The Broadmoor's secret recipe for five stars

On a recent morning, Bertrand Bouquin, the French-born chef of The Broadmoor’s tony Penrose Room, was driving to work when his cell phone rang.

It was his boss, Chef Siegfried “Sigi” Eisenberger”, who was sitting in the office of the president of the resort, Steve Bartolin.

“You need to get over to Mr. B’s office right away,” Eisenberger said in a dark tone.

“I was like, “Oh great, what did I do?’” Bouquin said.

It turns out he and the staff did the nearly impossible. Bartolin told Bouquin he won a five-star rating from the Forbes Travel Guide (Formerly the Mobil Travel guide.) It is the gold standard of fine dining. Only 21 restaurants in the country have achieved five stars, and none of them has ever been in Colorado.

Five stars has been a goal the Penrose Room has openly strived for since 2005, when it hired Bouquin away from the Cincinnati restaurant The Maisonette, which had the longest running streak of five-star awards in the country.

The Broadmoor spent $300,000 renovating the Penrose Room’s kitchen and dining room in 2006 ($40,000 just on linens) and ferreted out every flaw, from the fish forks to the foie gras. Then Bouquin created a complex, yet nuanced menu with such dishes as Louisiana crawfish with truffle gnocchi, fava beans and prosciutto fricassée, showcasing the finest seasonal ingredients from around the globe.

The staff trained for weeks to make sure the table service was flawless.

Every dish sparkled. No fork was out of place.

Still, when anonymous inspectors reviewed the room in 2006, they gave it only four stars. Same with 2007. And 2008.

Looking at the strict criteria for fives stars, it is easy to see why.

Forbes inspectors scrutinize their meals using a “bill of standards” with 250 criteria, including 125 related just to service at the table. They won’t say what is on the bill, but over the years, some nuggets have gotten out.
There must be fresh flowers on the tables and in the bathroom (never silk), solid ice cubes in the cocktails (never hollow cubes, which are quick to melt), and loose-leaf tea in the teapot (never, ever a tea bag). The tablecloth must hide a silencing pad underneath so the dishes don’t clank. A folded napkin must fall open when picked up with one hand. And diners must be greeted within 30 seconds of sitting at their tables.

“I’m literally counting the minutes it takes to get a cocktail,” Jayne Griswald, an inspector, told The Gazette in 2006.

Servers must make eye contact and address the guest by name. Servers get points off for being too robotic or cold, but also for being too jovial or attentive.

“There can be no slang,” said Duane Thompson, who started at The Broadmoor 31 years ago and is now the Penrose Room’s manager. “Even saying ‘yeah’ instead of ‘yes’ is not allowed.”

Inspectors enter their data into a computer one question at a time. They don’t see the final rating until much later. Of course, the food must be impeccable. Diners must have a choice of three kinds of fresh bread. Dishes that the Penrose Room serves, such as venison loin with cocoa bean crust, hazelnut spaetzle, roasted salsify and yellow foot chanterelles, or halibut wrapped in pineapple with sumac berries, baby bok choy and curry cream, must be fresh, inventive and include a spectrum of colors, temperatures and textures.

“It has to be a perfect storm of the food, the service and the facility,” said Shane O’Flaherty who oversees Forbes’ restaurant inspectors. “In the past, the Penrose Room at times had inconsistencies. Something always slipped.”

Forbes insists it never tells restaurants what they did wrong, but Craig Reed, the hotel’s food and beverage director, said that in the past, the guide has given them clues. It was little things: A bar tab not automatically transferred to the bill, a few shards of shell in a lobster bisque, a beet garnish left off a salad.

When Bouquin ate at the newly reopened Penrose Room in 2006 he gave it a six out of 10, saying “needs work.”

Forbes requires at least a 92 percent to get five stars.

“Service is the hardest thing. That is where they lose points,” O’Flaherty said, speaking of restaurants in general.

So how did the Penrose Room manage to pull off five stars?

“I just felt like we really supported and encouraged each other, and it worked,” said sommelier Josh Cafasso. “Now the challenge is, can we keep it?”