Chef Béla K. Rieck appointed as the Executive Chef at the award winning Sheraton Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway, oversees culinary operations of the Hotel including the 6 restaurants and bars, In-Room Dining and banqueting. Apart from spearheading the food and beverage experience of this award winning hotel, he is involved in preparing innovative menus and provide training and development to the hotel’s culinary team.

Hailing from the European Continent while inoculating himself with a rendition of numerous cultures, Chef Béla K. Rieck brings a dynamic and powerful perspective to food and contemporary cooking. Chef Béla believes in an unconventional method of culinary preparation and yet never compromises on the palatability of his dishes. He lives by the adage ‘Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently’. He started his culinary experiments at a tender age of 15 while his passion was to carve a niche for himself in the hospitality industry and create a unique and compelling culinary experience for his guests.

What sets him apart is his penchant for change while a varied and dynamic wealth of culinary experience gives him a deep sense of grounding. Serving his blue-chip years in the hospitality industry around the world, he imbibed the enriching exposure to various cultures and developed an ardent passion to cook. He moved above and beyond learning and experimenting with cooking techniques to being creative and adding and spreading love and care through his cooking.

Chef Béla was the Executive Chef of The Kempinski Hotel Yinchuan, China where he oversaw the culinary operations for the 409-room resort featuring seven restaurants/bars and a full-service banquet facility. Prior to his Executive Chef position in China, Béla was the Executive Chef at The Kempinski Hotel River Park, Slovakia. In addition, he’s held a variety of culinary positions including Executive Sous Chef at Hotel Indonesia Kempinksi, Jakarta and Intercontinental Hotel, Berlin; Sous Chef at Intercontinental Hotel, Cologne and Kempinski Hotel Atlantic, Hamburg .

Besides cooking, Chef Béla K. Rieck extends his avocation for his love to music and enjoys playing the guitar. He finds music soothing and therapeutic and if given a choice, he would listen to rock music all day long. He enjoys watching an occasional game of football and spends a lot of time reading.

Speaking on his appointment, Chef Béla said, “Though this is my first stint in India, I am familiar with Indian food and culture thanks to my sojourn in Indonesia and China, where I was exposed to the Indian cuisine. Sheraton’s reputation as a, upper upscale hotel that provides a memorable guest experience is well known. I feel privileged to be a part of this team. I am excited to share my innovative and enthusiastic approach as well as give my intense commitment to the highest possible standard of excellence in this hotel.”

Béla brings, to this role more than 20 years’ experience in luxury hotels and restaurants; has been part of hotel openings and has been fully responsible for menus, food testing, cookery shows, menu calculation, manpower and HACCP. But more importantly, over the years he has understood that there is more to being a chef than just cooking. The important aspect is how important each guest is and how different each of their tastes and palates are. His sole driving force is the smile on each guests face when they taste his food. That to him is his greatest joy and his deepest satisfaction.  He says “Its my privilege to be given an opportunity to serve my guests and its my duty to make them feel special through my cooking.”

His specialty is the crabmeat cake. Chef Béla has also won the Best Master Exam in Germany in 2001 and has cooked for celebrities like Madonna. He aspires to write his own book someday, which will be based on his life as a chef he says.