During his long career with Westin Hotels and Resorts, Walter Roth was instrumental in developing the culinary identity of the company. Born in Switzerland circa 1924, Roth apprenticed in Lugano at the Savoy-Richard Hotel, and soon accepted his first position at Western Hotels (later Westin) at the Oasis Hotel in Palm Springs, CA. His later assignments included several of Westin's most important properties: the Drake, St. Francis, Multnomah, Olympic, and Century Plaza Hotels. He developed the Culinary Apprenticeship Program for the company beginning in 1963, and served as head of the Westin Hotels Culinary Institute. Also in 1963, the American Culinary Federation established the Chef of the Year Award in his honor.
This collection consists of recipes, menus, and other culinary papers related to Chef Walter Roth's career with Westin Hotels and Resorts.
Series 1: Recipe file, circa 1950s-1970s. This series consists of recipes on cards (manuscript and printed items).
Series 2: Recipes and menus (binders and loose items), circa 1970s-1980s. This series consists of recipes and menus (manuscript and printed items), most in larger formats than the recipes in Series 1.
Series 3: Culinary Apprenticeship Program binder, including instructor handbook, circa 1960s-1980s.
This collection is arranged in three series. Series 1 has two groups of cards, file 1 and file 2, arranged in their original order, with cards grouped according to type of dish. Approximately half of Series 2 series was organized in labeled binders, and approximately half was loose and unlabeled. They are arranged as received, in no apparent order.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item Description]
Westin Hotels and Resorts, Chef Walter Roth Papers, circa 1951-1980s (Cage 820)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Jon Hill, former Executive Chef for Westin Hotels and Resorts, donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in 2015 (MS.2015.02). Hill received the collection from Walter Roth in 2002, and used it in teaching and training students in the Culinary Program at Estrella Mountain College in Arizona.
This collection was processed by Cheryl Gunselman in 2015.
Westin Hotels and Resorts, J. William Keithan archives, 1905-2004
Georgina P. Tucker Papers, 1920-1997
Sid Copeland, "The Story of Western International Hotels," circa 2003
Westin Hotels and Resorts Management Conference Photographs, 1957-1988
Preliminary Guide to the Westin Hotels and Resorts Records, circa 1920s-2004
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.