Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort has appointed a seasoned executive chef with two decades of luxury hospitality experience in Africa, Asia and North America. Tunisian-born Mahdi Ghenam joins the new 17-hectare resort overlooking Ho Tram Beach, within easy reach of Ho Chi Minh City, after working as executive chef at Fusion Resort Phu Quoc. Ghenam was also the executive chef at Belmond La Résidence Phou Vao in Laos, Gansevoort Hotel Turks + Caicos in the Caribbean Islands, and Diamonds La Gemma dell-Est in Tanzania, before overseeing gastronomy at three Seabel hotels in Tunisia.
After studying at the Nabeul Hotel School and Carthage Presidency School in the late 1990s, he quickly rose up the ranks at various five-star properties, working for Hotel Abou Nawas and The Residence Tunis in Tunisia, Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh and Radisson SAS in Saudi Arabia, Meeru Island Resort in the Maldives, and Cambridge Beaches Resort and Spa in Bermuda.
At Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort, which celebrated its grand opening in April this year, Ghenam manages a team of 49 staff across the resort’s rich and diverse culinary landscape. Ghenam and his team are unveiling new menus at the resort’s three restaurants – fine-dining restaurant Muoi, Breeza Beach Club, and all-day dining restaurant Sasa.
Ghenam and his team have also introduced new culinary experiences such as a vibrant “seafood market” at Breeza each weekend, whereby guests select fresh seafood caught locally that day including lobsters, crabs, fish, prawns, mussels, snails and clams then cooked before their eyes.
“In an excellent match with our resort and its Spanish origins, Mahdi brings immense experience in Mediterranean and Asian cuisine to the table,” said Manuel Ferriol, Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort’s general manager. “He is incredibly versatile, catering to events ranging from corporate meetings and weddings to a private seafood BBQ, and he’s an inspirational leader who pays particular attention to developing and mentoring his staff”.
