This is a page where I really wanted to post some photos of Tiananmen Square in Beijing where I visited the day before the tanks rolled in. But firstly, back to square one and Sheraton. In Brisbane I had been working around as Sous Chef in the Crest International Hotel and the Park Royal Hotel plus as Head Chef in Rendezvous Restaurant, the Kookaburra Queen, a paddle wheel dinner boat & at Albion Park Raceway, also Sous Chef at the Courtyard Restaurant, where Marg and I were married, and then to Brisbane Sheraton as Sous Chef under Chefs Louis Ercout and Robert Powell. Arthur (Art) Kreiger was the GM who then sent me off with cocktail party, normally only for Heads of Department, to Frankfurt Flughaven Sheraton, and a training year at Papillons Restaurant under Chef Christian, who is still a good friend! The F&B from Brisbane went to the Great Wall Sheraton in China and I was in contact for a job, he asked if I wanted Sous or Executive Sous Chef, to which I replied Executive Sous even though I was probably Sous Chef level, so I got the job for the end of my Germany year!
So off to Beijing Marg and I went working under Chef Jean Pierre Migne, and we were given married accommodation and all, again very unusual. This was a 1,000-room hotel, I think with three outlets, plus night club, plus lounge, and the second international hotel opened in Beijing after the Holiday Inn there. No freeways at that time, a two-lane road to the airport, still the hutongs to go an explore and a hotel where everything had to be taught and created from scratch. All our stuff came in from Hong Kong, we tripped out to Hong Koong every quarter to pick up soap, tooth brushes and all our other personal items, taxis were only booked through the Hotel but it was an exciting place to be in. The first year we were there was crazily busy and often we were on 16-hour days, sometime seven days a week, so in the end I had a lot of days owing to me! But then came Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the only time I rode a bike is when one of my kitchen guys took me in with my camera to have a look around, which happened to be just before the crack down.
When the shootings and crack downs happened at Tiananmen Square, we received the call to pack one suitcase and be ready to evacuate. As it was, Marg was evacuated to Japan the following day and after two days there were just five of us left from the 77 expats in the Hotel, with myself being the only more junior guy, as Exec Sous. All I had to do was check the food supplies, place some sort of buffet or other meals in the restaurant and then relax while we waited to see if more turmoil would happen. As I was not a Department Head, my signing privileges were limited, so the Chief Engineer, an Aussie called Fred, would sign for me in the bar each evening. He was the one who was in the Beijing Hotel right on Tiananmen Square on a mystery shoppers trip the night of the crack down, the next morning, the assistant Sales girl, a small person who had been saying how scared she was, walked the back streets to the Hotel and brought Fred back by the back streets. Such understated courage. Yet her boss, another Philippine lady, on the evacuation took about four suitcases to the airport then tried to get others to carry them on for her! One extreme to the other! The Chef, Jean Pierre was already out on holidays at the time, so after about two weeks, the German Sous Chef was brought back and I was asked to take over the kitchens. My first day in the Chef Chair for an International Hotel. My photos I finally developed about a year later once I was out of the country and now presented here for you. After two years in Beijing, it was more Marg that wanted to relocate and so we went as opening Chef to Nusa Dua Sheraton. I was there about 2 years, did not get on with the GM who wanted me to leave, even after Sheraton expressly stating they would look after me after my support during 1989, and so I moved across to Holiday Inn Kuta, which was also an opening hotel. Funny enough, the GM was fired about one month later, but by then I had already left. The way life turns and twists sometimes.
