From Rugby World Cup to ski areas – new Food & Beverage Manager returns for her 'ski fix'

Keen skier and hospitality guru Jennifer Graham has given rugby the boot and returned ‘home’ to take up the role of NZSki Food & Beverage Manager.

Jennifer will slide her ski boots under her desk in Queenstown from Monday (February 13) and will be responsible for the F&B operation of all three NZSki ski areas – Coronet Peak and The Remarkables in Queenstown, and Canterbury’s Mt Hutt.

Working with the challenges of ski area operations is nothing new to Jennifer, who as well as previously working at other New Zealand ski areas was F&B Manager for Coronet Peak for three years.

She left Coronet Peak to take up a new role in Dunedin in April 2011 with the world’s largest contract foodservice company, Compass Group.

“The opportunity to do the Rugby World Cup at the brand new Forsyth Barr Stadium was a big draw card,” she said.

“It was a fantastic experience and I learned so much while I was there.”

Jennifer’s role as Venue Catering Manager saw her running multiple venues including the stadium, the Dunedin Town Hall, and the Municipal Chambers.

“At Coronet Peak I was used to running multi-outlets, then I went to running multi-venues,” she said. “I feel I’m bringing back a whole lot of new knowledge to NZSki and can’t wait to sink my teeth into my new expanded role.”

NZSki CEO James Coddington said he was very much looking forward to having Jennifer back.

“Jennifer’s already proved herself as someone who has great organizational skills and the necessary leadership to ensure our 100 plus strong food and beverage team for 2012 will have fantastic guidance and focus, which will be reflected in the service and products on offer to guests at our mountains.”

Jennifer said she had already discussed some new concepts and menus to be introduced across the mountains this year.

“I can’t talk about those yet in detail, but I’m looking forward to working on them,” she said.

She said working with “a great team” was one of the reasons she was passionate about the hospitality and ski industries.

“I love working with people who love being at work every day. It’s a fantastic environment to work in, and what do you get to do in your lunch break?

“NZSki is a great company to work for and I missed them all and missed Queenstown. Now I’ll get my snow fix!”