Nicola van Heemsbergen from Belgium brings a wealth of culinary experience gleaned at some of the world’s best hotels and restaurants to his role as new executive chef at Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh. Van Heemsbergen embarked on his path as a professional chef almost 30 years ago when he completed a traineeship at t’Fornius, a Michelin-starred venue in the Belgian city of Antwerp that is rated as one of the country’s finest restaurants. And he has not looked back since those early years — setting out on a culinary odyssey as a chef that has taken him to glamorous locations around the world. Notable assignments along the way include stints at Michelin-starred restaurants like Lasserre in Paris and the legendary La Pyramide in Vienne, France. Previous hotel experience, meanwhile, includes periods at properties like Dubai’s Burj Al Arab, Raffles Singapore, The Peninsula in Manila, and Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti in Tanzania. Most recently he worked at Marineau, one of the best seafood restaurants in Antwerp. Now he is applying his culinary expertise to the new role overseeing the Food and Beverage offerings at Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh. The property has earned widespread acclaim since opening in January 2021. Most recently, it was ranked “top city hotel” in Cambodia at Asia’s Best Awards 2022 by leading travel publication Travel & Leisure Southeast Asia. Van Heemsbergen will oversee the operations of all five food and beverage outlets, including the hotel’s two main dining venues, FiveFive Rooftop Restaurant & Bar and Market Café Restaurant & Lounge, while upholding Hyatt’s commitment to sourcing the most sustainable and seasonal products from Cambodia by working with local farmers, growers and distributors. “I’m looking forward to showcasing my passion for cooking with fresh, natural and locally produced ingredients to create inspirational dining experiences for our guests,” said Nicola van Heemsbergen. “Phnom Penh‘s Food and Beverage scene is quickly maturing and through the hotel, my goal is to put the city’s culinary offerings on the map.”  

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Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh is nurturing the next generation of Khmer hospitality personnel via a new collaboration with Cambodia’s National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (NIEI). The property, the newest international branded luxury hotel in Cambodia’s capital, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the NIEI. Through the agreement, which will span the next two years, the hotel will provide resources, workshops, training, technical and curriculum consultation to NIEI in order to develop candidates. It will also offer internships to NIEI students to help build their skills in key areas of hospitality. “One of Cambodia’s most potent attributes is the natural hospitality of its people,” said Juan Mercadante, the general manager of Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh. “By refining skills through internships at our hotel, we can really maximize this human capital and offer these students invaluable experience and opportunities to grow their careers.” The new arrangement between Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh and the NIEI is in line with the Hyatt RiseHY initiative. RiseHY is a new global program designed to pair the hospitality industry’s career opportunities with young people who need them. As part of the initiative, Hyatt hotels around the world will commit to hiring 10,000 Opportunity Youth – people ages 16 to 24 who are neither in school nor working – by 2025. According to the International Labour Organization, more than 40 percent of the world’s young people are either unemployed or living in poverty. “We understand the challenges young people face, and Hyatt hotels are uniquely positioned to be part of the solution. Hospitality is one of the few industries where entry-level opportunities often lead to fulfilling, life-long careers that can change the trajectory of someone’s life,” said Malaika Myers, chief human resources officer, Hyatt. “With the launch of RiseHY, Hyatt hotels will harness the power of technology in ways our industry has never done before, to scale career opportunities, bringing awareness to hospitality careers and setting up candidates for success from the start as it expands training programs as a path for employment.”

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