Starting a hospitality career requires more than classroom knowledge—it demands practical experience, industry connections, and the resilience to navigate unexpected paths. The story of Polly Liao and Andy Lin demonstrates how a Les Roches education in Switzerland laid the foundation for two distinct careers that eventually converged into a shared restaurant business in Taiwan.
Building Professional Foundations at Les Roches Switzerland
Les Roches has long established itself as a premier institution for hospitality education, attracting students from around the world to its Swiss campuses. For Polly and Andy, their time at the Crans-Montana campus in the late 1990s and early 2000s provided much more than academic credentials. The structured combination of theoretical coursework and hands-on practical training created a framework they would both reference throughout their professional lives.
Andy completed his initial diploma in 1999 but recognized the value of deeper business knowledge, returning to complete his BBA from 2000 to 2001. This decision reflects a common insight among hospitality professionals: that understanding both operational execution and strategic management creates more versatile career options. During his second stint at Les Roches, Andy participated in a wedding service event during his first three weeks—an experience he credits with demonstrating the exacting standards required in high-end hospitality.
Polly graduated with her Diploma in Hotel Management in 2001, finding particular value in the practical components of the curriculum. Her preference for learning through doing rather than traditional lectures aligned well with Les Roches’ pedagogical approach, which emphasizes real-world application alongside business fundamentals.
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Divergent Career Paths After Graduation
Following their time in Switzerland, Polly and Andy pursued markedly different professional trajectories—illustrating the versatility of a hospitality education.
Polly’s Transition from Hotels to Education
Upon returning to Taiwan, Polly joined the housekeeping department at Shangri-La Taipei, gaining foundational experience in luxury hotel operations. After a year, she pursued a Master’s degree in human resources management in the United Kingdom, expanding her skill set beyond operational hospitality into organizational management.
Despite this additional qualification, Polly found that corporate HR environments did not match her professional preferences. In 2009, she made a significant career pivot, returning to her hometown of Siluo to establish a teaching business. What began as English instruction for high school students evolved into a multi-subject educational enterprise with multiple team members—a testament to the entrepreneurial thinking that hospitality programs often cultivate.
Andy’s Ascent Through Hotel Operations
Andy’s path remained more closely aligned with traditional hospitality progression. After completing his BBA, he stayed in Switzerland for an internship at an international school restaurant in Geneva, even receiving a recommendation for a Michelin-starred establishment in the city. Family obligations necessitated his return to Taiwan, where he began as a housekeeping coordinator before transitioning to sales and marketing.
Over 15 years, Andy advanced to Director of Sales, demonstrating how Les Roches graduates can leverage their broad industry understanding across functional areas. He subsequently moved into pre-opening roles, contributing to new hotel launches including the Holiday Inn and eventually becoming hotel manager at Taipei City Hotel.
Reconnecting and Reimagining the Future
Despite maintaining loose contact through alumni reunions and occasional messaging, Polly and Andy’s paths seemed unlikely to converge. Andy had married, built a substantial hotel career, and eventually opened his own restaurant in Taipei after leaving the corporate sector to care for his father. Polly had established herself as a business owner in Siluo, far from Taipei’s hospitality epicenter.
The turning point came in 2022. Travel restrictions during the pandemic led Polly to spend her vacation time in Taipei, where she visited Andy’s restaurant. This visit reignited the easy communication they had shared as students—conversations about challenges and successes that had originally bonded them in Switzerland. With both now single, they acknowledged the possibility of a relationship that extended beyond friendship.
Andy’s response was decisive. He sold his Taipei restaurant and apartment, purchased a building in Siluo, and relocated to build a new life with Polly. Their marriage combined two established professionals with complementary skills: Polly’s business acumen and Andy’s culinary expertise.
Have questions about career transitions in hospitality? Write to us to connect with our admissions team.
Launching Andy’s Bistro: Applying Hospitality Education to Entrepreneurship
Andy’s Bistro opened in Siluo in August 2024, offering a menu that reflects both Andy’s international exposure and his culinary training. The restaurant serves high-quality cuisine from Italy, India, New Orleans, and France—a combination rarely found in Taiwan’s smaller towns. This concept directly draws on the global perspective that studying at Les Roches in Switzerland naturally provides.
Starting a restaurant from scratch presents distinct challenges compared to joining an established operation. Andy had to build supplier relationships, develop recipes, train staff, and establish quality standards without the support systems that major hotel brands provide. Polly balanced this venture with managing her growing educational business, creating a dynamic where both partners supported each other’s entrepreneurial efforts.
Lessons from Les Roches That Transferred to Independent Business
Both alumni identify specific elements of their Les Roches education that proved relevant to their restaurant venture:
- Operational rigor: Andy references the exacting kitchen cleanliness standards enforced during practical training—standards he maintains in his own establishment
- Service orientation: The wedding service experience demonstrated how to deliver consistent quality under pressure
- Business thinking: Their broader hospitality management education provided frameworks for understanding costs, marketing, and customer experience
- Cultural adaptability: Exposure to diverse cuisines and service styles during their Switzerland education informed the restaurant’s eclectic menu
What Aspiring Hospitality Professionals Can Learn From This Journey
The Polly and Andy story offers several actionable insights for those considering hospitality careers:
Practical Training Creates Lasting Value
Both alumni specifically highlight the practical components of their Les Roches education as the most directly applicable to their careers. When selecting a hospitality program, prospective students should evaluate the balance between classroom instruction and hands-on experience. Programs that integrate real operational work—whether through campus facilities, internships, or industry partnerships—provide skills that transfer across roles and organizations.
Career Paths Are Rarely Linear
Polly moved from hotels to HR to education. Andy progressed from operations to sales to management to independent restaurant ownership. Neither followed a predetermined path, yet both found ways to apply their foundational hospitality knowledge in evolving contexts. This flexibility represents one of the often-overlooked benefits of hospitality education: the skills developed are broadly applicable across industries and roles.
Networks Provide Long-Term Value
The fact that Polly and Andy reconnected after more than two decades—and that this reconnection led to both a personal relationship and a business partnership—illustrates the enduring value of educational networks. Alumni connections often provide opportunities that no job board or recruiting platform can match, particularly for entrepreneurial ventures where trust and shared experience matter.
Submit your application today to join the Les Roches global alumni network and build connections that can shape your entire career.
Choosing the Right Hospitality Education for Restaurant Entrepreneurship
For students specifically interested in restaurant ownership or food and beverage entrepreneurship, evaluating hospitality programs requires attention to several factors:
Culinary integration: While hospitality management programs are not culinary schools, those that incorporate food production knowledge—like Les Roches’ practical kitchen training—provide a foundation for understanding menu development, kitchen operations, and quality control.
Business fundamentals: Successful restaurants require more than good food. Programs that cover financial analysis, marketing, human resources, and strategic management prepare graduates for the business challenges that cause many restaurants to fail.
International perspective: Exposure to diverse cuisines, service styles, and cultural expectations helps restaurateurs develop concepts that stand out in competitive markets. The global student body and faculty at institutions like Les Roches naturally create this exposure.
Alumni ecosystem: Programs with active alumni networks provide ongoing support for entrepreneurs, whether through mentorship, partnership opportunities, or simply understanding the shared experience of hospitality education.
The Broader Value of Switzerland-Based Hospitality Education
Studying hospitality in Switzerland offers specific advantages that extend beyond the curriculum itself. The country’s reputation for precision, quality, and service excellence creates an immersive environment where high standards become habitual. Students who live and learn in this context often internalize expectations that they carry throughout their careers—as Andy’s emphasis on kitchen cleanliness demonstrates.
Additionally, Switzerland’s position as a hub for international hospitality means students encounter peers from dozens of countries, work with faculty who have global experience, and complete internships in prestigious properties across Europe. This international foundation proves valuable whether graduates pursue corporate hotel careers, independent businesses, or transitions to other industries entirely.
Moving Forward: Building Your Own Hospitality Story
Polly and Andy’s journey from Les Roches classmates to life and business partners represents just one of the countless paths that hospitality education can enable. Their experience demonstrates that the value of programs like those offered at Les Roches extends far beyond initial job placement—it provides frameworks, standards, and networks that support professional evolution over decades.
For prospective students evaluating their options, consider what kind of career flexibility you want. The most valuable hospitality education is one that prepares you not just for your first role, but for the roles you cannot yet imagine—including those that may not exist in traditional hospitality at all.
Share your experiences in the comments below—what unexpected paths has your hospitality career taken?
