the crowded room pressed him for more details, he cut them off. "Our challenge is just this," he said. "To find out if there's anything beyond what we've already done."

Abend is working on The Sorcerer's Apprentices (Free Press), a book about the young cooks who each year come from around the world to work in elBulli's kitchen.

Polish priest checks fingerprints for mass attendance

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish priest has installed an electronic reader in his church for schoolchildren to leave their fingerprints in order to monitor their attendance at mass, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily said on Friday.

The pupils will mark their fingerprints every time they go to church over three years and if they attend 200 masses they will be freed from the obligation of having to pass an exam prior to their confirmation, the paper said.

The pupils in the southern town of Gryfow Slaski told the daily they liked the idea and also the priest, Grzegorz Sowa, who invented it.

"This is comfortable. We don't have to stand in a line to get the priest's signature (confirming our presence at the mass) in our confirmation notebooks," said one pupil, who gave her name as Karolina.

Poland is perhaps the most devoutly Roman Catholic country in Europe today and churches are regularly packed on Sundays.

May God save Brangelina's (Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie) marriage

Pitt's mother steps in to help save Brangelina's relationship

Brad Pitt's mother is desperately trying to help save her son's relationship with Angelina Jolie.

Family counsellor Jane Pitt - who is famously close to her son's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston - is keen for the couple to repair their five-year union for the sake of their six children - three adopted children, Maddox, 8, Pax, 6, and Zahara, 5, and three biological children, Shiloh, 3, and 18-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

A source told the Daily Mail website: “Brad is trying to cling on to the wreckage of the relationship as he is still very much in love with Angelina and believes they can make it work.

“Jane wants what is best for her son and grandchildren and Angie has agreed to meet her. She has stuck at her own marriage and worked with families for 30 years trying to keep them together.”

Jane Pitt believes her skills as a mediator will come in useful when speaking to Jolie to whom she has become close in recent months thanks to their joint work in setting up a cancer centre.

It was recently reported that Brad Pitt and Jolie were heading for a separation after signing a legal document that split their $US330 million ($365 million) fortune and custody of their children equally.

However, sources close to the couple denied this and insisted “everything was fine” between them.

Friends also said the couple were planning to attend the Oscars together in March and had already started planning their outfits.

One friend said: "Angelina and Brad are still very much together. They're even in the process of planning out their Oscar outfits. Brad wanted to make sure he didn't clash with Angelina, who's putting some serious thought into her choices. They are still a couple.”

Pitt and Jolie - who has been married twice before - got together after meeting on the set of the film Mr and Mrs Smith in 2004, while he was still married to Aniston.

Driver watching PORN when he rammed into car

BUFFALO (New York): State police say a truck driver was watching pornographic movies on his laptop computer when his rig struck a disabled car on the New York State Thruway near Buffalo last month, killing the driver.

Thomas Wallace of Ohio was arrested Tuesday. He’s been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of 33-year-old Julie Stratton, a mother of two from a Buffalo suburb.

The 45-year-old Wallace was being held in Genesee County Jail on Wednesday. It was unknown whether he had an attorney.

Investigators say Wallace also violated federal trucking rules by sleeping no more than four of 27 hours before the crash.

Stratton’s car was struck soon after she called police to report she’d hit a deer east of Buffalo. -- AP