Dieter Hannig leaves WDW F&B

[CelebrationNM]

I was a little shocked to read this this morning, to say the least. A blogger's commentary reads like an obituary, in a way. Hope from great things for both WDW and Dieter in the future. To quote:

Dieter Hannig leaving Walt Disney World Co.


Dieter Hannig, who is credited with changing the face of restaurants and dining at Walt Disney World as the vice president of the food and beverage division, has announced he is leaving the company. Hannig is one of the executives who stepped forward to volunteer for a buyout package from Disney.

He and his wife, Ursula, are relocating to Panama where they will foster two passions: organic gardening and a yoga retreat called Casa Aleenta. "Casa Aleenta reflects the wonders of the rich natural environment and offers tranquility and a peaceful balance," Hannig said in a memo.

Hannig didn't just change dining at Disney, his approach helped elevate the quality of other restaurants throughout Central Florida.

You can trace the renaissance back to about 1992 when Hannig did something revolutionary for a corporation the size of Walt Disney World: he allowed the executive chefs and general managers at Disney’s top-tier dining establishments to run the restaurants as if they owned them.

“It really opened the doors to allow us to be more creative and be more competitive,” Scott Hunnel, executive chef at Victoria & Albert’s, said last year, “not just in Orlando but with the rest of the country and the rest of the world.”

Before Hannig gave the chefs more freedom, said Hunnel, even a simple menu change had to be approved by a committee. That sort of structure made the concept of having a menu driven by the availability of market-fresh produce all but impossible.

Hannig said he recognized something was missing from some of the Disney restaurants. The full-service dining establishments always benefited from a company with the resources to decorate a restaurant and give it fine appointments. “But,” he said, “you walk into a room and there’s no soul.” The chefs and the people running the front of the house are the key to that soul.

Soon Victoria & Albert’s became a destination restaurant. And the success of the program led the way for California Grill, Flying Fish Café, Citricos and other Disney restaurants to operate in the same way.
And when those restaurants became dining destinations for Central Floridians, not just tourists, it raised the bar for local restaurants.

Hannig came to Walt Disney World from Marne la Valley, France, in 1988. He leaves the company with the keys to keeping the dining program on a road to further national recognition. Whether the company will continue that path -- or even if it can in this economy -- remains to be seen.

[hobie16]

Sad for any company to lose a key exec that makes things happen but, on the up side, he left on his terms and timing.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Sad for any company to lose a key exec that makes things happen but, on the up side, he left on his terms and timing.

like the last part of the articles mentiones, I just hope they don't un-do all the good ideas he implemented!

[Amphigorey]

Sounds like he was very much following in the footsteps of Alice Waters, who founded Berkeley's Chez Panisse, whose menu is entirely driven by local produce. Clearly, his approach vastly improved the dining at Walt Disney World, and I applaud him for that.

My next great hope for Disney dining is that they start taking a more sustainable approach to their menus; it would be so simple to buy sustainable seafood. They wouldn't have to go full-on organic, although that would be nice, but I'd very much like to see a change in their menus to reflect sustainable fishing practices.

Also, switching from plastic to starch-based utensils would be made of awesome and win. There are places around here that use only compostable utensils made from starch, and cups made from cellulose, and you can't even tell the difference. They're as hard as plastic, but vastly more environmentally friendly. Can you imagine the difference it would make if Disney, which must go through tons of plastic waste every day, switched to starch?

[CelebrationNM]

Can you imagine the difference it would make if Disney, which must go through tons of plastic waste every day, switched to starch?

Out of curiosity--do you know the cost difference between plastic and starch? How much percent more per unit would starch be?

[glendalais]

That's a real shame. I've always liked the variety of Food available at WDW.

Also, switching from plastic to starch-based utensils would be made of awesome and win. There are places around here that use only compostable utensils made from starch, and cups made from cellulose, and you can't even tell the difference. They're as hard as plastic, but vastly more environmentally friendly. Can you imagine the difference it would make if Disney, which must go through tons of plastic waste every day, switched to starch?

Personally, I'd prefer to see Disney switch over to Silverware and actual ceramic plates at all of our restaurants. It's good show and good for the environment (I'm certain we can find a way to properly wash all those utensils without using much water).

Alas, it's a pipe dream at best, if only because you know the SGs would toss the plates and utensils into the garbage, thinking they were disposable .

[hobie16]

That's a real shame. I've always liked the variety of Food available at WDW.



Personally, I'd prefer to see Disney switch over to Silverware and actual ceramic plates at all of our restaurants. It's good show and good for the environment (I'm certain we can find a way to properly wash all those utensils without using much water).

Alas, it's a pipe dream at best, if only because you know the SGs would toss the plates and utensils into the garbage, thinking they were disposable .

Or take them home because, "We paid for them!!"

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Or take them home because, "We paid for them!!"

Sadly, that would probably be the more common thing!!!!

[Zazu]

I was a little shocked to read this this morning, to say the least. A blogger's commentary reads like an obituary, in a way.

To put this in perspective, that "blogger" is none other than Scott Joseph, the recently terminated food critic for the Orlando Sentinel. It was Scott who penned, shortly before Dieter's arrival, that Walt Disney World was a "vast culinary wasteland", and accurately so. I've always wondered how much that remark influenced Disney's decision to hire someone like Dieter.

Scott is now writing a food blog, or "flog" as he calls it. It's better than his old newspaper column because it can be as long as he pleases, it can now contain more than the random brief sentence about chefs as the move about, and he doesn't have to worry about who gets pissed off (so long as he doesn't go back there, I suppose).

As for Dieter, he's the reason we retired to Central Florida and bought so close to the Parks. Having 50 great restaurants with great service within a half hour's drive was a big incentive for us. In a way, Dieter is thus also responsible for my joining the cast and enjoying (most of) ten years of magic behind the nametag.

I'll miss his innovations, but it seems pretty clear that his impact will long survive his departure. Both Disney dining and the standard of local restaurants have risen just as Scott writes, and the funny thing is, they can all make more money with good food & service than with bad. Who knew?!?

But don't cry for Dieter and his buyout. Anyone who leaves the Company to return to his Caribbean island isn't going to be missing the mouse ears all that badly.

So here's a toast to Dieter, for making the contents of that glass worth drinking, and to Scott, for continuing to tell it as it is. :winetost:

[Amphigorey]

Out of curiosity--do you know the cost difference between plastic and starch? How much percent more per unit would starch be?

That's an excellent question - I have no idea. There are local restaurants here in the Bay Area that use it, so it can't be that prohibitive. I've noticed it mostly with the ice cream places; there's a frozen yogurt place downtown that just opened (frozen yogurt is apparently hip now; go figure), and there's a super tasty, super gourmet ice cream place (Earl Grey and honey lavender and salted caramel flavors - it is SO GOOD) in Berkeley that uses only compostable items.

I oughta write a letter to Disney poking them about it.