Reinventing the hot buffet: Diego Schattenhofer at the VI Congreso Nacional CLAVE F&B

The buffet, finally, on the stage

Mesa de Talento at the VI Congreso Nacional CLAVE F&B. Hotel Iberostar Heritage Grand Mencey, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 9 March 2026.

There is a service that fine dining almost never talks about in public, and it is precisely the one that serves the most diners every morning in any hotel in the world: the breakfast buffet. On 9 March 2026 Diego was in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to talk about exactly that, at the “Mesa de Talento” of the VI Congreso Nacional CLAVE F&B, held on 9 and 10 March at the Hotel Iberostar Heritage Grand Mencey. The brief was specific and not remotely comfortable: reinvent the hot buffet.

It is worth saying upfront, because in this house we prefer to say where every fact comes from. Everything that follows comes from our own posts: the congress’s official poster, which we shared a week beforehand, and the report Diego wrote the day after his talk. We have not found any press release or media coverage of this VI edition.

What was announced and what was told

The approach was already in the programme. “In this VI Edition, at the Mesa de Talento, Diego Schattenhofer (Michelin star) will lead a live presentation to reinvent the hot buffet,” the preview read, listing the fronts to be covered: produce and doneness, smart replenishment, plating and visual presentation, service flow and waste reduction. The goal, spelt out plainly, was “to transform a high-volume format into a value experience combining flavour, efficiency and consistency, raising the hotel’s standards and the guest’s perception”.

The next day, Diego summed up the day like this: “Yesterday I had the honour of sharing knowledge at the VI Congreso Nacional CLAVE F&B, a pioneering event in Spain that celebrates the Food & Beverage industry, the hotel buffet and, above all, the commitment to identity and our local produce.” And he detailed the presentation’s journey: “from choosing the produce, smart replenishment, plating, service flow, waste reduction and the scientific application to gastronomy… all without losing excellence in flavour, efficiency and consistency”.

That last piece — the scientific application — is what explains why the brief ended up here. At Taste 1973, the restaurant at Hotel Villa Cortés that Diego runs, Michelin star since 2024, we have spent years measuring what others leave to the eye: temperatures, timings, maturation curves. Applying that method to a breakfast griddle is no oddity: it is the same discipline, just moved to another room.

Volume versus value

The hot buffet is the toughest testing ground there is. You have to serve a lot, serve it the same way every time and serve it freshly made, with produce that has been sitting out for hours and a guest who decides in two seconds whether a dish appeals or not. In that context, smart replenishment and waste reduction are not sustainability slogans hung on a poster: they are the difference between throwing food away every morning or not.

The congress preview also pointed to an issue that is rarely discussed and stings deeply in hotel kitchens: the buffet as a school. “Industry professionals take part with the aim of generating ideas that make the buffet a more appealing and motivating space for young talent,” it read. A cook starting out rarely dreams of the breakfast line; making sure a trade is also learned there is probably the hardest part of the brief.

None of this is new at Villa Cortés. Breakfast has long been one of our testing grounds — witness the work with the hotel’s eggs and breakfasts — and the pantry that goes onto the griddle is still the same as ever: Canarian gastronomy and its local produce, which is exactly what the congress championed with “identity” and “local produce”.

Who is behind CLAVE F&B

The congress is organised by Club CLAVE F&B, the body named on the poster and tagged by Diego, alongside Hotel Villa Cortés, in his thank-you post. The series already has a track record: the V edition was held at the Centro de Desarrollo Turístico de Costa Adeje on 26 and 27 May 2025, co-organised with the CEST and the Ayuntamiento de Adeje, and brought together more than 300 professionals, according to El Digital Sur, which at the time named the organiser as “Club CLAVE”, chaired by Juanjo Martínez.

The institutional backing for this VI edition was plain on the poster: supporting it are the Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Sociedad de Desarrollo, the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Cabildo de La Palma, the Gobierno de Canarias, SODEPAL, PROEXCA and Turismo de Tenerife; driving it are JDE Professional, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Laduc and Nektar Natura; and collaborating or taking part, among others, are Heineken, Familia Torres, Orbisk, Casa Delfín, Frigicoll, Deleitas, Tourinews, Coperama, Codorniú, RATIONAL, Agua KMO and Covermanager. This is no ordinary gastronomy-congress poster: it is the map of the industry that keeps the islands’ hotels running.

Diego closed with a line that sums up the tone of those two days well: “Grateful for the invitation and for backing innovation, hospitality and development in the F&B industry.” We take away the substance of the matter. If the buffet is the first dish a guest tries, it deserves the same care as the last.

Diego Schattenhofer, culinary ambassador for Tenerife at Gastronomika 2024

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