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How Christophe Chatron-Michaud Built F&B-Concept-Development After David-Boulet-Jean-Georges · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspote and
• 0:17
  today's guest is Christoph Chatrone Michel, founder and
• 0:21
  president of F&B Concept Development.
• 0:24
  Christophe is a restaurant and hospitality consultant who
• 0:27
  brings decades of front of house leadership, Michelin star
• 0:31
  apprenticeship and international operator experience to help
• 0:35
  restaurants and hotels thrive. He began his career sweeping
• 0:39
  floors and polishing silver in A2 Michelin star restaurant.
• 0:44
  He's worked around the globe from New York to Las Vegas,
• 0:47
  Kuala Lumpur to Manila and Singapore and has launched
• 0:51
  successful restaurant concepts, bakeries and wine bars.
• 0:56
  He splits his time between hands on operational leadership and
• 1:00
  strategic consulting, specializing in guest
• 1:03
  experience, staffing, financials and menu strategy.
• 1:07
  Christophe has LED multi year projects, trained teams and
• 1:11
  guided expansions, always leaning on practical metrics and
• 1:15
  a people first approach. Now before we get into all that
• 1:19
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  Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
• 2:11
  today, the founder and president of F&B Concept Development,
• 2:15
  Christophe. Thanks for making the time to
• 2:16
  Share your story today. Thank you and good morning,
• 2:20
  Anthony. Good morning.
• 2:21
  How badly did I butcher your name?
• 2:23
  Can you give us the correct French pronunciation?
• 2:26
  Well, I think you did great. Christophe Chateau Micheaux that
• 2:29
  you know, with the French accent, obviously you know that.
• 2:33
  Sounds so much better coming from.
• 2:34
  You had, you had it. You had it good.
• 2:37
  You had it very. Well, thank you.
• 2:38
  I appreciate that. So can you tell us about your
• 2:42
  earliest memories of working in restaurants?
• 2:44
  What drew you there as a youngster?
• 2:47
  Well, you know, it started. I was, you know, from a pretty
• 2:52
  young age. My father always thought, you
• 2:55
  know, it's, it's important that you guys get a sense of, of
• 3:00
  work, some kind of sense of work as you're young during the, the
• 3:04
  summer vacation. So I started off as a caddy, a
• 3:08
  golf caddy in, in Moshe, where I was born and, and, and I grew up
• 3:14
  and, you know, they happened to have a golf there.
• 3:16
  So I started there and obviously the, the, the golf course had a
• 3:21
  clubhouse which had a restaurant and after two years being a
• 3:26
  caddie working only for just one person, a Swiss gentleman that
• 3:31
  like to tee off at about 8:00 AM in the morning.
• 3:37
  After two years, I, I, I was asked if I would be interested
• 3:41
  in, you know, busing table at the clubhouse for the, you know,
• 3:44
  the, all the golf course that, you know, would either come and
• 3:48
  have lunch or, or afternoon tea or they would have breakfast as
• 3:55
  well. You know, everybody was a
• 3:58
  member. So I thought that it was though,
• 4:01
  I loved, you know, golfing and you know, we used to always golf
• 4:08
  after at at the end of the day, I thought it was a good thing
• 4:12
  for me. It was going to be a little bit
• 4:13
  more money. So I took on this job and then
• 4:17
  I, I really thrive there. I do.
• 4:19
  I was doing good. I was motivated.
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  I love talking to people and make sure that they're well
• 4:26
  served and or or cleared. And that's that's how I get the
• 4:30
  bug. And so you started out as a
• 4:32
  busboy. Did you move your way up it
• 4:34
  within that organization? There I didn't.
• 4:36
  There I didn't, I, I didn't. It was just, I moved up.
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  Maybe I was running food sometimes, you know, but I
• 4:45
  didn't go up to, you know, taking orders and so forth.
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  I, I was not, I guess I was still young, maybe probably 14
• 4:55
  at the time, 1415 years old. So I, you know, they, they
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  refrained me from taking guest orders and you know, a lot of
• 5:02
  guest at the still we're drinking wines, you know, good
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  drinking wine and you know, so I, I guess I was not of age to,
• 5:11
  to, to handle, you know, alcoholic beverages, right.
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  So tell us about this two Michelin star restaurant where
• 5:20
  you were sweeping floors and polishing silver that we talked
• 5:22
  about in the intro. Yeah.
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  So, so so you know, after, you know, basically, you know, from
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  there I kind of like dropped a little bit, you know, the
• 5:32
  restaurant business and focused on studies.
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  And then, you know, less than a year after, you know, my high
• 5:40
  school graduation, I went to Paris and started medicine
• 5:45
  school and, and I was, my head was not there.
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  And I came back to my parents and my dad who was working with
• 5:55
  this, I mean, part of the, the, the Gulf and, and the clubhouse.
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  It was part of a, a larger group that had a hotel and he had
• 6:06
  connections. And he said to me, hey, you
• 6:07
  know, I mean, you used to like the restaurant business, whether
• 6:12
  you want to, you know, give it a shot.
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  You want to go somewhere. And he happened to know a guy
• 6:16
  that had worked with him that was working in that two Michelin
• 6:21
  star restaurant in the South of France.
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  And he said, hey, you know, if you want to, I can contact him
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  and see if you want to start a carrier there.
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  And then that's how it started. I came in, you know, very little
• 6:34
  knowledge. I, I knew how to carry a tray
• 6:37
  with glass glasses on top of it. I knew a little bit, but not
• 6:40
  much. And, you know, getting into the
• 6:42
  Michelin environment was, you know, very different.
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  But I was focused and, and, you know, wanting to do well,
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  wanting to succeed, not disappoint my father.
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  Obviously, you know, and come back home and, you know, not
• 6:56
  knowing what I was going to do with myself.
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  So I, you know, I hang in there and then and I started and
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  obviously, you know, with little experience, they put you to the,
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  they give you the task that nobody wants to do, polishing
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  silverware, vacuuming after the launch service, mopping in the
• 7:16
  areas where it's required, cleaning the bathroom and, and
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  making sure that you stay, you get to stay in the afternoon.
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  You, you don't get the break and and then you, you get to get to
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  go off a little early at night, you know, obviously not as late
• 7:35
  as, you know, closing at the restaurant.
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  But yeah, that was my, that was my job.
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  So was it initially intimidating for you to be in A2 Michelin
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  star environment? Very, very you can't do that.
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  Don't approach, no, don't touch this.
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  Just just go to the, the area where we're clearing plates and
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  then bring them back up to the kitchen for the dishwasher to,
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  to clean them and so forth. So it was very regimented in a
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  way where, you know, some some of the things that I was not
• 8:11
  supposed to do were clearly outlined to me from the start
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  during service. Now, was there some point during
• 8:19
  your time there where you fell in love with the work?
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  Or was this just kind of filling time, filling a gap because you
• 8:27
  weren't sure what was coming next in your future?
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  You know, it was hard, but you know, I fell in love with, you
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  know, again, my, my, my, my motto was to be the best that I
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  could and not come back to my parents and be a burden because,
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  you know, I have two other siblings, I mean three other
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  siblings and so forth. So it was my goal to to succeed.
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  So with that goal, I, you know, pursued myself that any task
• 9:02
  that's given to me is good. I must love it in order to do a
• 9:07
  good job and to, you know, hopefully get into a better
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  place later and get the praise and get the rewards and move up.
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  And, and what I, what attracted me the most is, you know, the
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  quality of food that was served, the beautiful presentations,
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  the, the, the people that were coming into the restaurant with,
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  you know, from, I guess, you know, another type of income
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  that I had, you know, that I was used to and, and all that, that
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  glory, you know, attracted me and made me love everything that
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  I was, you know, asked to do about the job.
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  And so how far in the ranks did you rise?
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  You started out. So after after you, I think
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  after about a year I moved up to be a.
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  So I was, I started as a commie, which is, you know, the your bus
• 10:02
  person in and then there was a few ranks.
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  Then, then you get to be a, a Demicheff Durham, which is
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  basically a, a, a, a captain assistant, we want to call it
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  here in the US, you know, so you're more involved with
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  service there. You assist the captain into the
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  station. You must know the menu.
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  You must know, you know, the markings for each and every
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  dish, the appropriate, you know, and and so forth.
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  So about a year after I, I moved up into that position and then I
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  would say maybe about a year after, you know, I was put in
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  charge of my own station with a new one that, you know, that I
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  had done the job of for, for about a year.
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  So that's how, you know, slowly succeed in France.
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  It goes it, it comes a little slower.
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  You know, the promotions, you really, people observe you, they
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  give you feedback. You get to be working with
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  different people to make sure that, you know, they give you
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  the promotion. You're you're ready to go.
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  Was there a challenging experience in that role there
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  that you remember that provided you with a powerful lesson that
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  you still hold true today? The, the, I think the most
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  powerful for me was as a demiche of the army, basically a captain
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  assistant. I remember one day on the Sunday
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  afternoon, which was a big, you know, Sunday lunch in France is
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  big. A lot of people come for their
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  from the for, for their Sunday lunch and and the station that
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  we were given with my captain was probably one of the biggest
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  and we get slammed. We got maybe seated, you know,
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  very quickly. Captain was overwhelmed taking
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  orders. And then one of the early tables
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  that had ordered, you know, was getting to their main course.
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  And that then that main course was a duck.
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  And the duck had to be carved table side.
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  The duck comes in from the kitchen and the captain is at
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  this time taking an order. So I had seen him carving ducks,
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  right? But I had not had the experience
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  myself. And it's not, it was not
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  something that, you know, the restaurant provided.
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  So I, I just took it upon myself to present the duck and position
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  myself with my girido in front of the, the customers.
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  And, you know, with full confidence, I started cutting
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  the duck and I did a terrible job.
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  I massacred that duck. I ended up cutting myself whole
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  sauces. It was a little bit of blood.
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  Oh my God, it was, it was a disaster.
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  So I was, I was sent home for yeah, yeah.
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  And and, you know, and, and and it's after that that I, you
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  know, was, you know, able to, you know, get a little closer.
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  I into what tableside presentations required the skill
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  set, the, the, the technique. I guess, you know, I was early
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  into my promotion of of a captain assistant and though I
• 13:19
  was very, you know, willing to support it was not the right
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  time. So that was, that was, that's
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  one of the, I guess, most difficult, most humiliating
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  experience I had. I think, you know, in a
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  restaurant and and I, you know, the guests were really nice.
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  I mean, you know, they, they, they could see that I, you know,
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  didn't have the skills that they were supportive.
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  Oh, it's OK, don't worry about it.
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  That, you know, obviously the chef Don came in and finished
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  the duck and managed to, you know, make it nice and played it
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  nicely and so forth. So you know that that's.
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  That that was influence on the way that you approach leadership
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  Management Today. Like if somebody were to make a
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  similar mistake under your watch, would you send them home?
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  Very much so, actually. Actually, that's what made me,
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  you know, in in some of my first roles, work with the chef to
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  elevate skill set for the newcomers and with, you know,
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  some of them would roast chickens and and send them out
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  for staff meal. And then before staff meal
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  started the front of the house team, you know, how to carve
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  them. And that was, you know, that's
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  that's something that, you know, I thought, you know, was very
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  important for them to get comfortable with.
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  You know, first time you're in front of, you know, a guest
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  doing that, you're going to panic.
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  You're going to, you know, even if you know how to do it, you.
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  So get some practice first behind the scenes.
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  Exactly. The more you do it, the more you
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  do it, the more, the the better you become.
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  And then then that's how you start engaging with the guest as
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  you're carving because you're very comfortable with, you know,
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  each and every steps of the carving that you, you know, and,
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  and that's the best way to do it.
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  So that's how, yeah, I, you know, it had a big influence on
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  me somehow because, you know, any tab table type table side
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  presentation that, you know, was required working with the chef
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  on the menu, I made sure that my team knew how to do it very well
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  and knew how to converse about it, knew how to, you know, touch
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  the important points of that particular carving so that the
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  guest, you know, stay interested.
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  So that painful slash embarrassing situation for you
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  all those years ago had a positive domino effect on the
• 15:51
  people that you worked with because you took a different
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  approach to making sure they were better prepared before they
• 15:57
  went out there in front of the guests.
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  Now you also had the the opportunity to work with some
• 16:02
  world renowned chefs as you were kind of coming up on your career
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  trajectory. Help me with the names here.
• 16:08
  Daniel Boulot and. David so, so first, I mean, the
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  first real big one was David Boulay.
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  I mean, you know that pretty much, you know, a few years
• 16:18
  after I arrived in the US and David had worked in at Roger
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  Vergier's restaurant, which was the, you know, the the first
• 16:26
  restaurant I worked into that two Michelin star restaurant
• 16:29
  called La Montier de Mujnan in the South of France in Ryder
• 16:33
  Popov can was owned by Roger Vergier, very famous chef that
• 16:37
  had also a three Michelin star restaurant.
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  The chef when I was working there when I started was
• 16:43
  actually Anan Ducasse as a young chef, you know, and anybody that
• 16:50
  had worked, you know, within the Rouge Verge the the South of
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  France. And you know, there was a little
• 16:55
  kind of people that, you know, when you come to New York, there
• 16:59
  are very few, if any people that had worked at the time.
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  When I arrived in 1985 in New York City, very few people had,
• 17:07
  you know, worked in Michelin environment at this level.
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  And David happened to be one of them.
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  And one of the person that I have worked at another
• 17:18
  restaurant knew was working for him.
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  And that's how I, I got the job there.
• 17:24
  So David was was my first like great chef collaboration when
• 17:32
  when I was in the US super talented guy.
• 17:37
  What did he teach you? I've.
• 17:39
  Ever seen? So David told me that it, you
• 17:46
  know, immersive, immersive experiences.
• 17:49
  You know, it was the only restaurant, I mean, and it was
• 17:50
  the the most popular restaurant in New York.
• 17:52
  I started as a captain there and then moved up to management and
• 17:56
  collaborated with him, obviously with, you know, the other
• 18:01
  manager that was there at the time, who was an old colleague,
• 18:06
  immersive meaning that you, he had imported a, a, a beautiful
• 18:10
  wooden door from the South of France.
• 18:11
  That was the entrance of the restaurant.
• 18:13
  The restaurant was located in Tribeca, which is, you know, a,
• 18:17
  a little bit of a still, you know, not top area in New York
• 18:22
  in, and that was in the 90s already early 90s.
• 18:26
  And and he he had apples in crates at the entrance of the
• 18:34
  restaurant. And as you walked in, you could
• 18:37
  smell the apples, you know, which created right away, you
• 18:40
  know, some some kind of an atmosphere which, you know, put
• 18:44
  people, people loved it. People always commented about
• 18:47
  it. The restaurant was also
• 18:48
  beautiful. You had, you know, vaulted
• 18:50
  ceilings. You had really transpired.
• 18:52
  You had, you know, basically build the Catholic cathedral out
• 18:56
  the South of France. And his cuisine was very, you
• 18:59
  know, reflecting what he had learned with George Viaggio.
• 19:02
  He worked with other chefs, obviously, but you know, that
• 19:05
  was kind of like the, the, the direction of the restaurant.
• 19:08
  Beautiful wine cellar. As you went downstairs to the
• 19:12
  you could see the, the, the wine cellar.
• 19:14
  He had glass windows, beautiful bathrooms.
• 19:17
  I mean, you know, if the one thing I learned about David is,
• 19:24
  is was how he immersed his guest coming in and on the way out.
• 19:29
  It was the first restaurant. We, we didn't even do that when
• 19:32
  I was in the South of France. We, we gave our chocolates to
• 19:35
  the ladies from a a a wonderful chocolatier that was doing
• 19:41
  beautiful work in, in New York City.
• 19:44
  So there was all these little touches that were.
• 19:47
  Attention to detail. Attention to details, yeah.
• 19:51
  So let's go back a little bit because I want to hear about
• 19:55
  what drove the decision for you to leave France and move
• 19:57
  overseas. Well, a break off heartbroken I
• 20:08
  was, you know, I was I had moved to another restaurant after I
• 20:12
  had, you know, graduated and be be a captain.
• 20:15
  I was invited to work as a captain in another restaurant,
• 20:18
  which was. About maybe 10 kilometres away
• 20:21
  from the from one one from the other that was called Loazis in
• 20:26
  Lanipur. That one had three Michelin star
• 20:28
  and it was the best restaurant in the South of France hands
• 20:30
  down. Raided over Roger Verger and I
• 20:40
  was working there at the time. Learned a lot because we had no
• 20:43
  captain assistance, so we had to do everything ourselves,
• 20:46
  including all table side presentation, picking up food
• 20:48
  from the kitchen, all of that stuff.
• 20:50
  So a bigger learning experience and you know, being heartbroken
• 20:54
  after breaking up with my girlfriend.
• 20:56
  I've been for four years, somebody out of the blue called
• 21:00
  me and said, hey, you know, there's a restaurant in
• 21:03
  Westchester County that is looking for a metredee.
• 21:07
  So if you want to move up, maybe, you know, I was 21 going
• 21:10
  22. If you want to move up, they
• 21:12
  make a lot of money there in the US, you know, you should make a
• 21:16
  trip. And I was like, well, you know
• 21:18
  that that's a good idea actually.
• 21:20
  You know, it's time for me maybe to travel and and expand my
• 21:24
  skills into management if there's an opportunity there.
• 21:28
  And so that that's is that combination of the work
• 21:31
  opportunity, opportunity and wanting to get out because you
• 21:37
  know, I was not you want to hang out where the girlfriend was
• 21:41
  going. To be you needed to change the
• 21:42
  scenery from where your heart had just been broken.
• 21:45
  So at some point you meet someone, you start a family.
• 21:50
  Was that here in the States? Was that somewhere else?
• 21:54
  At some point, I, I, I, yeah, I, I, it's only about 7.
• 21:59
  When I worked, when I went to work after David Boulet, I, I,
• 22:02
  I, Jean George von Gersten made me an offer to come and work
• 22:06
  with him and open restaurants. And he had one that was open
• 22:10
  already. And we had some, we had a
• 22:13
  connection from both, had both of us, just like David had
• 22:19
  worked in a restaurant in the South of France that had
• 22:22
  Michelin stars, Jean Georges worked in Loews in Anna Pool.
• 22:27
  So we had that connection And and he, you know, that's how,
• 22:35
  that's how we, we connected. And he and we ended up spending
• 22:45
  about six years together. Yeah.
• 22:47
  At what point did you start your family?
• 22:48
  Where? Where were you at that time?
• 22:50
  The family. So the The family, yeah, I'm
• 22:51
  sorry. The family started at this time
• 22:53
  when the first restaurant we opened was a French Thai
• 22:57
  restaurant, which required us to go back.
• 23:01
  Jean Georges had worked at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok for
• 23:04
  that famous chef who was in his first consulting gig.
• 23:10
  And we went back to Bangkok and we went back before the pre
• 23:13
  opening of the restaurant. We also went to Singapore, you
• 23:16
  know, to source for research and development.
• 23:18
  And I was very lucky that he took me there.
• 23:21
  Obviously, you know, my first trip in in, in in Asia.
• 23:24
  And this is How I Met. I met my wife in Singapore.
• 23:27
  We stayed at the the region Four Seasons in Singapore, and then
• 23:33
  she was one of the restaurant managers there.
• 23:36
  And you know, we started connecting.
• 23:40
  We had another opening in London where she was studying as a
• 23:45
  hotel in hotel management, met again there and then she decided
• 23:49
  to come to the US and then we started the family.
• 23:52
  So it was it was working with Jean Jose that we started that
• 23:56
  family. And so at some point, you take
• 23:58
  your family from the US and move overseas again.
• 24:02
  Where did you go? What was kind of driving that
• 24:04
  decision? Well, we, we were in Las Vegas
• 24:11
  when that happened. You know, I, I, I spent about
• 24:14
  six years in Las Vegas working, you know, in hotels in the, you
• 24:17
  know, the casinos there, 4 chefs that had their restaurants
• 24:20
  there. And the education, Nevada came
• 24:27
  as one of the worst state for education.
• 24:30
  And as the kids were growing up, right, we didn't want to, we
• 24:35
  wanted, you know, top indications for them.
• 24:37
  So we decided to go back to New York.
• 24:40
  And then from New York, we also thought that the opportunity
• 24:48
  that I was in New York, that the opportunity to go and explore
• 24:53
  other cultures, especially Asia, since my wife was from there was
• 24:58
  a good idea. So I, I was given an opportunity
• 25:00
  to move to the Philippines and taking on a job that was a
• 25:05
  little bit over my capabilities, but the, the, the job was very
• 25:13
  exciting. The pay was great.
• 25:14
  The, the, the, the opportunity to, you know, bridge because it
• 25:18
  is a cost to move your family obviously overseas and and so
• 25:22
  forth. That all was taken care of.
• 25:24
  It was an expat package. I just couldn't refuse.
• 25:27
  And and the education was going to be paid for at the
• 25:31
  International School of Manila, which, you know, we were looking
• 25:35
  forward to because, you know, kids missing up with other kids
• 25:40
  from all different cultures, you know, was a little bit of a goal
• 25:44
  from us. And to get closer to her family,
• 25:48
  you know, with go back to France from New York was always a
• 25:52
  little easier than going all the way back to Asia.
• 25:55
  So, so that was, you know, what made us make that decision.
• 26:02
  Tell us about the yeast bastronomy.
• 26:06
  Astronomy. Is one of your restaurants?
• 26:08
  After two years, after 2 Philippines, we, we, it, it was
• 26:13
  a two year contract and then we decided not to renew it.
• 26:16
  And the, the, you know, the, the question was what do we do now?
• 26:20
  Do we head back to New York where I had, you know, most of
• 26:24
  my career built? Or do we go to Malaysia, which
• 26:30
  is what where my my wife was from.
• 26:35
  And at the time I was very close to another chef that I had met
• 26:38
  in New York, Greg Koontz, who passed away about five years
• 26:42
  ago, unfortunately, one of the most talented chefs in in New
• 26:45
  York as well. And he had a restaurant in Hong
• 26:48
  Kong. So I I connected with him and,
• 26:51
  and see if he would be interested in working together,
• 26:55
  developing concepts. The restaurant that he had in
• 26:58
  Hong Kong was one of his concepts that he had at the
• 27:01
  upper house in in central Hong Kong.
• 27:08
  And I told him, since I'm in Malaysia, maybe I can prospect.
• 27:13
  I'm going to move to Malaysia. And maybe I can, we can work
• 27:15
  together. We'll see each other more often.
• 27:17
  It's a short flight. And he was born in Singapore.
• 27:21
  Ray was born in Singapore. So I said, you know, maybe I
• 27:23
  could, you know, go and knock at the door.
• 27:25
  Develop concept first, you know, make sure they make sense
• 27:28
  financially, make sure we, we're in tune before we present them.
• 27:34
  And then I could go on, knock on doors for hotels or developers
• 27:39
  that may be interested in having you there since you're already
• 27:43
  in Asia, so you already have a, a foot in the door.
• 27:46
  So that's how we decided to, rather than going back to the
• 27:50
  US, stayed in Malaysia and and then I started consulting with
• 27:54
  them. After a few years, we realized
• 27:58
  that the third party FNB solution, which was very popular
• 28:02
  in the US didn't really catch developers in Asia.
• 28:08
  They're saying explain. Explain there's third party.
• 28:11
  I'm hiring Four Seasons Hotel as a developer.
• 28:15
  As a hotel owner, why would I need a third party FNB solution,
• 28:19
  which was had proven to be a very successful thing in the US.
• 28:26
  Why? Because in the US, many
• 28:28
  restaurants of hotels, unless there's a name behind it, you
• 28:32
  know, won't drive that much traffic.
• 28:35
  You know, people will, especially in cities, in big
• 28:38
  cities. People in New York, for
• 28:40
  instance, will go to the restaurant of a hotel if a
• 28:43
  famous chef is there as a consulting chef.
• 28:47
  So when you bring a third party service in, they're also helping
• 28:50
  to drive that foot traffic. That's that's it.
• 28:53
  Yes, very much so. Explain more about that.
• 28:56
  How does that work? Well, let's say you take, you
• 28:59
  know, the famous chef that I worked with, Jean Georges van
• 29:02
  Gersten. He created a company called
• 29:04
  Culinary Concept by Jean George, which was a partnership with
• 29:08
  Starwood Hotels where they would put his name as a collaborative
• 29:16
  in many hotels in the, many hotels all over the world That,
• 29:20
  that, that, that they had, You know, we ended up, I mean, I
• 29:24
  ended up, you know, working with him for this company back before
• 29:31
  I, I, I moved in the Philippines and we'd had like 1 opening
• 29:35
  every month. One was in Mexico, the other
• 29:38
  one, sometimes we had one in New York.
• 29:40
  We had one everywhere, everywhere.
• 29:42
  And his name was associated to the hotel.
• 29:45
  Why? Because he was driving people,
• 29:50
  people it, it was a, a, a, it was an amenity that was an extra
• 29:55
  amenity that the hotel could promote, that they have Saint
• 29:59
  George Van Gersten in the kitchen for your all day dining,
• 30:03
  for your fine dining and so forth.
• 30:05
  So so so. And how did they get promoted
• 30:08
  back then? Sorry, sorry to step over your
• 30:11
  words there, Christophe. How did you know today, like
• 30:14
  everything's online. It's social media, maybe to some
• 30:17
  extent TV commercials. But back then, how were how, how
• 30:20
  were people knowing that this famous chef was there?
• 30:22
  How? How were you communicating that?
• 30:25
  I guess if I probably, you know, I mean, they, they were
• 30:27
  marketing through travel agencies, you know, Starwood as
• 30:33
  a whole, you know, probably, I mean, you know, we're talking
• 30:38
  19, mid 90s already. It was, it was a known thing
• 30:47
  that, you know, consulting chef or, you know, were already, you
• 30:51
  know, tapping into hotels and all hotels were tapping into
• 30:56
  consulting chef or famous chef, Michelin star chef, you know, to
• 31:00
  get more traffic into their restaurant, keep their guest
• 31:03
  inside. And, and I think they, you know,
• 31:05
  they promoted, you know, the, the hotel was doing those
• 31:08
  promotions. You know, I remember with George
• 31:10
  George, you know, going back to Singapore, we'd have like a, a,
• 31:14
  a week promotion with Jean George that the hotel was
• 31:18
  promoting maybe 3 months prior. And the the the restaurant in
• 31:23
  which the promotion was happening of the hotel, for
• 31:27
  instance, that that region Four Seasons in Singapore, you know,
• 31:30
  was packed already because people were interested in oh,
• 31:33
  that chef is coming. You know, it's not like going to
• 31:35
  that restaurant in that hotel. You know, that we've been there
• 31:39
  nothing exciting about it. You know, we going to try it.
• 31:43
  We we're going to taste a different menu.
• 31:48
  Jean Jean van Goryshten's food. He has a great reputation.
• 31:51
  Let's just see, you know, what it's going to be, what the
• 31:55
  experience is going to be like. So, so, so it was, I mean, it
• 31:59
  still is. It still is.
• 32:01
  Now you know hotels, hotel operators rely on, you know,
• 32:06
  good F&B, you know chefs to in order to increase.
• 32:14
  And why are they called F&B chefs?
• 32:17
  Why don't they just hire the chefs?
• 32:18
  Sort of like directly themselves?
• 32:20
  Help me understand the. Relationship they, they well,
• 32:23
  because, you know, chefs enjoy having their own restaurant 1st
• 32:30
  I mean, you know, if, if I'd be a chef, I'd want to have my own
• 32:33
  restaurant. I want to do my own fiend, my
• 32:35
  own thing. You know that, you know, chef,
• 32:37
  you know, they have their own ego and, and, and, and, and it's
• 32:41
  a good thing. And, you know, back many, many,
• 32:45
  many years ago, chefs were hired by restaurateurs and then they
• 32:49
  were, you know, executing. And then slowly chefs became
• 32:54
  owners got smarter, wanting to learn more about more about
• 33:00
  management and, and the best chef are the ones that own their
• 33:04
  own restaurant. So you can't really, you know,
• 33:08
  get a very good chef. If you're a hotel operator, you
• 33:12
  can, there are some, there are some great executive chef, but
• 33:17
  more from a management standpoint than a culinary
• 33:21
  standpoint. You know, there was a trend back
• 33:25
  in the and. So you saw a business
• 33:27
  opportunity here, Yes, To go from being an operator to a
• 33:33
  consultant, to be this F&B, Yeah, Say more about.
• 33:38
  That exactly, Exactly. Yeah, yeah, basically an
• 33:44
  opportunity to work with chefs. You know, I had at the time, you
• 33:48
  know, going into when I, when I started, when I launched FNB
• 33:52
  concept development, I, I, I had worked with many chefs and
• 33:59
  acquired a reputation of, you know, being a successful manager
• 34:03
  or consultant. So, so these chefs, you know,
• 34:11
  started with one restaurant, whether it's George von Gersten
• 34:15
  or Danielle Boulou or Grey Coons or, you know, they all start
• 34:20
  with one. They acquire their reputation.
• 34:22
  And then after their approach, naturally approached by people,
• 34:26
  real estate developers said, hey, you know, I have that
• 34:28
  space, you should do a restaurant there.
• 34:30
  What do you think? I'll pay for all the renovation?
• 34:34
  We can be partners. And then you just have to come
• 34:36
  in with your stuff and then you just roll, roll out your
• 34:38
  concept. And so at that point, who is
• 34:43
  who's, who owns the place, who's running the place, who's the
• 34:47
  operator? Well, I mean, there's different,
• 34:50
  you know, way to skin the cat. If you know they're, they're
• 34:53
  either license deals where you know, the, the, the chef you
• 34:57
  know will will already have a name and a reputation.
• 35:00
  And he's has a few restaurants. So you know, basically hotels,
• 35:03
  all developers or real estate, you know, will license do a
• 35:07
  license deal with him or they do a management deal where it's
• 35:10
  kind of like they get the chef's name, but the staff only the
• 35:16
  management, the management team is with the chef.
• 35:21
  The chef brings his management team, but the, the, the, the
• 35:24
  rest of the staff is usually with the hotel.
• 35:27
  That's management. Management deals out with
• 35:29
  hotels. So there's different ways that,
• 35:31
  you know, they, they, they, they set, set up their contract for a
• 35:37
  certain period of time. You know, some hotels, you know,
• 35:40
  switch chef because they want to keep it interesting.
• 35:44
  You know, I recently, I recently worked with a the new trend now
• 35:49
  is to, you know, have invite chefs, chef invite each other,
• 35:55
  you know, for like a two night pop up in their own restaurant.
• 36:02
  Like a visiting celebrity. Just to keep to, just to keep
• 36:04
  their crowd interested, you know?
• 36:06
  Oh, Oh, my friend from Thailand has A2 Michelin star restaurant.
• 36:12
  He's going to come in next month and we're going to collaborate.
• 36:16
  We're going to create a menu that's going to be some of my
• 36:18
  dishes and some of his dishes. And then you promote that on
• 36:22
  Rezi or open table and people come because, wow, that's great.
• 36:27
  You know, they're looking forward to meet a chef or they
• 36:30
  they've known that chef because they travelled all the way out
• 36:32
  there to Thailand. They had a great meal there.
• 36:34
  Oh, all of a sudden that guy is in New York.
• 36:37
  Let's go. You know, and so you started F&B
• 36:40
  concept development back in 1999.
• 36:44
  What were those early days like getting clients, building the
• 36:47
  business? It was not easy, not easy.
• 36:57
  You had a, you know, found the pavement a little bit and then,
• 37:00
  you know, make some phone calls and and see who was the first
• 37:04
  client. How?
• 37:04
  Did you get the first one? Maybe we'll we'll hone in on
• 37:06
  that. Do you remember how you got the
• 37:09
  first one first client first, like, you know, major client was
• 37:13
  somebody that had started, but actually not a chef was happened
• 37:20
  to be a friend of mine that I started a few wine bars in New
• 37:24
  York City. And after opening three of them,
• 37:29
  he had opportunities and and real estate, you know,
• 37:32
  opportunities to open others and needed support, management
• 37:36
  support. And because of the fact that we
• 37:39
  had worked together in the past, you know, we had kept a good
• 37:42
  relationship. And he said, you know, I think
• 37:44
  that, you know, it would be good that we that I hire you as a
• 37:48
  consultant first because, you know, a little bit better.
• 37:53
  He happened to be a bartender. He was my bartender at one of
• 37:56
  the restaurant, the head bartender and went into wine bar
• 38:00
  and did very well, very well for himself, you know, and we ended
• 38:04
  up being partner actually at some point through that, you
• 38:08
  know, first consulting contract that I had with him.
• 38:15
  But I stayed with this contract for about, I would say a good
• 38:21
  two years, you know, and then we ended up being partner.
• 38:24
  We opened up a wine bar together.
• 38:26
  So that's how it, you know, pretty much started was created
• 38:31
  in 99, but I didn't really use it until a few years later.
• 38:37
  I just wanted, I wanted to create it.
• 38:39
  I, I wanted to partner up with a chef in Las Vegas at the time.
• 38:42
  I was in Las Vegas at the time in 1999.
• 38:47
  No, actually, I'm sorry. I was in New York.
• 38:49
  I wanted to partner with with a chef and it didn't work out.
• 38:52
  He ended up, you know, going into another direction because
• 38:57
  it's always good to have a chef partner when you're a consultant
• 39:00
  in food and beverage. You have the management side and
• 39:04
  you have the culinary side. So it's a better package
• 39:07
  together. It just didn't happen and and I
• 39:10
  ended up, you know, keeping the company for myself.
• 39:13
  Yeah. What's the state of the company
• 39:15
  now? What?
• 39:17
  Tell us how it's evolved and what you're doing today.
• 39:20
  So it's evolved, it's evolved, it's evolved into, you know, in
• 39:25
  in between being, you know, sometimes clients would rather
• 39:32
  have you as exclusively, you know, because the company is
• 39:38
  small. It's just run by, by my wife and
• 39:40
  I. So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm the
• 39:42
  front person that, you know, we're going into a project or
• 39:46
  collaborate sometimes with other consultants based on the size,
• 39:50
  the scope of the project and so forth.
• 39:54
  But we, you know, we've always wanted to keep it, to keep it
• 39:59
  small this way. And we go in sometimes on an
• 40:09
  exclusive or sometimes as a consultant in food and beverage
• 40:14
  for larger hotel project where other consultants are involved.
• 40:20
  Lately what FNB has been doing is refocus on Michelin star
• 40:25
  restaurant. Mostly openings or those that
• 40:32
  have difficulties into their second or third year.
• 40:39
  They have a Michelin star business is also growing.
• 40:42
  They want to change a few things or financially they're not doing
• 40:46
  as well as their they should be and they cannot identify the
• 40:51
  issues that they are having. And then they bring me in for a
• 40:57
  a a refresh. And So what does that refresh
• 41:01
  look like? Are you bringing in a new method
• 41:04
  of hiring employees, training employees different way to
• 41:08
  manage the books, different way to order food and beverage help
• 41:13
  help paint a picture of all the things that.
• 41:16
  You, well, usually there's a, there's a, you know, at least
• 41:19
  you know, the first week in operations with the team, with
• 41:22
  the chef looking at the menu, looking at the the guests,
• 41:28
  looking at the, the team in the kitchen, working together with
• 41:34
  HR to see what you know. Are there any potential problem
• 41:38
  observing the staff, observing management?
• 41:42
  So there's basically that the whole week of observation, you
• 41:45
  know, where, where you basically at the end of the week, usually
• 41:49
  I'll, I'll, I'll put out a, a, a report, you know, with images
• 41:56
  and tell them, you know, this is what I've seen.
• 42:00
  This is where I think we can, the restaurant can improve.
• 42:04
  Sometimes it's, you know, maybe advising better management
• 42:10
  skills. It's rarely the chef because
• 42:14
  it's usually the chef that hires you.
• 42:16
  And so it's never really that much of A culinary issue.
• 42:20
  But sometimes also chefs, you know, have their own way and
• 42:24
  think that, you know, that type of menu or that direction, that
• 42:29
  culinary right direction is the right one.
• 42:31
  And sometimes also you need to consult them and tell them that,
• 42:35
  you know, maybe you should try this.
• 42:37
  Maybe you should try that, you know, maybe your food cost is
• 42:39
  too high, you need to maybe work with good product, but not
• 42:46
  necessarily top ones that will increase your food cost.
• 42:51
  And it's not really necessary, you know, given the the culinary
• 42:54
  concept that you have. So there's many areas where you
• 42:59
  can touch up, where you can improve and then you develop a
• 43:03
  plan, a strategy, you know, to get there.
• 43:06
  And then you work out a time, you know, on which you know,
• 43:09
  we'll have the contract and then we should be able to deliver,
• 43:12
  you know, within that period of time and and see some results.
• 43:16
  So they're typically contracts for a limited period of time.
• 43:21
  You help them sort of get everything in order, and then
• 43:24
  you move on to the next client. The next.
• 43:27
  Job you move on or you stay on Some, some, some clients, you
• 43:32
  know, want you back every three months or six months to kind of
• 43:36
  like, you know, just especially if it's a, a, a new concept
• 43:39
  because they want to see that the, that they want to keep the
• 43:42
  concept Evergreen, you know, making sure that it doesn't
• 43:47
  dilute after the consultant is gone, you know that, you know,
• 43:52
  the standards start dropping from management to kitchen to
• 43:57
  overall experience. So some, some, some, some
• 44:03
  clients, you know, like to keep you on or sometimes it's over.
• 44:07
  And then the focus was really on the financial side, for
• 44:10
  instance, or the focus was on HR, The focus was replacing a
• 44:13
  manager and training a new manager.
• 44:17
  So many, so many things that people want sometimes.
• 44:21
  So you've done this work for decades, You've had an
• 44:25
  opportunity to work in some of the greatest hotels and
• 44:28
  restaurants in the world. What are some of the common
• 44:32
  themes that you see common problems across different client
• 44:37
  locations? The most common problem is is
• 44:45
  probably the one that I was hired for and that, you know,
• 44:47
  where my best skills are is front of the house management,
• 44:54
  morale skills of front of the house managers, being
• 45:04
  administrative skills or sometimes social skills when it
• 45:08
  comes to, you know, greeting guests or just, and sometimes
• 45:12
  leadership skills as well. You know, leading the team,
• 45:15
  motivating the team, having a direction, having a plan,
• 45:19
  working with the chef. Communication.
• 45:23
  I would, I would, I would say communication and skill set in
• 45:29
  front of the house management is the, you know, the the most the
• 45:36
  issue. That is often what I'm hired
• 45:40
  for. And what are the big levers that
• 45:43
  you can pull to fix that stuff when you come in?
• 45:49
  Experience, You know, some some some restaurant owners or chef
• 45:57
  owners don't necessarily have the experience to hire the right
• 46:02
  manager because their skill set is different.
• 46:05
  Yeah, because they don't ask the the right questions or to
• 46:10
  identify whether that person is, you know, your representation as
• 46:17
  a chef in the front part of your restaurant.
• 46:23
  So. So that's yeah.
• 46:25
  So what qualities, Christophe, do you look for in that manager?
• 46:29
  What tells you that that's the right person?
• 46:33
  Hard working, experienced, knowledgeable leadership skills,
• 46:42
  highly someone that has a vision, that understands
• 46:48
  numbers, that, that understands how to speak to people because
• 46:54
  especially now, I mean, you know, we've gotten, I, I grew up
• 46:59
  in, in the profession with, you know, people yelling at you,
• 47:02
  people throwing things at you. You know, it was the, you know,
• 47:07
  the case back four years ago. You know, now it's more about
• 47:13
  coaching, motivating people to make sure that, you know, you're
• 47:18
  not going to motivate somebody by throwing him a plate, which
• 47:23
  did not motivate me when it happened to me back then.
• 47:27
  But, but, you know, it kept me focused actually.
• 47:33
  But this doesn't work anymore. And, and, and that's what I, I,
• 47:39
  I look at, you know, someone that has the leadership that
• 47:41
  has, you know, they get, can get people excited, you know,
• 47:44
  together with the chef about the food that we serve and how we're
• 47:47
  going to be the best at, at, at what we're doing and how many
• 47:53
  options we have to, to grow from where we are.
• 48:04
  Christophe, as you look back over your life and your career,
• 48:07
  all the things that you've done, can you pull out one serious
• 48:11
  challenge that you've had to overcome in your life?
• 48:14
  What that was, how you got through it?
• 48:17
  What did you learn? I think that, I mean, on one of
• 48:26
  the, the, the, the biggest challenge that I had was moving
• 48:32
  my family to the Philippines, which was not a country that we
• 48:36
  knew even my wife had never been in the Philippines.
• 48:41
  So that transition when you have teenagers was a challenge in
• 48:49
  itself. You know, the kids have to leave
• 48:54
  their friends, they're going overseas.
• 48:58
  It's not like they're moving from coast to coast and staying
• 49:02
  in the US. So that was a challenge to, you
• 49:10
  know, especially for my wife because I was, I, I went
• 49:13
  straight into work for what I was hired for.
• 49:18
  But that was that was a challenge at the time, you know,
• 49:22
  moving overseas with with kids and at the same time taking on a
• 49:26
  job that was a little bit above my skill set.
• 49:31
  And I was challenged on my own on, on, on, on that side
• 49:35
  professionally, myself taking on a, a, a, a vice president of
• 49:41
  operations role in a new country with a very large company that
• 49:47
  was, still is, I think the largest conglomerate in the
• 49:50
  Philippines. It's called the SM Investment
• 49:53
  Corporation. And, and one of their
• 49:55
  subdivision is a hotel division. So very corporate environment
• 49:59
  coming from Michelin, coming from, you know, also other hotel
• 50:04
  groups. That's a, even a larger
• 50:07
  structure where people don't necessarily within the company
• 50:10
  understand, you know, why is there an investment in, in, in,
• 50:14
  in that hotel side of their business?
• 50:17
  Is not the the the most important you know and and and I
• 50:23
  was yeah. So I so I was very challenged by
• 50:26
  being in a very corporate environment new people, new
• 50:32
  culture, very different way of doing things.
• 50:37
  That was probably, you know, that it took me a year to, to
• 50:43
  on, on survival mode between coming home with, you know, the
• 50:46
  kids complaining that, you know, then it was not really their,
• 50:51
  their thing here. My wife was also alone.
• 50:56
  I mean, it didn't really get much support from from Malaysia,
• 50:59
  the Malaysian side and me being totally weighted with my my new
• 51:05
  job that I didn't really know how to do.
• 51:09
  So as you said, it took you about a year before you kind of
• 51:12
  settled in. Do you think your wife and kids
• 51:14
  ever settled in? Yeah, they also eventually, I
• 51:18
  mean, you know, the, the, the kids made friends at, at at
• 51:20
  school. They were thankfully doing well.
• 51:25
  So they, there was no additional stress that would need to come
• 51:31
  from the parents for the kids results in school, which was
• 51:35
  great. And, and my wife eventually
• 51:42
  settled. She's, you know, great at
• 51:44
  settling anywhere she goes. I mean, you know, we travelled
• 51:46
  everywhere and, you know, it was, it was the big one with,
• 51:49
  with teenage kids. But she eventually settled and
• 51:52
  and and and was happy. So if I were to ask them about
• 51:58
  that time there in the Philippines, would they speak of
• 52:01
  it fondly? Yes, they would.
• 52:04
  Yeah. What I mean, you know what the
• 52:06
  what The same situation happened two years later when we moved to
• 52:09
  Malaysia. But they were already they
• 52:11
  already knew what International School is like, what making new
• 52:17
  friends is like. My wife was home where she grew
• 52:25
  up and. They had already built those
• 52:27
  muscles. Yeah, yeah.
• 52:28
  So the Philippines was, I mean, now, I mean, you know, my, my
• 52:31
  son's turning 30 this year and my daughter is turning 27/20/27
• 52:37
  next month. So, so they're, you know,
• 52:40
  they're, they're grown up adults now.
• 52:42
  I mean, you know, if you would have asked them this question 10
• 52:45
  years ago, I'm not sure what they would have said.
• 52:47
  But now they look at it as a as a fun experience.
• 52:50
  Good experience. Yeah.
• 52:52
  And, and do they, where do they live?
• 52:53
  Are they in the States? Are they receives?
• 52:55
  Yeah, my son lives here. I mean between New York City and
• 52:59
  and Utah, and my daughter lives in Seattle.
• 53:02
  So, OK, they're in the. State, but I'm sure they're very
• 53:04
  comfortable with different cultures.
• 53:06
  International Travel. Exactly, exactly.
• 53:09
  You know, somewhere else thanked us.
• 53:10
  Yes, they did thank us for being, you know, having exposed
• 53:16
  them throughout their teenage so much to so many different
• 53:20
  people, different cultures. Then when they came back to
• 53:24
  study in actually not in the US, but in Canada, in Montreal at
• 53:28
  McGill University, they were stunned on, you know, by how
• 53:33
  much they had travelled and how much they knew about the world
• 53:38
  when they finally met. Not international student, but
• 53:42
  you know, people that had, you know, grew up and stayed in the
• 53:45
  same place throughout, you know, their their their their first 20
• 53:49
  years, the 1st 20 years of their life.
• 53:52
  Christophe for those listening who are maybe about to or are
• 53:56
  already in the process of going through a very similar
• 54:00
  uncomfortable move into an unfamiliar place, you think back
• 54:06
  to what helped you and your family get through that tough
• 54:08
  time. What advice would you OfferUp?
• 54:13
  Communication, I think it's very important to very important to
• 54:23
  make sure there is a daily meal or two daily meals together as a
• 54:31
  family so that you can go over your day, what you've gone
• 54:35
  through or what's ahead of you, what are the challenges just so
• 54:41
  that you stay in tune with everyone's evolution, you know,
• 54:46
  through the transition. That's I think my biggest advice
• 54:50
  is really, you know, to stay close, as close as possible and
• 54:54
  communicate as much as possible throughout that transition.
• 54:58
  Christophe, what's your superpower?
• 55:07
  Great. I'm someone that, you know,
• 55:11
  always wants to give 150%. Sometimes it's actually hurt me
• 55:17
  with the family, you know, being a little distant, prioritizing
• 55:23
  work. But my superpower is really, I
• 55:25
  mean, when it comes to my career, it's, it's the drive
• 55:30
  that I have to be at the top of my job and above, above and
• 55:35
  beyond always deliver. Do you?
• 55:39
  Think you were? Then do you think you were born
• 55:41
  with that grit, or is it something that you've acquired
• 55:43
  over time? I wasn't born with it.
• 55:49
  I acquired over time. You know, I, I, I think I, I get
• 55:53
  that fixation like we talked about earlier, that there's no,
• 56:02
  there's no comeback. Like, you know, from when my
• 56:05
  father sent me to that restaurant in the South of
• 56:07
  France. And, you know, I was determined
• 56:09
  not to come back and to succeed. And I've kept this with me for
• 56:17
  any project, any job that I took or any project that I took on as
• 56:23
  a consultant to just basically perform to the best of my
• 56:28
  abilities and make whoever I was working for or with as a
• 56:36
  collaboration happy. So you say that you weren't born
• 56:40
  with it, Christophe. You weren't born with grit, but
• 56:42
  you found it in yourself along the way.
• 56:45
  Do you think it's possible as a manager, as a leader, to create
• 56:50
  a situation or an environment to help others discover that grit
• 56:56
  in themselves? Unless you really get to know
• 57:06
  them very well, I don't think it's really possible on a in a
• 57:14
  professional environment, you know, unless you get to know
• 57:18
  them well enough that you can find out the identify what would
• 57:27
  trigger them to have that grit. It's difficult.
• 57:32
  I mean, you know, people keep their distance in a professional
• 57:34
  environment. So, you know, I, I do
• 57:37
  motivational speeches when I'm a consultant so that the, the
• 57:42
  leader, the general manager of the restaurant or any of the
• 57:46
  managers, you know, would get inspired by that.
• 57:50
  But, you know, I cannot really, you know, put it inside them,
• 57:56
  you know? There's a follow up question I
• 57:58
  want to ask here and I'm just not sure how to phrase.
• 58:00
  It the inside grid that I have. Yeah.
• 58:07
  Like what would be the possible mechanisms to trigger it in
• 58:10
  somebody? I hear what you're saying.
• 58:12
  Like it would be difficult because you got to really get to
• 58:15
  know the person and you got and you think you have to get to
• 58:20
  know the person because that would lead you to what their
• 58:24
  trigger would be. Yes.
• 58:27
  I'm trying to understand what that pathway could look like and
• 58:30
  maybe I'm asking the impossible question, I don't know.
• 58:34
  Yeah, I mean the, the, the, the, the more you know someone, the
• 58:36
  more you know how to approach them in, in, in what you have
• 58:42
  identified as their weaknesses, you know, because it by knowing
• 58:51
  them that you understand, you know, part of their weaknesses,
• 58:55
  I guess you know. So, so and sometimes work and or
• 59:04
  a contract or a collaboration, you know, does not give you that
• 59:10
  intimate opportunity to, to to identify where to stop.
• 59:18
  You mentioned weaknesses. Do you think that's the pathway
• 59:20
  to helping somebody find their grit, or for them to find their
• 59:24
  own grit, their own resilience? I, I, I, I guess I shouldn't
• 59:29
  have said, I mean, weaknesses in where they're not succeeding,
• 59:34
  you know, but it's not necessarily because they're
• 59:38
  weak. It's, you know, sometimes they
• 59:40
  just don't have, you know, that great or that something in them
• 59:45
  that would, you know, help them be better is not necessarily,
• 59:50
  you know, associated with something that happened to them
• 59:54
  or, or, or something that they had, they might have been
• 1:00:00
  exposed to, you know, as they grow up, you know, Yeah.
• 1:00:04
  What's next for Christophe and FNB concept development?
• 1:00:09
  Well, you know what, I'm not sure.
• 1:00:10
  I mean, the the last contract ended up in July.
• 1:00:14
  My wife and I decided to travel since we've been, you know, kind
• 1:00:20
  of like travelling a little bit all over the world.
• 1:00:22
  We push back a a, a trip to Mexico, but of course all FNB
• 1:00:27
  related new concept. You know, that great project
• 1:00:33
  always excite me. So I haven't really yet reached
• 1:00:38
  out after the holidays to see what that's going to be.
• 1:00:44
  That's something a little bit outside of operations outside a
• 1:00:47
  restaurant would be refreshing for me.
• 1:00:50
  And surprisingly in while we were in Japan a month and a half
• 1:00:58
  ago, we I took a Kinsugi class. You know what Kinsugi is.
• 1:01:06
  So Kinsugi is, is see, you have a cup or a plate that you have
• 1:01:16
  that that fall on the floor and is broken or that is chipped.
• 1:01:23
  Kinsugi is a Japanese art. Whereas they put it back
• 1:01:26
  together, they grew it back together with either gold or
• 1:01:31
  silver powder. And it's, it makes them some
• 1:01:38
  somewhat more beautiful. I don't, I don't know if you've
• 1:01:41
  seen, you know, Kinsugi images of plates, but it's basically
• 1:01:47
  shows, you know, that although it's not perfect, it's not
• 1:01:53
  reconstituted. Reconstituted, you can.
• 1:01:55
  See where it broke? You could.
• 1:01:57
  See the crack? You could.
• 1:01:58
  See where it broke, that it's beautifully put back together.
• 1:02:02
  And this is something that, I mean, it's the Japanese art that
• 1:02:07
  is, you know, well known there and pretty much around the
• 1:02:11
  world. And, and I've been thinking
• 1:02:14
  about continuing on this and see if, you know, restaurants, some
• 1:02:23
  of the, the ones that I know most, you know, will spend all
• 1:02:27
  the way up to $100 for a plate. And when it falls on the floor
• 1:02:31
  and when it gets shipped, it's, you know, you can't use it
• 1:02:34
  anymore. So as a, as a step back from
• 1:02:41
  being in operation, being in management and consulting, I've
• 1:02:48
  been considering doing something with my hands, something a
• 1:02:52
  little bit more quiet, something less stressful that I could sell
• 1:02:57
  to the people that I know that will, you know, be interested in
• 1:03:03
  showing plates that have, you know, their own character.
• 1:03:08
  Oh, interesting. We're.
• 1:03:09
  Going to have to follow. Well, it's one of the thing, I
• 1:03:11
  mean, you know, that a concept, a concept, a new restaurant
• 1:03:14
  opening with a great chef always motivates me.
• 1:03:17
  So we'll see. We'll see, you know, but there's
• 1:03:18
  no rush. We needed to.
• 1:03:20
  I mean, this is one of some of the things that, you know, as
• 1:03:22
  you get a little bit older, you want to maybe, you know, just
• 1:03:27
  experience something different that is, that is still related,
• 1:03:30
  that still keeps you in touch with the the food and beverage
• 1:03:34
  world, but in a different way. Well, Christoff, I just have one
• 1:03:40
  more question for you today. But before I ask, I want to do 3
• 1:03:43
  quick things. First of all, everyone
• 1:03:44
  listening, if you want to get in touch with Christoff today, his
• 1:03:48
  website is F&B concept.com. Everything is spelled out, F&B
• 1:03:53
  concept.com and his e-mail address is
• 1:03:56
  christophe@f&bconcept.com. And so Christophe is just
• 1:04:01
  Christopher without the R. So Christophe, Christophe at F&B
• 1:04:08
  concept.com. We'll have links to all that in
• 1:04:10
  the show notes for folks. Also, as a reminder, if you want
• 1:04:13
  to get more restaurant employees access to therapists, doctors
• 1:04:17
  and prescription meds that, as paradoxical as it seems,
• 1:04:21
  actually increases your company's net profits, reach out
• 1:04:24
  to us at AD back benefits.com. Finally, if you are enjoying the
• 1:04:28
  show today, a quick comment or review on your favorite podcast
• 1:04:32
  app goes a long way towards helping others discover our
• 1:04:36
  show. So thank you for taking a quick
• 1:04:37
  moment to do that right now. So last question for you,
• 1:04:40
  Kristoff. A year from now, you and I
• 1:04:42
  reconnect and you were celebrating something big.
• 1:04:45
  What is that big thing you hope to be celebrating a year from
• 1:04:49
  today? Maybe it's going to be mastering
• 1:04:53
  Kitsugi and having made a business out of it as I'm going
• 1:04:58
  to focus on it. I mean, I can show you some of
• 1:05:01
  the pieces of a bowl that I'm in the process of working with, you
• 1:05:08
  see? So it has cracked in many areas
• 1:05:11
  and those little tapes that's put it together.
• 1:05:14
  There's a little chip here that I'll have to refill and imagine
• 1:05:18
  that piece with gold instead of those red tips around it, you
• 1:05:22
  know, so maybe I will have mass to that.
• 1:05:24
  I don't know. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm excited
• 1:05:26
  about, you know, this new project of mine and, and, and
• 1:05:30
  see how you can, you know, knock on doors of restaurants and
• 1:05:34
  collect their plates and then bring them back in a beautiful
• 1:05:37
  way for those that are interested.
• 1:05:40
  Or maybe next year it'll be a a a a great new restaurant
• 1:05:46
  opening. Who knows.
• 1:05:48
  Well, we've got a reason to follow up in a year and find out
• 1:05:52
  where you have taken these ideas.
• 1:05:54
  So Kristoff, from F&B Concept Development, I want to be the
• 1:05:57
  first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story
• 1:06:00
  with us today. I really appreciate.
• 1:06:01
  Thank you very much for having me, Anthony.
• 1:06:04
  Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
• 1:06:06
  podcast. Thanks for learning with.
• 1:06:08
  Us today.