Hotel Cateys 2024: Food and Beverage Manager of the Year – Pedro Paulo, Ham Yard hotel

Pedro Paulo has been making an impression at London’s Ham Yard hotel since he joined the team in 2022. After starting out as assistant food and beverage manager, he was promoted after just five months in the role.

As food and beverage manager he oversees a busy boutique hotel in central London, including a restaurant and bar serving around 2,500 covers a week, a high-volume room service department and several private dining room and event spaces.

Judges were impressed with Paulo’s ability to ‘think outside the box’. In the past year he created the most successful winter pop-up in the hotel’s history, the Winter Martini Garden, which nearly doubled previous ticket sales.

His other initiatives have included a ‘Stories of Soho’ cocktail list, which launched in June with 10 cocktails inspired by the local area. Paulo commissioned an illustrator to design a map of each location, and, since launch, it has driven sales by 16%.

He also launched the ‘Long Lunch’ to drive business on Sunday that was so successful it became one of the busiest lunch services of the week, with covers rising 125%. Other popular initiatives have included an oyster cart and a special Wimbledon tennis event.

As well as driving sales, Paulo is passionate about developing his team and makes sure to be visible on the hotel floor throughout the day. Due to his guidance and support, multiple team members have achieved promotions, with several going on to senior roles in sister Firmdale Hotels properties.

Paulo also created a dedicated seven-week Firmdale Bartender Development programme. The results are already clear to see and in the past year all the bar backs have progressed to junior bartenders, something the hotel had not achieved since before the pandemic.

Paulo also supports team members to take part in external competitions. Three colleagues took part in the Soho Waiters’ Race this year, while he nominated his restaurant manager for an Institute of Hospitality award – and he made the final.

As one judge said: “The growth and retention throughout his team shows the great respect [Paulo] has for the work he does”.

What the judges said

“Pedro’s application is testament to someone who has clearly mastered their craft in food and beverage. His initiative can be seen clearly on many occasions, from oyster carts to long Sunday lunches to winter bars, the list goes on. The growth and retention clearly apparent thoughout each team shows the great respect to the work he does.”

Chris Cleghorn

“He looks after the development of the team and has made some great successes as well as running great initiatives and pop-ups - the various implementations have all been very successful. He also shows consistency and creates initiatives.”

Arjeta Arapi