The first integrated resort in Singapore opens its doors to the public today.
About 8,000 employees of Resorts World Sentosa will be working behind the scenes to keep the integrated resort running.
The integrated resort’s whitewashed corridors connect almost the entire grounds of Resorts World Sentosa, spanning around 50 hectares. They link everything from the staff café to the Grand Ballroom – one of the largest in Asia, which can hold 550 dinner tables or accommodate 7,300 people.
The passageways located at the basement level are where the staff skitter along from one point to the next, doing their tasks almost unseen by the resort’s guests.
“It is a very big place so in order to get from one point to one point, if you walk from one side, you will sweat to the other side once you reach your point!” said Mahathir M D Yusop, one of the staff from Universal Studios Singapore.
The Central Kitchen, which links the Grand Ballroom, two hotels and the convention centre, is conceivably one of the busiest areas. Divided into eight blocks, it has a pastry kitchen, butchery, food laboratory and even a halal kitchen.
“The Central Kitchen acts as our heart, to supplement the other 60 restaurants which have their own individual kitchens. And 40—50 per cent of the base is coming from here to support that,” said John Sloane, Vice President for Culinary Operations at Resorts World Sentosa.
“And of course, when we go on line with the casino and our food court and other areas, 90 per cent of the menu will come from here.”
To guarantee the freshness of the prepared food, it is delivered to the other kitchens of the integrated resort within a day.
“We are looking at a cycle time for products from the loading bay to you as a consumer at between 24 and 28 hours,” Mr. Sloane said.
“So the products arrive early in the morning before 11 and 5 and then that evening it goes back to restaurant X, Y, Z and then the chef adds the derivatives and then it is the finished product on the plate to you as a consumer,” he added.
Resorts World Sentosa will have about 10,000 workers when it is fully operational.