Seasoned culinary professional Sami Kohen is joining Princess Cruises as VP food and beverage operations.
He’ll reportdirectly to Princess President John Padgett and succeeds Michael Stendebach, who moved to a new role at Holland America Line earlier this year.
Deep cruise and shoreside restaurant experience
‘Sami is a distinguished food and beverage operations leader who not only has deep cruise industry experience, but also has operated high volume lifestyle restaurants with elite hospitality brands and has been a service innovator leader as a micro-fulfillment “ghost kitchen” developer and operator,’ Padgett said.
Kohen most recently served as chief operating officer for Wired Kitchens, which builds and operates 850 ghost kitchens nationwide supporting micro-fulfillment, multi-brand on-demand food services. Previously he opened and operated lifestyle restaurants and lounge operations and oversaw seven luxury hotel food and beverage operations under SBE group, cultivating new culinary and beverage concepts with Michelin-star chefs such as Dani Garcia, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Dario Cecchini.
Seagoing start
Kohen started his career at sea on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 and the ships of Royal Viking Line and Crystal Cruises, progressing from sommelier, head waiter and maître d’ to shoreside roles as a food and beverage controller and operations director with Crystal and with Celebrity Cruises through the Apollo Group. He also served as hotel director for Kyma Ship Management serving the Japanese luxury charter market.
