César Ritz

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Portait of César Ritz

César Ritz (February 23, 1850–October 24, 1918) was a famous Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously the Hôtel Ritz, in Paris. His nickname was "king of hoteliers, and hotelier to kings," and it is from his name and that of his hotels that the term ritzy derives.

Ritz began his career at Le Splendide, a hotel in Paris and was maître d'hôtel at Chez Voisin, a restaurant which closed following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

In 1878, he became the manager of the Grand Hôtel National in Lucerne and held the same position, in parallel, at the Grand Hôtel in Monaco until 1888. A pioneer in the development of luxury hoteliering, he knew how to entice wealthy customers and quickly gained a reputation for good taste and elegance.

In 1888, he opened a restaurant with Auguste Escoffier in Baden-Baden, and was then invited to London by Richard d'Oyly Carte to become the first manager of the Savoy Hotel, a position he held from 1889 until 1897.

In 1898, he opened the celebrated Hôtel Ritz in the Place Vendôme, Paris, France. He went on to open The Ritz Hotel in London, United Kingdom in 1906, which became one of the most popular meeting places of the era, for the rich and famous. The Hotel Ritz Madrid in Madrid, Spain opened in 1910, inspired by King Alfonso XIII’s desire to build a luxury hotel to rival the Ritz in Paris. Ritz enjoyed a long partnership with Escoffier, the famous French chef and father of modern French cooking. The partnership lasted until Ritz had to retire in 1907 due to deteriorating health.

Ritz was born in Niederwald, Switzerland, to a farming family and died in Küsnacht, near Lucerne, Switzerland. He is buried in the village of his birth.