Fabrice Lasnon swaps the Savoy for executive chef role at Pan Pacific London

Fabrice Lasnon has left the Savoy hotel to take up the role of executive chef at the Pan Pacific London.

He started this month and replaced Lorraine Sinclair, who oversaw the food and chef operations at the 237-room hotel when it opened in late 2021.

Lasnon spent four years as executive chef at the Savoy and has worked across the world in luxury hotels including the Murray in Hong Kong, Palazzo Versace Dubai, Mandarin Oriental Bodum in Turkey and La Mamounia in Marrakech.

He told The Caterer: “It was time for a new challenge. The Pan Pacific is one of the top hotels in London and is totally different from [hotels in] the West End.

“It is at the beginning of its era because it only opened last year. A lot has happened already but there is still a lot to do.”

Lasnon said he would take a few months to get to know the hotel team and guest profile before he considered making any changes to menus early next year.

The Pan Pacific features six bars and restaurants and two private dining rooms, including the Singaporean-inspired Straits Kitchen (pictured below). Executive pastry chef Cherish Finden oversees the Shiok! patisserie and the afternoon tea selection.

Lasnon added: “Quarter four in London is quite a strong month. I think most of the menus for Christmas have been done, we’ll probably introduce a couple of touch-ups, but the team have done the right job for the hotel and customers. Probably early next year there will be time to change some of the menus.

“It proved to be a successful hotel and a successful restaurant, so we just need to fine-tune a couple of products.”

The chef said he may look to recruit more young people and that it was important for the industry to reach out to schools.

He added: “We really need to be proactive; you can’t just wait for them to knock on your door. I think the industry will get young people back. These days the young generation aren’t like us and don’t expect to wait 10 years to get a certain promotion. People want to grow as fast as possible.”

Lasnon said he liked working in London hotels because the bars and restaurants were seen as more accessible to non-guests than in other countries.

He added: “People are able to go to hotels for snacks or drinks. It’s much more approachable here compared to other places I’ve worked.”