Aleksey Yusupov, a brand chef from Kiev, has put up about a dozen restaurant projects during his career and now works at Holy Burger and MUST. He told LEMME how the restaurants of the Russian and Ukrainian capital differ and how a really good manager should work.
Evgeny Lebedev: Tell us about the projects you are currently working on. As I understand it, these are Holy Burger and MUST. What are you doing there, how did it start, and at what stage now?
Alexei Yusupov: It started with a large company in the restaurant market of Ukraine, which at one time was called as the “unofficial group THE”. These are the guys who discovered The Burger, The Cake, SHO, The Burger Mexico and others. In the end, they sold this business and began to rebuild the company. The first restaurant that was opened is Holy Burger. In parallel, "Bread" opened, and by inheritance they got MUST - a premium restaurant. As for Khlebny, it’s a big bakery where they make bread, morning sandwiches, serve coffee and make rolls for Holy Burger - a premium burger, whose menu consists of 50% burgers, 50% - dishes of other cuisine. All food is very clear, simple. People should not come there to try something, they come there to eat: dinner, lunch, with families, with their friends. It has a wonderful atmosphere: a beautiful place and good food. And I act there as a brand chef, in short.
- So, you set the kitchen?
Yes. I set the kitchen, help hire staff, work with it, constantly monitor quality, sales. If sales do not suit us, then I check the quality again. If necessary, redo something.
- You had a lot of different projects. Do you usually act as a third-party consultant or as a project employee?
-More as an employee. A third-party consultant is very difficult, because you need to control the work of the unit that you set for a certain time. Otherwise, everything starts to fall. Of course, you can come to correct a couple of leaves on some salad, pick up the money owed and leave, but this is not work.
-Now, when opening a restaurant project, it is customary to attract a brand chef from the side for a month and a half. Then he leaves forever, but his photograph remains on the menu. Is such a work concept viable?
- To some extent, yes. If a truly working chef remains in place. If the instructions from the brand chef, his routing cards and brand lists work, then, in principle, this is possible. But this happens extremely rarely. I do not remember such a case. Not necessarily the project is dying, but the quality is changing. It turns out a stupid situation where the photo can hang, and the quality has not been consistent with it for a long time.
-Do you have a chef in the projects or do you fulfill the role of the brand chef and the chef?
- There are chefs in every restaurant. Every day, we with the manager and chefs try a huge number of dishes, make adjustments: we are correcting something, we are improving something. If something doesn’t suit me, I go into the kitchen and together we begin to remodel.
-Do you work in the kitchen or in the hall, trying these dishes?
-I will try, of course, in the hall. Because it is very important for me not only to feel the taste, but also to understand the final form of the dish - as far as all this is clear. Why is it served in this form. Then I put it into pieces, try it. So you can understand how the guest creates a feeling.
Are you now integrated into these projects and continue to lead them?
-Yes.
-I watched your Facebook - before that you had many other projects. Give examples of some "rake" with which you are faced.
-People who were not involved in restaurant business could be good managers. What does a good manager do? He employs all people who are professionals and makes sure that this machine works. But he is by no means trying to do the work for them. We consider as a manager every restaurant employee, starting from the sous-chef and ending with the administrator, manager, senior waiter. Accordingly, if a person does not understand the intricacies of this business, then he should not try to do the work for these people. If he has doubts about their competencies, this is another matter.
- Need to change people?
Yes, we need to look for more competent employees. If he believes that he is doing it better on his own, then the business will fall, in the end. I have enough examples for this.
-That is, the owner begins to make decisions for the management that he hired?
-Yes, that's exactly what happens. For example, when the “Dog ate a Pigeon” restaurant was opened, it was the most breakthrough restaurant in Ukraine in terms of the number of guests every day. I still don’t remember anyone approaching such attendance. Then it seemed that this success either came on its own, or because of the efforts of public relations, and not because so many people worked there. The owners decided to change the working conditions. As a result, it turned out that the entire management of this restaurant was gone, and a year later the restaurant closed in terrible losses.
-I have heard many such stories, but I can not fully understand. From the perspective of the owner of the business, my logic is this: if everything is fine, do not get involved. And how did it happen there?
-Eugene, how old are you?
-36.
-You are a little older than those guys who opened the restaurant "The dog ate a pigeon." There, unfortunately, was youth. These were the children of successful businessmen. Parents decided not to interfere in the business, letting them prove themselves. At first they did everything well, and then they suffered. Second question: Zhenya, do you have a wife?
-Yes.
-Wife intervenes in your business?
-Banned categorically.
- Therefore, in part, you are deprived of the opportunity to lose this business. As soon as relatives begin to interfere in your business, this is another reason. It often occurs.
-That is, relatives are hired by managers?
-No, they are not hired. From time to time I come across such situations. For example, when the husband has business, and the wife breaks into the restaurant and tries to establish some rules. Unfortunately, this happens. Then a restaurant falls in and everyone asks: “What's the matter, what happened?” Absolutely ridiculous things happen. Situations with relatives who are trying to replace the owner are often due to the fact that for the owner this is not the main type of business. He is not very sensitive to him, as he does not understand all the consequences. Because he has some kind of huge colossus.
- A construction business or something like that?
-Yes. And the restaurant - this is such a pleasant story, and the owner does not think that it can be overwhelmed due to a misunderstanding between the management and its associates.
-Always a riddle - why climb, if good? The owner can intervene, start frantically doing something and get excited somewhere.
-This is a very interesting thing. It’s better to attract professional people. There is the same Hurma in Russia, something else similar. Guys who are trying to professionally deliver business, the work of administrators, managers. Although, there are interesting stories with them. From their seminars, people come very inspired, with huge Talmuds of literature, and the restaurant starts full of crap. That was the reason I disliked them. Then he accidentally met a company representative. He grabs his head, says, we ourselves do not understand how this happens. It seems that people understood everything, learned everything, took all the material, passed some tests and proved their competence. And when they come to places, some thrash begins. This happens, unfortunately, when people, perhaps, misunderstand what is being taught. It is one thing when you hired a professional consultant, and another is who accepts the information of this consultant and who, following his instructions, then reorganizes the enterprise. Everything can be misunderstood.
-Do you also have Russian projects?
- It was a long time ago and quite occasionally.
- According to my feelings, if you take Odessa or Kiev, the restaurant business there is more mature than in Russia. This is true?
- It’s very difficult for me to compare. I can only judge by what I read about business in Moscow, or by the impressions of my colleagues, who sometimes come. Feels like, at one time we missed the start, let’s say so. When the “Dog ate a pigeon” opened, there was an opportunity to rush forward very well, because there was a good topic with local products and with ideological people. The whole team that worked then somehow made it, and the guys now occupy very good positions in Kiev restaurants, or are co-owners of the business. Someone left for Paris. All the people who worked in the "Dog", at the moment, are well known. Unfortunately, we missed the point, and further sanctions were imposed against Russia. This gave a powerful impetus to the development of the restaurant business in Russia. What the guys started to do there is just fantastic.
-In a good sense of the word?
Yes, in good. I am interested in the restaurants of Tyutenkov. What he did, what Lamberti did at that moment.