Raheel Ahmad

Culinary Director APEC (Asia Pacific excluding China) - Marriott International

Raheel’s culinary journey started more than 22 years ago, joining Marriott Jaipur as Pre-opening Executive Chef. A year and a half after the successful opening of this hotel, he progressed to open Marriott Whitefield Bengaluru in 2012 as Pre-opening Executive Chef. Here he was awarded Marriott Global Chef 2012.

Currently he oversees the culinary operations of over 480 hotels across 24 brands in 22 countries and territories in Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China).

A big part of what keeps him going in the pursuit of excellence, is sharing his knowledge and nurturing the next generation of chefs. Raheel is proud to have launched the Marriotternship program in the region for this purpose. Marriott will soon be launching this programme, partnering with various culinary schools from Singapore for a six-month training programme for young future talent.

Raheel’s current role lies in aligning and focusing the Marriott food and beverage mission and vision across pillars like product, talent, and reputation. In terms of product, he is focused largely on sustainability efforts of sourcing environmentally friendly produce. There is huge focus on environmentally friendly solutions, supporting the Marriott Sustainability programme Serve 360 ‘doing good in all directions’ – for example the food waste tracking plan.

At Marriott International, we have an even greater obligation to operate responsibly with our expanding global presence. While integrating sustainability across our value chain and mitigating climate-related risk, we are working to reduce our environmental impact, build and operate sustainable hotels and source responsibly. Guided by our 2025 Sustainability and Social Impact Goals, as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we commit to creating positive and sustainable impact wherever we do business.

Building Marriott’s reputation is also at the forefront of Raheel’s role and he is passionate about pushing Marriott to be the favorite destination where locals go to meet, eat and drink. As one of the biggest names in the hospitality industry, Marriott offers some of the region’s top culinary experiences on the F&B world map.

Today, Raheel can be found spearheading new projects and revamping existing concepts in his role as Culinary Director, working alongside the regional F&B team, from sustainability to environmentally friendly culinary initiatives.