A Jean Georges Private Cooking Lesson With a Stay at Trump New York
Jean Georges Vongerichten, one of the world’s most renowned chefs, has
a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in New York – called Jean
Georges --which the hotel claims is the only hotel restaurant in town
boasting a chef of such acclaim. In addition, the restaurant handles
room service and catering. To make the most of that connection the
hotel put together an $8,999 Jean-Georges Culinary Master Course that
includes:
* A two-hour private cooking lesson with Jean Georges
* Three nights in an Executive Park View Suite
(there is a three-night minimum)
* A three-course dinner with a bottle of champagne
* Breakfast for two daily at Nougatine
* A signed copy of Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges, a cookbook
The package is available for a maximum of four people; if there are two couples, they would each be required to book a room.
It’s nothing new for a luxury hotel to create a lavish package as a
positioning tool and to generate publicity, but this one seems to have
touched a media nerve.
According to Suzie Mills, the hotel’s general manager, the package has
caught the attention of many top media outlets – particularly those in
the food area. Both Gourmet and Town & Country have posted videos
of Jean-George cooking in his kitchen. Many other media have visited
the kitchen and media coverage will continue, says Mills.
 “The media response has been much greater than we expected,” says
Mills – “and we’re getting exposure for both the restaurant and the
hotel. “
And unlike some high-priced positioning packages, Mills does expect
to book more than a few – and in fact booked a couple shortly after the
package was announced. It was a wife buying a birthday present for her
food-loving husband. Not only did they get all the goodies listed
above, but Jean Georges spent extra time with them – allowing them to
stay in the kitchen while the staff prepared a lunch.
“So many people are interested in food and wine these days,” says
Mills, “and we think this is a great conversational point. Imagine
going out to dinner or a dinner party and being able to say you took a
cooking course with Jean-Georges.” Mills says the hotel expects to
sell a number of the packages as Christmas presents.
And Mills says the price tag is not out of line – when a nightly
room rate of about $1500, a Jean Georges dinner and those breakfasts
would add up pretty quickly. Of course the package costs little for the
hotel to put together – considering all the free publicity. According
to Mills, Vongerichten is “very enthusiastic about working with the
hotel, so he was very keen to do this.” While the program will not be a
huge moneymaker, says Mills, the payoff in publicity creates a huge ROI
in terms of marketing dollars.
Harvey Chipkin
|
Who 
