By Jay M. Amberg Bloomberg Lifestyles. Bloomberg.com. Wed, 19 Jul 2000, 11:26am EDT
Havana, July 11 -- As the typically spoiled American, I've attended three cigar dinners in Cuba, all hosted by Habanos SA, and always found something to complain about.
After my most recent visit to the island, I swear I won't complain again. That's because I had a chance to sit down with Dimo Cardenas, the man responsible for catering the Havana cigar dinners and cocktail parties that attract 600-800 guests from around the globe.
Cardenas is the director of food and beverage for Club Habana, a palatial-looking private club in the Havana suburb of Miramar, not far from the Marina Hemingway.
With its well-manicured grounds, long sweeping driveway and palace-like facade, Club Habana is far removed from the Cuban neighborhoods that surround the club.
With its gates and guarded entrance, the club can be intimidating for Cubans. When I offered to take a friend there he politely refused, fearing the indignity of being denied entry because he wasn't a foreigner. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
Cardenas has catered the 1999 Habanos Millennium Festival dinner, November's cocktail party and buffet at Plaza de Armas for the launch of the San Cristobal de la Habana cigar brand, February's second annual Habanos Festival dinner at Pabexpo and the Habanos Festival cocktail party at El Moro,
the fort that guards the entrance to Havana Harbor.
In pre-Revolutionary Cuba, Club Habana was the Biltmore Yacht and Country Club, a private club frequented by wealthy Americans and Cubans who lived and worked around Havana.
After decades of neglect and coinciding with the resurgence of Cuba's tourist industry, Sol Melia SA, the Spanish company that manages 246 hotels and resorts in 25 countries, restored the club to its earlier grandeur.
The club is now open to members and guests year round. If it's not fully utilized by members, tourists and cigar aficionados can make reservations for lunch and dinner.
Besides Club Habana, the Sol Melia group also operates Cuban hotels and resorts in Cay Coco, Holguin, Havana, Santiago de Cuba and the resort island of Varadero.
Making It Go
I met Cardenas at the club one evening where he was attending a working dinner with Canadian cigar merchant Stephen Mawdsley of Victoria's Casa de Malahato.
Cardenas wanted to talk with me about the club's festivities for New Year's 2001 and make arrangements for a private dinner party Mawdsley was going to host for special customers.
Over our meal of appetizers, shellfish, beef and Spanish red wine, Cardenas had the kitchen prepare sample dishes for Mawdsley to taste so he could choose what might appeal to his guests, most of them coming to Havana in the first week of January to celebrate the New Year.
``While Club Habana was opened as a private club, about 70 percent of the revenue now generated by the club comes from banquets, weddings and dinner parties,'' Cardenas said. ``That business keeps the club's dining and kitchen staff busy, while generating a lot of additional income for the club
itself.''
Although Cardenas wouldn't quote numbers in terms of what it costs to operate the club, he said upkeep of the buildings and grounds consumed a significant portion of the club's annual budget of because Havana's heat, humidity and salt air.
Besides its opulent dining facilities, the club offers full beach services, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a modern gymnasium with personal trainers and a cluster retail shops including a well-stocked La Casa del Habano cigar shop.
``We have a lot of services here because we carter to a well traveled foreign clientele, mostly Spanish and Italians, who expect all the amenities when they come to a club like this,'' Cardenas said.
Through prior arrangement with Enrique Mons or Cid Gordon, managers of the on-premises cigar shop, a visiting cigar enthusiast can spend a day using the club's facilities for about $15 per person, not including meals.
If catering to the whims and requests of the club's regular members and guests isn't enough, Cardenas said his greatest challenges have come from catering the annual cigar dinners and banquets hosted by Habanos SA, Cuba's state agency charged with the global marketing and distribution of its
cigars.
Cardenas said nothing in his hotel schooling in Cuba or years of experience as a chef and beverage expert could have prepared him for the rigors of catering the big cigar banquets.
Round the Clock
``The Habanos dinners at El Laguito in 1999, Pabexpo this year and the cocktail at El Moro pushed my 22-member staff to its limits,'' Cardenas said. ``I have never left Cuba, but I know from the Spanish and French chefs who visit the club that the catering business in Havana isn't like anywhere
else.''
Cardenas said when European chefs are hired to cater a banquet or large cocktail party in Madrid or Paris, there's always plenty of outside help.
``The chef and his staff aren't responsible for the china, silverware, tables, chairs, etc.,'' Cardenas said. ``You call out and hire other companies to do this. Here, that's impossible. We have to do all this ourselves.''
Cardenas told me about the cocktail party he was commissioned to cater for Habanos SA in February at El Moro, to kick off the opening on the Second Habanos Festival.
``El Moro had no modern facilities whatsoever. It was built centuries ago, so we had to bring everything from the club to the fort,'' Cardenas. ``My chef was driving down the Malecon at 2 a.m. (to avoid traffic) with a car full of china at 10 miles an hour to insure we had all the proper table
settings for the party.''
``We (the club's staff) worked 36 hours straight to make sure that cocktail party was a success,'' Cardenas said. ``We had to use fire hoses to clean the dishes between courses because there were no sinks or faucets.''
Cardenas said another impediment in Cuba is worker compensation. An employee's monthly wage is the same whether he works a 24-hour day or a three-hour day.
``To keep my staff intact and working hard I need to be able to offer incentives to my best workers,'' Cardenas said.
Foreign companies who operate businesses like Club Habana negotiate a much higher salary (I've heard $10,000-$15,000 per person) with the Cuban government for each employee hired.
The government then pays the employee about $20 per month, with the government reinvesting the rest in its tourist industry or elsewhere.
``To be successful in the catering business you have to create a team and it's hard to ask your team to work a 36-hour shift like we did for the cocktail at El Moro, when they (the workers) are making the same salary as their neighbor who may have only worked 36 hours all week,'' Cardenas said.
He said as Cuban businesses look to become more competitive, more incentives must be available to employees.
``This is a tough business (corporate catering) and it's a new business for most Cubans. We most often hear about the complaints and never the compliments, so we just have to smile and work harder,'' Cardenas said. ``I just wish most people who come to Cuba to attend these cigar dinners know how
much hard work and effort it takes to make them successful.''
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