Leadership series: Sami Kohen

Our Leadership series document the perspectives of influential and inspiring industry figures

We are here interviewing hospitality & culinary operations executive Sami Kohen, Global Vice President of Food & Beverage, Princess Cruises.

Could you briefly introduce yourself, your role, and the core mission of your organisation within the hospitality landscape?

I have spent more than three decades in luxury hospitality, fine dining, and global cruise food and beverage operations. Today, I serve as Global Vice President of Food and Beverage (Chief F&B Officer) at Princess Cruises, part of Carnival Corporation. In this role, I oversee the global culinary, beverage, and dining operations across our fleet of 16 to 17 ships—encompassing roughly 450 multi-brand restaurants, licensed celebrity-chef partnerships, bars, nightlife, cabana, and pool venues—as well as our private island in the Bahamas, lodges in Alaska, and rail operations around the world. Together, our food and beverage operation serves more than 16 million guest nights annually and generates over $700 million in annual revenue.

Before returning to the cruise sector with Princess in 2022, I spent fifteen years leading land-based luxury hospitality, multi-unit fine dining, and culinary ventures based out of Miami and the Southeast. My earlier career began at sea with Crystal Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Cunard, and Kyma Ship Management, which I later complemented with executive leadership roles on land—including Director of Operations at Food Invest Group (overseeing Brasserie La Goulue and Doré Miami at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach), Senior Vice President of Operations and Managing Partner at Dupoux Partners (Seaspice, River Yacht Club, Skorpios, Dashi, and VanDutch Lounge), Vice President of Operations at Club Waterloo, Complex Director of F&B at SBE/SLS Hotels (SLS LUX and SLS Brickell), Director of Operations for the Southeast at C3 by SBE, and Chief Operating Officer at Wired Kitchens.

Our core mission at Princess Cruises is to deliver world-class, memorable culinary and beverage experiences at global scale without ever losing the warmth, authenticity, and attention to detail of an independent restaurant. Whether a guest is dining at a chef-driven specialty concept at sea or enjoying a casual poolside venue in the Caribbean or Alaska, our goal is to make every touchpoint feel personal, effortless, and genuinely special.

What initially inspired you or sparked your interest in pursuing this career?

For me, hospitality has always combined two passions: the creative energy of food and beverage, and the discipline of running a complex business where every detail matters. I studied business at the Istanbul University School of Business, where I earned my Master of Science, and later completed specialized certifications in Food & Beverage Management through Cornell University’s Professional Development Program (PDP) and the American Hotel & Motel Association.

My early years in the cruise industry—starting as a Food and Beverage Controller at Crystal Cruises in the mid-1990s before moving into corporate F&B operations at Celebrity Cruises—gave me an extraordinary foundation. Working on ultra-luxury and premium ships early in my career taught me what true five-star standards look like behind the scenes: global procurement, precision inventory control, multicultural crew leadership, and the pride of delivering impeccable service day after day.

What motivates you in your work and what do you find most fulfilling about being a business leader?

What motivates me most is building high-performing teams and watching people grow into leaders in their own right. In food and beverage—especially at the scale of 450 venues around the world—no single executive can be in every kitchen or dining room at once. Your success depends entirely on the culture of accountability, pride, and continuous improvement you build from the front line all the way to the executive team.

I also find real fulfillment in the intersection of creativity and commercial discipline. Taking a new culinary concept from a blank sheet of paper—defining the concept statement, engineering the menu, negotiating brand or chef partnerships, designing the kitchen workflow, and training the team—and then walking into a full room where guests are having an unforgettable evening and the numbers work on the P&L is still the best feeling in this industry.

Looking back, what has been the most pivotal moment in your career, a turning point that shaped how you lead today?

One of the most pivotal transitions in my career was stepping ashore in 2007 after more than a decade in maritime hospitality (at Crystal Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and Kyma Ship Management) to lead upscale, independent, and lifestyle restaurant and hotel operations in Miami—and then bringing those two worlds back together when I joined Princess Cruises in 2022.

On land, serving as Director of Operations at Food Invest Group, growing from General Manager to Managing Partner and SVP of Operations at Dupoux Partners across five high-volume luxury venues, leading complex hotel F&B at SLS Brickell and SLS LUX, scaling celebrity-chef concepts with C3 by SBE, and developing national kitchen infrastructure as COO at Wired Kitchens forced me to think like an entrepreneur every single day. On land, you feel market shifts immediately; you are hands-on with construction, licensing, local marketing, vendor negotiations, and daily guest retention. Bringing that entrepreneurial speed, lifestyle-brand mindset, and celebrity-chef network back into a global cruise organization shaped the leader I am today—someone who can manage enterprise-scale systems while still thinking like a restaurateur.

What is or are your biggest career achievement(s)?

Rather than a single moment, I am proudest of being able to deliver both culinary excellence and commercial transformation across very different hospitality models.

At Princess Cruises, leading our enterprise-wide F&B strategy across 17 ships and more than 450 venues—driving $700M+ in annual revenue across 16 million guest nights, introducing new chef-driven and experiential dining concepts, and reducing cost of goods sold (COGS) by 12% through strategic vendor and brand partnerships—has been a career highlight.

On the land-based side, I am equally proud of helping build and open iconic Miami destinations with Dupoux Partners, where River Yacht Club and Dashi Japanese earned the Five Diamond Award and we drove consistent double-digit quarterly growth, as well as leading the pre-opening and launch of Club Waterloo, which was nominated the #1 club on the island by both locals and tourists. Collaborating directly with world-renowned chefs such as Katsuya Uechi, Masaharu Morimoto, Dani García, and Dario Cecchini at C3 by SBE—and overseeing the operational and supply-chain blueprint for over 800 kitchens nationwide at Wired Kitchens—are milestones I look back on with great pride.

What do you see as the biggest challenges currently facing the landscape where you are and how should/will a business like yours respond?

Across both global cruise hospitality and land-based dining, the three biggest pressures are supply chain volatility and cost inflation, attracting and retaining skilled culinary and service talent, and meeting the expectations of a guest who is more discerning about value than ever before.

You cannot simply pass rising costs on to the guest or cut corners on plate quality—guests notice immediately. The response has to come from operational intelligence and discipline. Throughout my career, whether managing a five-restaurant group in Miami or a global fleet, I have relied on rigorous menu engineering, accurate sales and demand forecasting to eliminate food waste, daily tracking of high-cost inventory items, and long-term, mutually beneficial vendor partnerships that stabilize pricing.

When your back-of-house procurement, par levels, and recipe standards are rock solid, you protect your margins while investing where the guest actually sees and tastes the difference.

How do you balance the demands of commercial performance with staff well-being, retention, and culture building?

In my experience, commercial performance and team culture are not competing priorities, they drive each other. Whenever I have seen high turnover or low morale in hospitality, it almost always traces back to a lack of clarity, poor scheduling, or a disconnect between leadership and the floor.

My approach has always started with ongoing, two-way communication between Front of House and Back of House leadership. When teams have clear standard operating procedures, realistic sales forecasting that leads to fair and predictable scheduling, and modern training tools—including visual and video training programs that set people up for success before service begins—stress drops and pride goes up. When you invest in developing your property- and ship-level leaders and promote from within, retention follows naturally, and that stability shows up directly in guest satisfaction and per-capita spend.

What innovations, technological, experiential, or operational, excite you the most right now?

I am most excited by technology that removes friction for both the guest and the crew so that human hospitality can shine. At Princess Cruises, a great example is how digital innovation integrates into the guest journey—from location-aware, personalized service enabled by wearable technology like our MedallionClass platform to mobile ordering, self-service kiosks, and digital menus. When implemented thoughtfully, these tools increase throughput and average check size while freeing our service teams to focus on genuine guest interaction rather than taking orders on a notepad.

On the experiential and culinary side, I am energized by the evolution of chef-driven concepts, celebrity brand partnerships, and limited-time offerings (LTOs). Guests today want variety and storytelling—they want an authentic Italian trattoria one night, high-energy Japanese cuisine the next, and craft cocktail programs that rival the best urban bars in Miami, London, or New York. Bringing that level of multi-concept dynamism to sea and large-scale destinations is hugely exciting.

What do you believe will distinguish the leading service providers over the next decade (e.g. niche market, luxury, sustainability, experience-driven, hybrid models…)?

Over the next decade, the winners in hospitality will be the operators who master 'personalization at scale' paired with genuine concept authenticity and responsible operations.

First, guests no longer accept generic hotel or cruise dining; they expect distinct, experience-driven concepts where the culinary identity, music, design, and beverage program tell a cohesive story. Second, operational agility—including hybrid kitchen models, smarter global supply chains, and meaningful ESG and sustainability practices around sourcing and food waste reduction—will separate resilient businesses from the rest. Finally, technology will continue to transform how we forecast demand and personalize guest recognition, but the true differentiator will always be how a brand makes people feel welcomed and cared for.

What advice would you give emerging leaders who want to shape the future of the service industry?

First, master the fundamentals before you chase the title. Earlier in my career, working as a Food and Beverage Controller taught me how a hospitality business truly breathes—how purchasing, receiving, recipe costing, inventory, and labor scheduling connect to everything happening in the dining room. A leader who understands both the kitchen line and the balance sheet will always be invaluable.

Second, don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone or cross between different segments of the industry. Moving between luxury cruise lines, fine-dining restaurants, lifestyle hotels, beach clubs, and culinary tech gave me perspectives I never would have gained by staying in one lane.

Finally, lead with visibility and respect. Spend time in the galleys, in the kitchens, and on the floor. Listen to your teams, communicate clearly, and remember that our industry is ultimately a people business—your legacy will always be defined by the leaders you helped develop along the way.