Meetings Today - July 2018

Top Chefs

Putting a new twist on a historic hotel, San Antonio’s The St. Anthony Hotel is reshaping its food and beverage offering with the hiring of veteran chef John Zaner, who brings more than 30 years of experience to an iconic property that is inching toward its 110-year anniversary in a city that is celebrating a tricentennial.

But what is old is new again, in that the property is actually transforming itself via a journey back to the past.

“What we’re trying to do is bring back
the grandeur of the hotel,” Zaner said. “We
did a major renovation two years ago with
the room product and now we’re in the
midst of a major upgrade with the food
product. We’re doing things that are very
indicative of San Antonio and the 300-year
anniversary of the city, so when people
come to the St. Anthony we want to give
them a taste of the history along with some
modern flairs.”
Zaner spent 12 years with The Ritz-Carl-
ton Hotel Company as executive chef of
The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua—a resume piece
for resort chefs—and as director of culinary
operations at San Antonio’s impressive La
Cantera Resort & Spa. He also counts stints
with restaurant legend Jeremiah Tower and
the late multimedia culinary juggernaut
Anthony Bourdain.

Any elite chef will tell you everything starts with the ingredients, as no culinary master is a magician that can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat if they’re burdened with substandard product.

Getting back to basics with farm-to-table cuisine is one culinary trend that will hopefully never go out of style, and Zaner is on-point at his new posting.

“We’re in Texas, so the good thing is we
can get a lot of things seasonally—Texas
has a lot of ranches and farms—as well
as south of the border for Tex-Mex,” he
said. “We want to give people a little of the
flavors of here.”
Some of those flavors greet guests in
the lobby, with Texas treats such as pecan
sandies waiting to be paired with morning
coffee and Texas sun-dried peaches—The
St. Anthony sprang from a peach orchard—
coated in chocolate to complement tea.

Another trend Zaner is up on is the avocado craze.

“We try to do different things to keep
groups’ energy level up during the day,
such as an avocado station with avocado
toast, avocado shooters, avocado sorbet;
things that are sweet and salty,” Zaner said.
“It’s a superfood; very high in protein and
good fats. It gives you good energy and
you don’t have to do much to it to have a
In the end, it’s all about paying homage
to the glory of the past while catering to
contemporary tastes.

“This is a classic hotel, so we do some of the nice classics and make them more modern,” Zaner said. “Everyone in San Antonio has a history and an attachment to the St. Anthony, so we try to keep things nostalgic with old classics that are modernized