Year three is where a hotel restaurant proves itself
The opening buzz carries a restaurant through its first two years. By the third, the challenge is to keep growing and stay fresh, and the best partnerships plan for it from the start.
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the right people around your tables
Culinary Ventures Group brings exceptional chefs and luxury hotels together, and only says yes when it works for both.
Which chef, which restaurant, which hotel?We know who belongs together.
A hotel commits years and capital to a restaurant partner. The choice has to be right.
We bring together the chefs, hotels and brands that belong together, then stay close long after opening night. Once the opening buzz has settled, we keep bringing fresh ideas the kitchen can actually deliver, so the partnership keeps growing.
What our yes is worth
We don’t arrive with a restaurant to sell you.
There is no roster here. We are not one of the parties at the table. We are the reason everyone at it gets what they came for.
Before a deal, we would rather walk away than force a fit.
Which is exactly why our yes means something.
Once we start, we see it through, helping both sides with every choice and compromise along the way.
If we bring you an opportunity, it will be worth your time.
Jason Kwan
The relationships, and the brand fit
Jason Kwan has spent forty years in senior finance and commercial roles across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. He was Chief Financial Officer of The Fat Duck Group, where he managed the resources behind its hotel partnerships, including Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London and Atlantis The Royal in Dubai. Before that he was Global Vice President at Unilever, Chief Procurement Officer at Manpower and Senior Vice President at Bumble Bee Foods. He founded Burghill Resource, which advises growing businesses.
At CVG he looks after the relationships behind every partnership and the fit between the brands in it. His gift is making complicated things simple: understanding what each side needs, then shaping a partnership where two plus two makes five.
Mark Rees
The projects, and the business behind them
Mark Rees has spent thirty years building businesses and opening markets across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Most recently he was Chief Operating Officer of The Fat Duck Group, working with the board and the owners on partnerships, commercial strategy and investor relations, with responsibility for the Michelin-starred Hind’s Head, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Knightsbridge and Dubai, and The Perfectionists’ Café at Heathrow.
At CVG he runs the projects and the business behind them. His strength is turning an idea into a plan with a date on it, then keeping every party moving together until the doors open.
Tom Parker-Bowles
The right chef, the right restaurant
Tom Parker-Bowles has written about food for more than twenty years. He is restaurant critic of The Mail on Sunday and food editor of Esquire, has been a food columnist for Tatler since 2001, and contributes to Condé Nast Traveller, Country Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country.
He is the author of nine books on food, among them The Year of Eating Dangerously, Full English, the Fortnum & Mason cookbooks and Cooking and the Crown. Full English won the Guild of Food Writers’ award for writing on British food in 2010, and he won the Fortnum & Mason Award for Restaurant Writing in 2020.
He is a regular critic on MasterChef, and has judged food series in Britain and Australia.
At CVG he finds the chef and the restaurant that best fit each hotel, from a network few people in British food can match.
CVG is a new name. The experience, relationships and reputations behind it have taken decades to build.
Can you name a star chef or restaurant in Britain that Tom can’t connect you with?
Awards held by the restaurants and people we work with
One Michelin star
Two Michelin stars
Three Michelin stars
Bib Gourmand
Michelin Green Star
Restaurant Awards
Sommelier Award
Beyond the restaurant.
Restaurants are where this starts. CVG also builds brand collaborations, events and residencies, and works with the people building what comes next in kitchens. We say which of it is worth a chef’s attention and which of it is not.
The chef is not the hardest part
Britain has more exceptional chefs than it has rooms that suit them. Matching the two is the work.
ReadLet’s get around the table
If you are opening, your restaurant tenancy is coming to an end, or you would like to stage a pop-up, event or brand collaboration, let’s have a conversation.