Be WILD!

By launching WILD F&B (Women in Leadership Disrupting Food & Beverage), Accor tackles the imbalance of gender diversity in the F&B industry. Discover the  1st culinary festival dedicated to female Chefs in Asia. Let’s go the Vietnam, at the Sofitel Saigon Plaza!Ho Chi Minh City. During the world’s 1st WILD F&B forum, this vibrant city has hosted talented female Accor Heartists of Southern Vietnam. 

“We must encourage more female talent to continue their careers” 

Accor APAC recently launched WILD F&B (Women in Leadership Disrupting Food and Beverage) – an initiative which sets out to tackle the imbalance of gender diversityin the Food & Beverage industry by offering support for female talent such as career guidance and leadership forums. 

On October 15^th, a private focus group was hosted at the Sofitel Saigon Plaza. Driven by Christine Rumble, Chief Talent & Culture Officer for Asia Pacific, this session gathered 22 women who are working in restaurants, bars and kitchens across Vietnam. They discussed what challenges they face in the F&B industry and how we can improve gender balance in our hotels. In a creative and constructive atmosphere, participants shared their stories and suggested ideas for attracting more women into this industry.

CHRISTINE RUMBLEChief Talent & Culture Officer Asia Pacific WILD F&B is a network of female food and beverage leaders in Asia Pacific who will provide support for our female talent by role modeling their own career success, offering career guidance to young talent, giving an outlet for open discussions to share ideas and challenges, and help Accor to create a more inclusive working environment for F&B  talent.

“This was the 1st time in my culinary career of 18 years to work alongside a full women kitchen brigade”

Coinciding with Vietnamese Women’s Day, 3 Michelin-starred Cheffes and 6 celebrity Cheffes presented a series of dining events at Sofitel Saigon Plaza from 15^th to 20^th October 2019:

• Michelin-starred Cheffe Julia Komp (Germany)
• Michelin-starred Cheffe Flora Mikula (France)
• Michelin-starred Cheffe María José San Román (Spain)
• Celebrity Cheffe Anne-Cécile Degenne (France) Executive Chef, Raffles & Fairmont Makati
• Celebrity Cheffe Beatriz Gonzalez (Mexico – France)
• Celebrity Pastry Cheffe Chef Pâtissière Keiko Nagae (Japan – France)
• Celebrity Cheffe Kimsan Sok (Cambodia)
• Celebrity Cheffe Georgiana Viou (France)
• Celebrity Cheffe Angela Brown (UK – Australia), Executive Chef, Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor

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ANGELA BROWNExecutive Chef, Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor 

The culinary festival was such a great experience - being exposed to different cultures, flavor’s, ingredients and Chefs in one location at the same time was a truly memorable experience. This was the 1st time in my culinary career of 18 years to work alongside a full women kitchen brigade - usually there are only one or two in your team. This was truly an interesting & exciting moment to discover just how talented female Cheffes are on a global scale

PATRICK BASSETChief Operating Officer - Upper South East & North East Asia Accor has been a leader in championing diversity & inclusion for many years. I am very proud of our team at Sofitel Saigon Plaza for introducing Asia’s first all-women Cheffes culinary festival which has promoted a very important topic. We must improve gender balance in the food & beverage industry, and initiatives such as WILD F&B are important steps to ensure that we can be pioneers in this field.