Episode 6
Launching, Running, & Expanding Your Restaurant

[00:00:00.25] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Hi, and welcome to the sixth episode of the Soppy Talks podcast. My guest today is Riadh Abultief, an architect turned chef and restaurant investor. In our discussion today, we talk about what it takes to run a successful concept and how to expand it. We’ll finish our conversation with Riadh’s thoughts on awards in the restaurant business and what they mean. Enjoy. Riadh, welcome to the show.

[00:00:23.02]

Thank you.

[00:00:24.03] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Riadh, a lot of people go to culinary school and then they climb the ladder, they become a chef, and then Maybe they start to own their own restaurant business. But your journey is quite different. Tell me about it.

[00:00:36.17] – Speaker 1

My name is Riadh, first of all. I’m an ex-architect. I started my practical life in architecture Here, I worked for quite some years, and then I decided this is not me. It’s as simple as this. I have enjoyed working as an architect, but I found myself more into cooking. I found myself in kitchens, in the hustle and bustle of the crockpots and the pans and the orders and the machine that you hear, this is the order right now that you have to send. It really was an intriguing part for me. It was like part of a therapy for me. And whenever the kitchen mosquito bit me, I was never able to look back. It was set and done back then. As simple as this.

[00:01:25.14] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

It’s a scary jump to go from one career path to a completely different one. What made you press the button?

[00:01:34.07] – Speaker 1

Although the word passion is extremely used and probably overstretched, that was the case. I was frantic about food. I was extremely passionate. It was something that I later on came to learn that this is who I am, this is my identity, and it continued. Passion is really the reason that helped me jump and forget about how scary the move from one domain into another is. I never looked back. I never looked back. It It was a positive move. I’m very happy I did it. I look at architecture as a tool, probably like a dentist uses the dentistry tools, our utensils, to do his job. Architecture, to me, That was a tool for me to be at this stage or this level where I’m at right now.

[00:02:35.21] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Nice. But how did you go from being an architect to deciding to becoming a chef? Did you train under someone? Because there’s a difference between knowing how to cook and running a kitchen. How did you do that move?

[00:02:49.02] – Speaker 1

Excellent question. It is like this. It’s a very important theory or culinary school. It’s extremely important. My journey started with As an intern in restaurants abroad, overseas in the UK and the States for a brief amount of time. Then with the wave of the internet and YouTube channels and all that, I embarked on these and started learning, and I started to feel more knowledgeable. Then I embarked on another journey, which is the books. I start buying books and then reading more, getting more interested about food and food philosophy, terroirs and heritage, culture, identity, and all that. I became more fascinated. Then I started to apply and exercise and train myself. It’s really like a gym, like going to the gym, although I would never go to a gym, personally. But It really is like an exercise. You have to train. The more you train, the more sharp you become and the more knowledgeable you become. It’s as simple as this. The theory part for all those who want to jump or embark on being a chef or learn about culinary arts and all that, the theory and the academy is very important. However, what is going to distinguish you and give you a character, and this is extremely important in our industry, is your practice and your continuous hustling after learning more, more, more each and every day.

[00:04:22.00] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Did you discover your style as a chef when you started working professionally at it? Meaning your style of cuisine, the cuisine you like to cook the or were you already settled with the style?

[00:04:34.17] – Speaker 1

You just touched on something that I have not ever answered yet. I don’t know what cuisine I belong to. Obviously, I belong to an area which I’m grateful to be part of, which is the Levantine, and particularly Lebanon. However, if I have a good Chinese meal, or Japanese meal, or Portuguese meal, or any other meal, I feel like I belong to this. I try to understand I never judge whether this meal… It really is confusing to me. Sometimes they say, I went to this restaurant and did not enjoy. I did not like this. Okay, you can like in this, but I cannot judge. I become part of the meal that I’ve tried, whether in France, whether in Portugal, Italy, or any other place. So I haven’t decided. I want to be open. I don’t have taboos against any kitchen, and I want to marry these cultures together. And this is the vision that I have for myself as a chef.

[00:05:33.26] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

It’s interesting because I was reading your bio, and there’s a keyword that really resonated with me, which was… I think the word was cuisine de lieu or food de lieu.

[00:05:44.11] – Speaker 1

Food de lieu.

[00:05:45.17] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Which means that you essentially create items or a menu that is very much relevant to the environment in which that food is going to be consumed. So that was very interesting.

[00:05:57.23] – Speaker 1

I read about this point quite a long time ago, and it started with a trend, if I may say so, and an idea about farm to table, and then it became very big into the market, and people used this term in order to market their places in goodwill or not a goodwill, if I may say so.

[00:06:23.16] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

From a marketing standpoint, you mean?

[00:06:25.07] – Speaker 1

Yes. However, I did not understand it. In the beginning, I was like, Okay, I farm to table, cuisine de lieu, and all that, until you go to a village, for example, a distant place, where it is based and mounted on agriculture, and you try stuff over there that are so fresh, that flips you off. And then you see, I don’t really need to do much to these strawberries in order to present them. So you start to evaluate yourself as a chef. You are a tool. You’re just a messenger of the nature, the best of what God sent items in nature in order to just present them on the plate. And it opens your mind more into developing your philosophy in food, which is, Hey, I need the farmer. I need to create the alphabet between me and him to understand each other rather than doing a monoculture, importing monoculture items, thousands of hectares of soy beans in the States, for example, or corn, and then attacking and destroying the land and the agriculture with pesticides and fertilizers, why don’t we go into polyculture? Then you start to think more into the depth of it. It’s really not an easy trip.

[00:07:49.05] – Speaker 1

I truly believe that when you eat from your surrounding, it is extremely honest, it’s straightforward, and it’s delicious. There’s no other… Why do we do food? It’s to present something that is delicious, give the people experience, and enjoy. It is the food of Lyaf, my opinion.

[00:08:09.24] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

That’s an amazing philosophy and train of thought. I want to talk about another jump in your career when you went from chef to then investing in new concepts, behind your name are Tahini, Wise Guys, MoonShine, all of which are different restaurants, different successful restaurants with different concepts. And I’d like to dig a bit into that topic of how do you create a concept that is going to be successful? Starting with a very simple question, how do you create a concept that is going to be successful? Okay.

[00:08:44.21] – Speaker 1

To start with, in order to clarify about your questions, to make it more clear, it’s like when you are working with a team, you will feel strong. When it comes to MoonShine,wise Guys, in Tahini, and now we have a new baby on board, which is Wise Guys in Dubai Hills. I was part of a team, a bigger team, a group of partners that are into the business who thought really in-depth into what the market lacks. I wanted to clarify this. When it comes to your question diverting towards a chef versus an entrepreneur. Also. Yeah. This is something else. This chef needs to have a set of skills, and then an entrepreneur needs to have a set of skills. One is into the know-how of the business when it comes to presenting the food and elevating the food, and to be able to know his food cost, his waste management, and all the attributes that fall under the chef’s title and know-how and knowledge and skills. The entrepreneur part is more into the business side. What is the risk management? Where is the best place for our location? Which makes more revenue? Am I going to locate my place in a footfall area where it’s business-oriented?

[00:10:20.20] – Speaker 1

Then you lose your anchor on leveraging or monetizing your costs and your rent into the dinner because dinner But at the same time, there’s no employees. You lose the chance of monetizing this part of the year while if you are working in a fine dining restaurant, for example, you leverage on the dining scene and you lose the breakfast scene. It is just a market study. What makes a restaurant successful is a challenging homework, if I may say so. It’s the best way to put it. It’s just a homework. You have the pre-opening homework that you have to do and the post-opening homework that you have to do. The pre-opening homework you have to do is to check your location. What is the footfall on this location? This is only on the demographics of the location itself. How big it is, how small it is, how many hours I’m going to operate, and what are the shifts? And this is only one item. And then you can jump into the concept. What are the trends right now? Are the trends acceptable? What am I offering? What What are my unique selling points for this? So that we don’t bore the viewers.

[00:11:35.11] – Speaker 1

It’s a list of items. I’m not inventing it. It’s scientific. It’s over there on the website. People can look at it and read it, and they take each and every point with all seriousness because there’s no second chance, especially in a market as challenging, as competitive, and as beautiful as the Dubai market. Then you have your post-opening, what is the customer feedback? What What is my marketing strategy? And what is my advertisement plan? The list goes on. It’s a never-ending. But the most important element that is found in each and every attribute that I mentioned is dedication. Which is what? Dedication. You have to forget that, by the way, today is my son’s birthday. I’m going to tell him, Happy birthday. I love him to death.

[00:12:24.11] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

What’s his name?Alex.

[00:12:25.19] – Speaker 1

Alexander. Happy birthday, Alex. Thank you. I missed my son’s birthday. I shouldn’t be here. I should be next to him. You will miss his birthday. You’re probably going to miss a graduation here. You’re going to miss an important appointment there just because you have to honor your commitment. Both, sacrifice and commitment are extremely part of the equation, which is a very important element that feeds your passion. They go all together. It’s like a It’s a chain reaction that’s happening this after this, after this, after this. I hope I was able to globally answer your question without going into the details to keep it more fun, more attractive, and more to simplify it for the viewers and to understand it while the whole mission is really a complicated homework.

[00:13:23.05] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Yeah, look, the restaurant industry is far from being an easy one, and being a dedicated person is Part of the must have traits that you should have as an entrepreneur. Look, you touched base on several topics that I’d like to dig a little deeper in, notably the traits of a chef and the traits of an entrepreneur. What are some of the things that you’ve learned as a chef that now help you make better decisions as an entrepreneur?

[00:13:52.10] – Speaker 1

Okay. What helped me is, don’t go by instinct. The first day when I thought that I wanted to be a chef I was all over the place. It’s like a crazy man’s crazy painting on a wall. Over the place, I’m going to try this and all that. What I learned is that the most important part is after you have filtered You have to find out what you really want and what is the menu, you have to pass through the R&D part. The R&D part is extremely important in our work, the research and development part. Then you try, and then you try, and then you expose the end result into your counterparts, to your counterparts, to your partners, to the people, to the clients, and then take the feedback. And you have to be able to swallow the ego, smile, and understand where you’re coming from, and remember your humble beginnings, and take a feedback, accept the feedback. Because what you have in your mind as an absolute truth and correct, in the other’s mind, it might not be. Now this is a strategic thinking towards convincing yourself that, Hey, you might have a point. Maybe if I do this in this way, it will be better.

[00:15:12.09] – Speaker 1

Most of the times, it becomes better. R&d is one of them, which will teach you later on to be disciplined in doing the recipe. Recipe discipline is extremely important. It keeps your product at the end of the day, hitting the 90% consistency number that we always… To me, I don’t want 100% consistency. I’m one of those preachers. I don’t want 100%. Why not? I am not TACO BELL. I am not McDonald’s. I’m not Burger King. I’m not a chain. Part of the imperfect end product is part of the joy of it. It’s perfectly imperfect. But you need to be at least to a 90% consistent with your product. At the end of the day, it’s a beautiful expression because whoever is doing the food at the end of the day is a human being, and he’s bound to make mistakes.

[00:16:14.15] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

But I’m curious to know one thing, Riadh. As a chef, you must have seen the recipes that work or don’t work. Now, as an entrepreneur, do you, for example, dismiss a menu type or an item type that you know is going to cause a lot a lot of trouble for the business, meaning very expensive and doesn’t sell that much. That’s the sensitivity that I’d love to learn if you’ve incorporated it in your business decision making today.

[00:16:41.06] – Speaker 1

Absolutely. You have to be agile and you have to be flexible and know exactly when to pivot. These are extremely important points. I thank you for the question because it’s extremely important. What we see in a major picture As in the food scene is really trends. Some trends work, other trends don’t work. People will always want to eat salmon. People will always want to have truffles somewhere. People will always have to have caviar somewhere. In a casual restaurant, why do I need to put caviar? I don’t need this. Is this because crowd-pleasing? This is what I’m trying to hint to you, is that the crowd-pleasing elements are items that we They really don’t want on the menu, but they sell. Sometimes they make a profit, and sometimes they don’t because they become a burden. And this is particularly detailed. When you do your menu, you do your fish technique, and then you do your recipe book, and then you take this recipe book and you bring your cost controller. And this is a bit technical. I don’t want to bore the people with it, but you bring your cost controller, and you measure each and everything, and you take your yield, and you make your your fish technique on the gramage basis, on the gram basis, in order to know your raw cost.

[00:18:06.21] – Speaker 1

You set the price on a certain profit margin. Because there are rules for food and beverage, your food costs should be between… It depends on the concept, obviously, because people will tell me, No, some concepts will reach up to 28 and 30 or 32%. What’s an average one? In a nutshell, between 21 to 25. And beverage should be between 17, 19. It depends on how you harness it, what ice you’re using and all that. In a nutshell, you have to remain within this range Because this is part… It’s extremely nice. I love the conversation because this is part of the first question that you asked. This is part of the entrepreneurship. It’s like you have to be able to fine-tune stuff. If this is going to hurt me, but it’s pleasing the people, what do you do? If this item on the menu is bringing me more crowds, then I will accept it as a plow horse because your cost controller will come and tell you, This is a star This is a star item. This is a plow horse. This is a burden. He highlights it, and we use actually these terminologies. Then now we do the menu engineering.

[00:19:23.29] – Speaker 1

Okay, I’m accepting to have one or two items on the menu that are not as profitable as I want them to be, but we have this star item and this star item and this star item. At the end of the day, nobody says anything with a loss. Everybody is making a penny or so. Nobody is doing an a priced item in all the markets.

[00:19:47.27] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

It’s a good mix between intuition and conviction and science. Absolutely. At the end of the day. When we’re young or when we’re starting out in a career, we tend to hear a lot of advice from a lot of people on on what should be a good thing. For example, you can start a restaurant with just one chef, and that person is going to handle all of your operations. The more you move forward in your career, the more you start to realize that some of these promises weren’t actually true. Have you started to apply some principles as must-have items or must-have people in a team to ensure the success of your business today?

[00:20:26.27] – Speaker 1

All right. Just to answer your question, first, I’m forever young. Okay. To make things clear. All right. Yes. To answer your question, the structure of any kitchen, and it’s been done since the 1800s, there’s a brigade system. Directly or indirectly, it’s being implemented into most kitchens that I know of. A brigade system was created by a very reputable chef. His name is August Escoffier, and he created the brigade, which each and every section of the kitchen has a boss. You have the saucier, you have the gâte manger, you have the hot section, you have the butchery, you have the pastry, and each and every section has its own boss.

[00:21:19.02] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

No matter the type of restaurant.

[00:21:20.15] – Speaker 1

Absolutely. Each and every boss of this section has helpers, and we call them CDPs. Chef de Partie. Yes, Chef de Partie. Each and every group, they have a head chef or sous chef first, and then you have your head chef, and then you have your executive chef. This is the hierarchy that has been set and done for ages, and it is being used in many restaurants. Now, this will help you allocate how many people I need in my team. And further to your question, which is more important, Besides the skills of the individual is the character. And the most important attribute in the character is honesty and loyalty, in my mind, which are extremely rare to find traits when it comes to back-of-the-house operations. We understand that part of our jobs is to make money, and it’s extremely important. However, you cannot jump boats just for a lousy $100, a couple of $100 or a couple of $100 dirhams here and there in order to get… This is an extremely important and an extremely challenging factor that we on ground, face on daily basis. Does this mean that we are bad bosses? No. This means that what we need to create in the kitchen, and this is the highest level that I personally have reached, is to create a culture.

[00:23:02.15] – Speaker 1

A kitchen is about a culture. It’s correct that we have a mechanical system in place where this mechanical system in place tells who is the boss of who and who is in charge of what, and this is how you delegate the work. But culture gives you a sense of belonging, a sense of ownership, a sense of understanding what the employee wants in order for this employee to be working in a very healthy environment in order to give you the production that you need from him in a good way. And mind you, this is not a joke. Kitchens are not a joke. It would shock you. You would run away from many kitchens the moment you enter this environment. The culture is tough. Not only this, the culture, the way people are treated, the hygiene levels. This is not a joke. Food is not a joke. You cannot play poker with people’s lives. It’s a healthy point. And whatever you desire and whatever you accept, as a matter of fact, to eat, Personally, you would want to serve to your people and make it at least 10 times better. The environment of the kitchen, if I may say so, on the back of the house is extremely important to understand them and know how to treat them and hold them accountable when you need to and praise them when you need to in order to grease your way through your operation and make it as smooth as possible.

[00:24:45.26] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

That’s great. Would you, for example, say today that as an entrepreneur, what you want to see is good culture in the kitchen because it retains your talent and keeps your operations going?

[00:24:55.25] – Speaker 1

Culture is a part where most people don’t talk about, and this is why I’m emphasizing on it.

[00:25:02.09] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Why do they not talk about it?

[00:25:03.17] – Speaker 1

Because they don’t know it. It’s recent. It’s almost COVID’s years old because people have lost a lot of their back of the houses, they’re sitting in their houses not working. They’re getting paid. How do we detain the people back? It’s because the ambiance, if I may say so, in the kitchen was hostile. The owners were not treating their employees in the right way. They fled away. How do you bring them back? What I’m trying to tell, if you know how to deal with your people, for example, this is a very simple example. I have the pizza guy, his dad was sick. Then he told me, My dad is sick. My vacation is due next month. The next 48 hours or 72 hours from him telling me he was on a plane, leaving to see his dad, because in my opinion, I cannot really, on a personal level, I cannot hold the burden of anything happening to him because his dad is seriously ill. I cannot hold the burden he might not see his dad. So when he went and he saw his dad and I told him, Is he good? Are you happy? And all that.

[00:26:19.01] – Speaker 1

Now I can ask from him twice as much as I can. He’s giving you willingly. And this is part of the culture because you need to know how to deal with your team. You need to know how to deal with your staff.

[00:26:30.20] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

At least for our generation, I think we’re becoming more and more aware of the importance of culture and wanting to be working with people that you enjoy working with. So it is a very important thing that people of orange look at. I want to go back to starting a concept. Do you usually go in with a clear vision of what the food is going to be like, what the mood is going to be like, what the service is going to be like, following, of course, a market research, because you mentioned that. Do you do that as an entrepreneur, or do you go with a draft and then surround yourself with people that are professional in their domain or that you’ve worked with in the past and start to work on the details if I can call these details, because each section is a construction site. Tell me a little bit about how you go from draft to an actual functioning restaurant.

[00:27:25.18] – Speaker 1

Yeah. First off, where’s the coffee? I mean, there’s no coffee. I’m just kidding. It never is. You can never visualize the whole thing from the get-go. It’s just a small idea. It’s exactly a seed. And you watch this seed growing to be a big tree that gives you the best fruits. What is really addictive, and this is why I’m in this business, is the journey. The moment that you see a space, the moment you have the idea what you can plug in into this place, you start working, you embark on a trip with teams. Each and every team has its own speciality. You embark with a team of architects, and then you embark with a team of the branding, you embark with the team of the marketing, and then you embark with the team of hiring people, the HR department. Then throughout this process, you are visualizing the people in its active way. I’m working on a project right now. I have this vision. I want a 60 to 70 years old person, whether a man or a woman, having their sunglasses on the tip of their nose, holding a newspaper, an old-school newspaper, not even the-Digital ones.

[00:28:49.08] – Speaker 1

Not the digital ones, reading probably Lorient L’Ojour back in Lebanon and sipping on their coffee in the morning. I’m building Thinking around this, what can I serve this person during this time? You start asking yourself these questions, and you embark on the journey of how the look and feel is going to be, and this is talking branding, how you are going to position yourself. You are in the same category as positioned with a fine dining restaurant in Atlantis or a small casual in the IFC, or an everyday restaurant, which are amazing, the hidden gems that are in charge of, for example. You decide where you are going to position yourself and how you market yourself out. Then comes the interior design, and then comes the tables, then comes the chairs, and then comes the crockery, the cutlery, and all that. It’s the journey. It’s an amazing trip that you take. Then you go start understand, Well, now I know what the concept is. I know how I’m going to work around it. I know what would be the menu. Then you embark on another journey as you do your R&D research through books, through the internet and all that, into being inspired.

[00:30:15.09] – Speaker 1

This is extremely important. I love this. You watch people doing a 200 years old recipe that was being served probably at somebody’s rich mansion or the 1900s Ritz Kaltun menu at New Year’s. Then you take it back and then you understand what the ingredients are and you work around these ingredients and try to modernize it, try to make it 2024, for example. Then you present it and then you taste it and then you take the feedback and always accept the feedback, as I said a while ago. Then is this going to work? Does this fall within the concept of that project that you’re I’m working on a project on a French brasserie that is influenced by Les Goulois right now. You have to do the research, what did they eat back at the day and what are the types of cheeses that they eat. And guess what? Cheese, back in the days, I’m not saying this is in 2024, desserts were for women, and cheese was for men. Interesting. Yeah. And then what type of cheeses I’m going to do? And Because part of their meal, at the end of it comes the cheese. Why?

[00:31:34.02] – Speaker 1

And you start to learn, and then you start to imply. And then, guess what? You collect all this data, and you create a manual with it, and you give this manual to your front of the house, and you train them. This becomes tools and means to sell your products. You are able now to tell the story behind each and every product that you have between your hands. And guess what? This is coming from this. This is the This is the story of this wine. This is the story of this cheese or this coverage or this cheese, or this cheese, or this cut of meat and all that. People are really into the restaurant for an experience. I’m very much influenced by one of the best restaurant tours ever, in my opinion. His name is Danny Myers. Danny Myers says, 49% of your success rate is bound to not only your service, not only your ambiance, not only your food, how good your food is, or your beverages, or your service, or how you complement. No, this is all 49%. 51% is, were you able to touch on a human level with this individual and what was the experience?

[00:32:45.28] – Speaker 1

A true story can be told. We had clients that they wanted a specific dish. She asked, Do you have this on your menu? We didn’t have this dish on the menu. She said, Then I don’t have the time because I want to look for another place to eat this plate. It’s kebbab laban, basically. She said, I don’t care about the kebbab laban. That’s what she said. Then, If you don’t have it, I’m going to go to another restaurant. The manager came and said, This lady wants kebbab laban. What do we do? Tell him, We have kebbab laban. I went to the kitchen, asked for the guys, We have kebbé frozen, ready-made, because we do it on a daily basis. Then the I did it on a quick basis, and I presented it. You met her expectations. She was traveling at eight o’clock in the evening. The next day, we see her coming. I was like, You did not tell me the truth. Yesterday, you sent me… It’s like, No, I extended. I want to eat more. This is what we call in our domain, the unreasonable hospitality. It’s like going out of your way within limits and bounds in order to distill one moment from this client, from this patron, and really, genuinely, there’s no dilly dallying here.

[00:34:07.26] – Speaker 1

If you do not receive your patrons or your clients, I don’t call them even. Neither patron is not, they are guests. If you don’t receive them with all the love and attention and care, not just any person passing through a five-star lobby hotel saying, Good morning, sir, because they have to do. No, you genuinely receive them, they will feel it without even saying. You will We do this connection, and this is an extremely important part of what we do. When was the last time? Now, I’m asking you, when was the last time you had a freebie in a restaurant, a piece of cake in a restaurant? It adds a lot to your experience. Yeah. So when was the last time?

[00:34:47.00] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Look, the last time I had a free dessert given to me was a very long time ago, even a free drink. But I’ll tell you two things. The first is, I remember going to this coffee place that was right under my office every day to get a coffee. And these guys did not have a loyalty program. And they knew my face because they would tell me, Do you want the regular? And they never offered me anything for free. And that, in a way, made me, I’m not sure what the word is, but disappointed, I would say, because every day I come here, I spend 30 dirhams for a coffee, which is very expensive, and you never offered me a single coffee. So that was It was a negative experience, but a positive one wasn’t about rewarding my loyalty, but it was just a personal touch that I experienced recently by going to a restaurant. When I was booking a slot, they asked, Are you celebrating anything? And I said, Yes, I’m celebrating this thing that happened in my life. And throughout the dinner, they didn’t mention it. And at the very end of it, they just pulled out a card saying, Congrats, JP, for accomplishing this.How.

[00:35:59.23] – Speaker 1

Nice was that?

[00:36:00.26] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

It was a beautiful dinner. I was with my mother and partner, and I just had such an amazing experience. And that last touch really sealed the deal for me. And it made me so happy. Absolutely. That restaurant will forever be a happy memory in my mind, and I will speak highly of it everywhere that I go.

[00:36:22.08] – Speaker 1

You still remember it. In two or three or maybe five years time, you still remember. You just Thank you. You just explained what I said. You distill a moment. You still remember the very moment, the very second, where this card landed on your table or between your hands. People sometimes are afraid. On another on another incidence, not going too much into details, I saw a guy. I thought, I’m going to offer this guy the meal for free today. I come with these stupid, crazy ideas. Just likeYes. And then the guy is like, he felt offended. I came to him. I told him, Listen, it’s just something from the heart, which was really it. He did not know how to react towards this because he’s not used to it. At the end of the day, he understood, and then he was happy about them. Sorry. He was happy about the experience.

[00:37:28.04] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Yeah. I mean, look, these experiences really do matter in hospitality. Absolutely. There’s nothing more beautiful than giving someone a beautiful moment. Absolutely. We’re aligned on that. We’ve spoken about how to launch a business. Now, I’d like to talk about how to run a business successfully, especially when it comes to numbers. From your experience as a chef, you spent a considerable amount of time in the back of house preparing food, preparing ingredients, ordering ingredients, managing managing your inventory, your stock, testing recipes. I’d like for you to tell me about a time where you had high food costs, and what did you do to fix that? Or food waste, and what did you do to fix that?

[00:38:14.25] – Speaker 1

All right. Basically, it’s something I touched on a while ago, briefly. You’re asking me, what makes your restaurant successful? Because obviously, a lot of waste What harms your business. I think what I would say is creating systems in hand that makes your business successful. In the When you first launched, when you created the systems, you need to do your weekly, bi weekly, and your monthly reports in order to monitor your sales, in order to monitor your costs, and in order to monitor your Whatever you have to pay, your overheads, and you have to monitor your cash flow as well, and all that. With all that said, it’s extremely important. This is part where I truly believe that technology on that level is a blessing. It’s like when you are using systems and points of sales where it makes your life easy while inputting data and really it elevates elevated the level of efficiency towards knowing where your problem is, because the systems that are in hand these days really pulls out the red flag immediately. You have a problem of waste on this level. You don’t pull the trigger immediately. You take this report and then you consult with the chef and see what’s the problem with that.

[00:39:54.00] – Speaker 1

You will understand that probably the chef has decided this week in order to jockey this the product between two items that are using the same product on the menu. Then it created a high level of waste because the yield of this product, and this is why I told you I don’t want to go into the details of it because it is extremely technical. Because when you use a brisket, for example, if you’re working in a smokehouse, right? So trimming off the brisket. You take the brisket, for example, and you weigh it exactly the way it’s handed over to you from the When you weigh it, even with a plastic bag, you weigh it, you throw the plastic bag, you trim it, and there’s a waste of 5 to 7% of its weight. All right? After you weigh, and you have to record that, right? And then after you cook it, because biscuits take a long time to cook, we call this process a low and slow, and it takes between 12 to 14:00 to 16 hours. Depends on the internal temperature of the biscuit. Then you will end up with a yield between 35% 40% of its original weight.

[00:41:02.14] – Speaker 1

Can you imagine you have lost 70% of its weight of the product, and that the supplier charges you. Now, what are the demographics? What do I need to do? When you trim, for example, and I was throwing this example just to tell you when the chef was trying to jockey two items that he’s using on two items, maybe he over-trimmed the stuff. Then you come and give him direction, and then you correct this error on the platform or the technology system that you’re using, the point of sales, and then you address it. These are the points where you are able to create a more controlled environment when it comes to the food cost and the waste management and all these, say, matter-related items. There are items that goes for spoilage. The waste But in this management, there is a very impressive restaurant back in Brighton, London. It’s called Silo. The guy is amazing. I could say he’s nuts because He works from zero bin policy. He doesn’t have a bin. Do you know how much trash there is out from restaurants? Extremely big. The number is even is absurd. Zero waste policy even had the compost unit in his restaurant in order to recycle.

[00:42:36.23] – Speaker 1

This is extremely important in our days because you have to understand that in order to create a sustainable, it cannot be 100%, it will never be 100%. You can ban plastic from grocery stores, but if you So if you look two meters towards the shelf, the gnocce box is covered with plastic. The salad bowl is covered with plastic. So it’s extremely, extremely challenging in our environment. But it’s a must for each and every chef as a responsibility to know how to jockey and to use the product in different ways in order to minimize the waste.

[00:43:27.06] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

I’d like to touch on expanding your business. I’d like to know, when do you think a restaurant is ready to expand? What are the steps that you follow to build a safety net around expansion? Because it’s not just copy pasting your existing model. There’s a lot of thoughts that go into opening a new location. It’s a whole new go-to-market plan and strategy. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

[00:43:50.14] – Speaker 1

Absolutely. As I said before, it’s a homework that you have to do. Then you research when you decide Before your decision and after your decision. When you decide that I’m going to expand, you have to know your location, you have to study the demographics, you have to study the footfall, and whether this restaurant will be fit for this area or not, and believe it or not, the only thing that’s going to give you is data. I’m working with a food aggregator platform so that we don’t give them an unpaid advertisement. That told me that this particular concept would not work in this zone. It would really work in another zone, in a different area, let’s say, for the sake of giving an example, downtown Dubai. This project would not really work much in downtown Dubai, but it would really work probably in the Marina area. Let’s say we’re talking about a Russian concept because the most the concentration the most concentration of the Russian expats, let’s say, if they are located in the Marina area, it would work better. Why? Because of the demographics and the data that they have, they will be able to understand.

[00:45:13.22] – Speaker 1

This is back It’s a mix and match. It’s back to talking about technology as well. It helps you pull out the proper decision. Now, going back to your question, pre-opening, when do you know that I am ready for When you reach your peak of sales, and when you do this during the pre-opening phase, you do the projection, you project, you do a business model where you project how much orders you’re going to make. When you exceed this and you Excel, it means your concept is working. It means your concept is in demand. People want your product. This is the moment that you really decide, I need to expand. Then you create A roll-up plan, an expansion plan, and probably offer it to investors. A very alive success story that we have made at Grit Hospitality, for instance, would be wise guys. It opened in the IFC. It was a very successful project. People loved it. This is a really tricky thing. We are now expanding and opening, for example, in Dubai Hills Business Park. Mind you, we’re not It’s in the mall. It’s in the business park. Why? Because we are keeping the character, the attributes ofwise guys within the design guidelines of the project when it was an idea, when we proposed that this project needs to be like this, needs to be like this.

[00:46:49.02] – Speaker 1

It fell within the guidelines. We did not put it in the mall. We located it in the business part, and there you go. Afterwise, Guys, you will havewise Guys 3, and 4, and 5. You will have probably a flagship store where you will have a bigger size, wise guys, where it covers not only sandwiches, it covers a little bit of pastries, it covers a little bit of spices and ready-made drinks and all that. Sky is the limit. I mean, your imagination and your research, they get married together, and then you’ll be able to develop the project further.

[00:47:24.04] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

Interesting. What do you think of the best guides and the best 50 lists that often come out? It’s one of the most popular searches in Dubai.

[00:47:36.01] – Speaker 1

I look at them as a vital and important tool on the marketing level. With all due respect, I don’t need any of them or others to appraise my food. I want the people to appraise my food. I don’t want the food critic to appraise my food because I want the people. People, to me, they are closer to me. However, they are needed and they are important part of the recipe for restaurants because they help promote the restaurants. But there needs to be a line drawn somewhere because my opinion is getting out of hands. Do I appraise a restaurant that I would visit every six months or every year, or the ones that I go twice a week or three times a week. Why? Aren’t those human beings as well? Don’t they have really good food? You’ll be surprised. Some hidden gems, they have food that bypasses some of the most notorious restaurants worldwide. I’m not talking Dubai-wise. The other thing, there needs to be a limit on the brands, the sub-brands that they have. We cannot have anymore West Best 50, Where’s Best? 50 discoveries, for example, or Michelin guides for small businesses, the Hoker stuff, and the street food, the Michelin Guide stars, It’s getting out of hand.

[00:49:16.13] – Speaker 1

When do we stop? However, to be honest, I was part of judging panels and voting panels and all that. You come to a reality where the people are not voiced out. I think it’s the opinion of the critiques. It’s not the people. It’s not a popularity contest. It doesn’t reflect the market correct. With all due respect, critiques can be right and critiques can be really wrong. On another level, it’s becoming lately, greatly political. You have to be fair. You have to be fair with everyone. There is some unclarity. For example, what makes a Michelin Guide reviewer? To me, it’s surrounded by vagueness, unclarity. This is a tire brand. And mind you, they are using their heritage, their history, now in order to appraise restaurants. For the sake of For the sake of restaurants? No. Guess what? For the sake of Michelin. Before the word guide, there’s the word Michelin. So this is an anchor for them to promote their It’s a chance, right? So what’s next? To me, I’m sensitive towards this matter because it’s been stretched and a bit abused. It’s unfair. So briefly, this is my opinion on the matter. And for me, by all means, stay away from me.

[00:51:08.04] – Speaker 1

Don’t appraise me. You want to eat? More than welcome. But I don’t want to I don’t want to be on your guides. I don’t want to be on your platforms. Not that I’m afraid of, no. I’m very confident of what I might offer when I want to offer a fine dining restaurant. But there’s a time where somebody needs to step up and to say, This is what’s happening, and this is my opinion about the matter.

[00:51:38.12] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

It’s an interesting take.Thank.

[00:51:40.16] – Speaker 1

You for sharing it.It’s not going to be a very popular opinion. People are not going to like it, but this is how it’s my opinion. I will not change my mind about it. It’s personal. You like it, you like it, you don’t like it.Thank you very much.Yeah..

[00:51:57.15] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

I’d like to finish this podcast by talking about your philosophy as a chef. Let’s forget about numbers and back of house and tech, and let’s talk about your philosophy as a chef and a lover of food and a lover of the Levantine region. What are we eating today?

[00:52:21.22] – Speaker 1

Exactly what I wanted to ask you. What are we eating? I will take a walk with you to any nice A supermarket, a very famous one, high-end, whatever you want to call it. We would want to go to the shelf where they store flour for bread. When was the last time we asked When was the last time we gave ourselves a chance to read what’s on the bag of the flour, flour bag and what they did in order to bring it and put it on the shelf. It flew from Morocco. Who handled the bag? Did they bleach the wheat after they milled it or not? In my opinion, I think the force that delivers a flavor on a plate is not really the chef. The chef is a mere that helps the item or the ingredient interpret itself on the plate. The great chef is this microbiomes and microorganisms that are found in a very good quality soil that they conspire in order to give you a very good product. This is why I’m so attached to agriculture. I see the I have a piece of land that I rent in Lebanon, that I have goats, I have cows, I have 120 hens, I have 12 goats, 2 cows, and I have all year round products that are vegetables.

[00:54:20.09] – Speaker 1

The guy that helps me in this small farm, they tell me, This goat has a fever today. I don’t believe him. It’s But at the end of the day, it’s a living thing. So he tells me, We should give her this in order to make it. You become connected and you follow the source of the food that you are after. And this is why I’m We talked in the beginning, the food of lieu. Have you ever experienced eating a mulberry from a mulberry tree where your hands become stained, really, and you won’t I will get rid of them for the next 48 hours, even if you wash your hands? Probably there’s some wisdom in order to catch the people who are stealing the mulberries at the end of the day. It’s funny because I see it on TikToks and on Instagrams and people who are behind the setting the scene for their product, for their content, not their product itself. It’s like, I ate labne. Wow, it is amazing. And they open their eyes. Give the same excellent quality labneh for the person who lives in a village. He’s not surprised because it’s his food.

[00:55:42.12] – Speaker 1

You ask yourself again, What are we eating? When was the last time you had a good vegetable, a good strawberries? I’m looking for strawberries in the UAE. The flavor are, unless you are going to pay a big amount of money for it. What is really important is the product that is near you. Use it, don’t complicate matters, and eat it. That’s my philosophy.

[00:56:12.05] – Jean-Philipe Serhal

That’s an amazing note to finish the podcast on. Look, I’m also a proud Albanese, very much attached to my land. And it’s very refreshing to see people really loving this piece of land and what it produces. I think we live in a part of the world where we’re blessed with good soil and good climate and a rich food heritage. And the fact, I just learned right now that aside from everything that you’ve shared, that you’re on a piece of land where you have livestock and vegetables. And I find this very much a medium to connect with our roots. Absolutely. And food is a very important connector also to our roots. Absolutely. A great way to finish the podcast.Thank.

[00:57:06.02] – Speaker 1

You.thank you. I hope I was a light guest. I look forward for the future as well.Thank you so much.Thank you.Thank you.