CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN GUIDE: A behind-the-scenes tour of The Broadmoor’s food and beverage services | On the Table
Recently, The Broadmoor invited me for a behind-the-scenes tour of the resort’s extensive food and beverages services. My host and guide was David Patterson, The Broadmoor’s disarmingly humble and authentic executive chef. Along the tour — one both extensive and transparent — it clicked. It’s a commingling of food and philosophy. It’s of historical import, yet also timely and applicable for Colorado. What follows is the story of anachronistic hospitality threatened by echoes of archaic ideologies.
THE BROADMOOR WITHSTANDS
Today, over a century since the Bolsheviks’ revolt, the art form of hospitality is again in question. Not due to a sudden and bloody revolution hellbent on leveling the playing field for a “classless” society, but rather a gradual cultural shift away from hospitality — as it has been understood for so long — toward instant gratification over hard-fought excellence. Thankfully, there will always exist holdouts.
In 1917 Moscow, it was The Hotel Metropol. In 2021 Colorado, it’s The Broadmoor.
Much like The Metropol, The Broadmoor stands on a precedence of excellence. A Forbes Five-Star resort every year since 1960, and an annual AAA Five-Diamond recipient since 1976, The Broadmoor is one of the few holdouts of hospitality and dining’s golden era.
THE HOSPITALITY
Patterson invited us to tour some of the resort’s 17 currently open restaurants, bars and cafes, including a proper look at many of his kitchens.
“What region is it from?” asks the chef rhetorically. “What ingredient does it feature? Why is that special?” These are the questions that Patterson and his team strive to answer with every dish, every bite.
“We try to have some type of perspective on each dish,” Patterson continues. It’s telling a story with every menu item, “that’s what makes food good,” he says. It’s the heritage, culture and history behind every foodstuff.
“That coupled with procurement,” the chef muses. “If we can figure that part out, our job as chefs is to get those things in the back door and get them out the front door without ruining them. Our job it to honor that tradition, ingredient or technique. We don’t need to reinvent anything.”
For Patterson, heritage and story are intertwined with hospitality. Excellent hospitality is a near ineffable ethos that must pervade beyond corporate slogans and mission statements; it must cascade from the top ranks down through each and every echelon comprising the body of an organization. And in the case of Patterson’s Broadmoor, this elevated hospitality is self-evident, yet far from accidental.
“Consistency is what it’s all about,” Patterson says while explaining The Broadmoor’s training program, making an example of the detailed methodology behind every mise en place in each of the hotel’s restaurants. “Our standards, how we teach and train, is [highly detailed] and highly standardized,” he exults. Consistency, it’s an inextricable component of superior hospitality. At this The Broadmoor excels. But there’s a fly in the ointment.
The Broadmoor powers that be, including Patterson, will never say it in so many words, but this hotel has enemies, naysayers, if you will, akin to the Bolsheviks and their distrust of anything extraordinary. Just as the proto-Soviets made strides to enervate fine dining, so too The Broadmoor’s naysayers would critique it for being elitist and walled from the community. But here’s the rub. The critique is actually inconsistent.
The restaurant is the most democratic institution in the world. Regardless of class/creed/race/gender anyone can make a reservation, sit down and be treated to the same level of hospitality as every other patron. Granted, one must pay for such an experience.
The Bolsheviks got it wrong. In trying to form a “classless” society they eviscerated the search for excellence. Such philosophy denies the consumer the simple joys of a housemade hazelnut chocolate that transports you directly to Italy. Paradoxically, it seeks to dismantle the experience that all have access to here in Colorado Springs. Pretense, effeteness and elitism, notably missing.
COMMUNITY SOURCING
Truly exceptional hospitality authentically welcomes all comers. It’s a long-range outlook on both business and relationship — not with guests alone, but with the community at large.
“I come from a background of small luxury,” Patterson says. “You get these really intimate relationships with suppliers, and while it’s usually too hard to scale, we’ve figured out how to do it here in a meaningful way — a way that’s reflected ultimately in the guests’ experience. In a way that supports our farmers and community.”
Hospitality worth consideration overlooks scraping for bottom-line profits that ultimately sacrifices experience. Instead, experience-driven entities such as The Broadmoor choose great lengths in a curation of the absolute best. As Patterson points out, in the case of The Broadmoor, it has become a study of sourcing.
Here, a highly fruitful strategy has been adopted: Produce everything possible, from honey to Wagyu. Pour into its cultivation the same care each guest is shown. Next, procure everything possible from Colorado sources. From peaches to cream, and everything in between, become each farmer’s/rancher’s/grower’s biggest and most supportive client. Finally, establish and maintain these relationships.
What results is manifold: A buoyed local economy, exceptional food stuffs, a mutually beneficial and reliable business relationship, and not least of all: pleased guests who delight in the resulting excellence in hospitality.
This is a far cry from the Marriotts and Hiltons of the world, spurring Patterson to bemoan what much of the “hospitality industry” has devolved into: Order bulk from corporate suppliers and crank it out. “There’s a whole generation of cooks without the real experience and knowhow,” he laments.
THE QUESTION
So, what is The Broadmoor?
There’s big, and then there’s corporate. There’s elegant, and then there’s pretentious. There’s experienced, and then there’s elitist. To conflate one with the other is to judge the proverbial book by its cover. Naysayers must allow for an objectivity that looks past a gilded exterior to see a heart that pursues an excellent and genuine hospitality. One that democratically welcomes all and strives to offer each an experience of hospitality that even the Bolsheviks couldn’t fully stamp out.
The Broadmoor is owned by the Denver-based Anschutz Corp., whose Clarity Media Group owns Pikes Peak Newspapers and The Gazette.
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Executive Chef David Patterson, only the sixth executive chef in the history of The Broadmoor, graciously guided us over the course of our three-hour tour. Here, he stands proudly by a sampling of the Italian products at Ristorante Del Lago that stem from relationships he and the hotel have cultivated with family-run operations throughout Italy.
ABOVE: At The Broadmoor’s Italian restaurant, the Lake Como-esque Ristorante Del Lago, the chefs daily prepare everything from fresh pasta to these wood-fired tomatoes, pepper and onions.
One of many crown jewels in The Broadmoor’s quest for excellence, locally raised Wagyu beef is reared at The Broadmoor’s Eagle’s Nest Ranch in Kersey, Colo. “It’s the most genetically pure herd of wagyu beef in the U.S. And it’s not sold commercially, and not available anywhere but at The Broadmoor,” said Executive Chef David Patterson. The marbling speaks for itself.
LEFT: At The Broadmoor’s Ristorante Del Lago, the chefs prepare everything fresh daily.
Micah Redfield
The hotel makes all it’s baked goods in-house; a highly laborious process, exemplified by its croissant dough. Numerous layers of dough and butter are tediously crafted over a three day process.
The hotel makes all its baked goods in-house; a highly laborious process, exemplified by its croissant dough. Numerous layers of dough and butter are tediously crafted over a three day process.