Contact
Languages
Amid the stoves of the enormous kitchens of the Hotel Riu Chiclana, a man who has been working for RIU for 14 years coordinates the work of the 70 people who prepare the dishes that so delight our guests. José Chocano Tirado, 59 years of age, is a Cádiz native who holds the position of First Kitchen Chef at our hotel in Chiclana.
“I started at the Riu Monica, in Nerja, 14 years ago. Then I moved to the Riu Belplaya—which in 2017 was merged with the Riu Costa Lago to form the Hotel Riu Costa del Sol—and, in 2011, I came to Chiclana. It was a great change, since now I’m closer to my family”. José has been managing the kitchen of the Hotel Riu Chiclana for seven years and stresses that the “formality and seriousness towards employees and resources for doing the work” makes everything flow much more smoothly.
For him, the “good relationship” that exists between the employees and the “pleasant atmosphere” they create “working together every day” are also important. The collaboration of the purchasing department, “very well organised” according to José, is key to providing “high-quality ingredients for us to work with”. The sum of all these elements described by José is why he considers RIU “the best hotel company I’ve ever worked for”.
In the newly renovated Hotel Riu Chiclana, José shows us some of the delicacies served in the restaurants at our hotel in Novo Sancti Petri. “Oxtail stew” is typical of the region, a dish that our guests find exquisite”. Like the shrimp omelette, another of “our local specialities”.
Yet another indication of the quality of the hotel’s gastronomic offer is what José, with pride, relates: “all the breads and rolls we serve our guests are prepared by us”. We accompany José one morning and see how, in effect, the kitchen employees preparing bread and sweet rolls next to an oven that gets fired up “at 6:30 in the morning” so that “our guests can enjoy freshly baked rolls at breakfast”. Truly a luxury!
A varied and quality gastronomic offer is one of the many attractions of RIU Hotels, something that José knows very well and works hard to live up to with his team. “For us, the level of customer satisfaction is very important. We pay very close attention to every detail”. Thousands of people stay at our hotels, and so José and his team know that they have to offer guests “personalised service”, as “some of them have intolerances, special needs…”. The first kitchen chef knows exactly what the recipe is for satisfying customers: “working as a team and doing everything we can to ensure the quality of our gastronomic offer”.
