Speaker Profile

Lydia Forte

Group F&B Director, Rocco Forte Hotels

Lydia Forte is Group Director of Food & Beverage at Rocco Forte Hotels. She is the daughter of Sir Rocco Forte and the niece of Olga Polizzi.

In her role, she is responsible for the concepts, management and performance of the group’s restaurants and bars. This includes developing new restaurant concepts and maintaining quality of food and service in all the restaurant and bar outlets within the hotels. It also involves responsibility for profits, including cost control and driving of sales.

Before starting work for Rocco Forte Hotels full-time in February 2014, Lydia managed a new restaurant opening in Chelsea, The Markham Inn, and led two projects to update and improve two restaurants - HIX Mayfair in London and Bocconi in Brussels. She most recently completed an MBA at INSEAD in 2013.

After school, Lydia completed a professional cookery course at Leith’s, a 4-month rotating internship at Hotel Astoria in St. Petersburg, and spent time in Sales & Marketing at Brown’s Hotel. During her time studying Modern History at Oxford University, Lydia trained as a Maitre d’ at The Wolseley. In 2010 she went to work as a waitress at HIX Soho. She continued to work her way up through front of house operations in the restaurant industry, also completing stints in restaurant accounting and reservations.

Lydia speaks fluent English, Italian and French, conversational Spanish and basic Russian.