LOCAL STARTUPS LOOKING FOR A CHORE NEAR YOU

Romanian entrepreneurs are eyeing people’s home chores and might even be competing with international players for a place in your smartphone. From meal deliveries to laundry and small home repairs, startups are coming up with products and services that are designed for convenience.

By Ovidiu Posirca

Across the European Union, there are many platforms for on-demand home services

However, there are numerous challenges that entrepreneurs have to face when building their business. Aside from the growing competition, startups in this field might struggle to scale up their operations across Romania.

THE CHORE OF GROWING A BUSINESS Startups in this field face challenges on the Romanian market, such as bringing to light things that until now were happening on the grey or even black market, says Cristian Munteanu, managing partner at EGV (EarlyGame Ventures).

“The scalability of the model is another problem, as such startups must conquer the market city by city. Lastly, the go-to-market strategy for such businesses is difficult and the marketing budget required is sizable. Anyways, there is a market out there for the startups that do overcome these challenges, as there is competition,” Munteanu told BR. This market is still in its early stages of development and players are quite dependent on the consumers’ financial health. If the economy slows down, for instance, consumers might decide to start cooking their own meals at home.

“The potential for house chore startups and the viability of use cases will need to

be tested and assessed in the near term,” Vladimir Aninoiu, technology director with Deloitte Romania’s Management Consulting Practice, told BR.

One of the local startups providing home services is Feexers. The company launched an app that works as a broker between electricians, plumbers or painters and homeowners who have various projects.

Eusediu Margasoiu, the CEO and co-founder of Feexers, says he has worked for the past 2 years to find around 7,000 specialists that could be enrolled in the app. Currently, the app has around 1,700 service providers and over 20,000 downloads.

“We believe that Bucharest and other big cities in the country have a potential that we believe to be quite large on this market, which will be targeted by a similar technology in the long term,” the entrepreneur recently commented in an interview for Ziarul Financiar. He added that he wants the startup to expand across Central and Eastern Europe within the next 5 years.

Another platform that gathers suppliers of services is MaiSimplu. It doesn’t just target home projects, but can be used to find lawyers, dentists or make-up artists. The app has had more than 5,000 downloads on Google’s Play Store.

Elsewhere, Cristian Toanchina launched Drop&Go, an app-based laundry service. The startup launched with five employees. Users can get their laundry done through a few taps on their phone. A delivery person will come and pick up the clothes and will return them clean the next day, at a time that is convenient for the user. The startup is currently operating in Bucharest, on a highly fragmented market. There is fierce competition between large international startups in the meal delivery segment. However, local restaurants are working with these companies in order to reach more customers. Uber Eats, Takeaway, Glovo, Foodpanda are some of the largest players on the market. The increasing popularity of these platforms removes the hassle of having to cook or even make your own coffee.

In the food sector, there are numerous

companies with similar business models that differentiate themselves through branding and overall operational results. At some USD 6.4 billion across 185 rounds in 2018, roughly twothirds of invested capital this past year was deployed across food delivery or e-commerce platforms in a race to win over consumers, according to PitchBook data. Close to 30 percent of VC deals closed in the food tech industry in 2018 covered meal kits & delivery. Locally, LifeBox is a food delivery platform that can provide five types of healthy meals daily. Each menu is personalised, based on the customer’s individual needs. The startup has over 15,000 customers and is present in three cities.

“The project grew exponentially in its first two and a half years, which confirms Romanians’ interest in improving their lifestyle and moving towards healthier habits, including in the food area, through LifeBox, meditation or sport,” says Radu Balaceanu, co-founder of LifeBox.

EUROPEAN APPROACH TO HOUSEHOLD TASKS Across the European Union, there are platforms for on-demand home services that include babysitting, tutoring or cleaning. Spain-based Mr Jeff offers laundry and dry cleaning services with delivery in 24 hours from the time the order is placed. The startup has another division called BeautyJeff for getting your hair or nails done. The company has raised USD 11.9 million to date and is present in 40 countries through an omnichannel value proposition.

Danish HappyHelper has over 4,000 professional cleaners enrolled on its platform. In order to get a price estimate for a job, you only have to fill out the location of your home and its surface, alongside the date you would like to contract a cleaner.

In the Netherlands, Picnic operates an online platform created to provide grocery supermarket services at low prices. The startup has received EUR 350 million worth of funding. It matches users with bakers and greengrocers and handles product delivery with electric vehicles.

Italian startup ProntoPro has raised some EUR 10 million and has attracted over 400,000 professionals on its platform ranging from electricians to personal trainers and photographers.

Spanish startup Eelp, which got EUR 750,000 in funding, provides a series of athome services, from cleaning to babysitting, cooking, tutoring or chauffeuring.

The Helpper startup offers a platform

for home services to local residents. The Antwerp-based company aims to revolutionise home care. People who need help with day-to-day tasks such as babysitting, picking up children from school, cleaning or nursing can submit a request. In turn, local residents who want to earn some extra money can reply.

Creative employer branding tools in the IT&C and gaming industry

For any company today, especially those in very competitive fields, having an employer branding strategy is extremely important for eyeing the best industry talent, driving innovation, and aspiring to stay ahead of the competition.

By Romanita Oprea

Ana Pohrib, Amber

Electronic Arts Romania, one of the biggest technology and video game companies in the world, together with Golin, invited technology and interactive creation experts to join their developing studio in Bucharest, as part of the “Unique Together” employer branding campaign. “Ever since 2006, when we came to Romania, we’ve been constantly expanding and developing local teams and today we are one of the biggest technology companies in the country and one of the biggest Electronic Arts studios in the world,” said Andrei Lazarescu, EA SPORTS senior producer at EA Romania.

Meanwhile, Florin Merla, senior manager at Golin, said that through this campaign, the agency wanted to reach an audience that could resonate with the diversity and the traits of the hundreds of EA Romania specialists. In fact, according to Irina Roncea, managing director at Golin, the agency has extensive expertise in employer branding and employee communication. “The agency has always worked on employee communication briefs, and over the past 4-5 years the number of employer branding briefs has constantly increased. Companies that didn’t use to invest in communication before have started to do it in the last 2-3 years for employer branding reasons, due to a scarcity of talent on the market, both in terms of quantity and quality,” said Roncea.

Moreover, according to Merla, Golin runs a unique Customer Journey analysis to frame the assignment and find the focus point or the key job to get done, so that their path forward can be clear. Next, the agency teams do research to obtain insight that will inspire their creative solution and determine KPIs to measure their work and guide future campaigns.

TREND OR REALITY? Is it a trend among companies to hire agencies to work on employer branding? “It was a trend 5-6 years ago. Today it’s a stringent business necessity. Companies and institutions in Romania are in desperate need of employees, both in blue collar jobs as well as roles requiring experts and great talents. We see companies that developed their operations in Romania and had a solid growth here now finding it challenging to have a good business performance because of the labour market issues,” said Irina Roncea.

From factories and cleaning service companies to schools and kindergartens or IT&C and creative industries, everybody’s hiring in Romania. And they’re doing so at a very high cost. That is because “a challenged labour market, now lacking both in terms of the number of people available to hire as well as in terms of the quality of the workforce, creates dramatic competition and companies end up bidding over an employee that may not be the most skilled or the most loyal, and not have the greatest will and potential - they’re just individuals whom you can hire to fill an open position. And a couple of months later, another company comes and makes a bid and this goes on and on, at a very high rotation speed. We are in a paradoxical position where we have too many job openings and too few people to fill them,” added Golin’s managing director.

According to Ana Pohrib, people ops manager at Amber, the difficulty of identifying and attracting the right candidates is high and has two major causes. First of all, the IT&C industry is very challenging, and being part of the game development niche narrows the pool of candidates even further. This particular industry has now over 6,000 specialists and grows from year to year, but it’s not enough. “The second cause is related to the fact that Amber is an independent

Florin Merla, Golin

studio, with a different organisational culture. That is why we want to attract people with an entrepreneurial spirit: candidates who will approach their job not just as a role, but as their own business. We are looking for the entrepreneurial attitude – the future colleagues have to look around them and see more than just their own tasks and team, but also think about the others’ well-being and projects. We need to combine technical skills with a behaviour and attitude that will fit the cultural environment that they will find in our company,” said Ana Pohrib. The number of employees at Amber will grow by a minimum of 20 percent, and it is estimated to pass the 500 mark by the end of 2020 in its 5 offices across the world: Bucharest, Botosani, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Guadalajara. And that in a context in which the number of candidates decreases with every year that passes, with most of the talents choosing to leave the country, whose education system fails to prepare specialists to work in today’s most dynamic sectors. A vicious cycle that sees companies having to adapt every day and create their own special recruitment tools and approaches.

“It is certainly not easy to find the purple squirrel when you aim to find both technical and culture fit in such a dynamic market. The difficulty lies in a series of factors (e.g.: seniority, field of expertise): sometimes you Anca Teletin, Grapefruit

can fill a position in two weeks tops, but in other cases two months might go by before you find the best match. For example, development roles tend to bring more challenges when it comes to finding the right person. We are looking for colleagues with experience and in-depth knowledge of their field, who are proactive when it comes to their own development, analytical, and passionate about their work. Last but not least, we are looking for people with a positive vibe and a ‘can do’ attitude,” said Bianca Ardeleanu, HR specialist dcs plus.

THE CREATIVE SIDE In this context, do IT & gaming companies also require creative and new approaches to improve their recruitment process?

“In our specific context, I believe that an authentic, straightforward campaign is catchy. When you are looking for colleagues who will be there for a long time, it is best to outline the reality without a hidden message. In general, if the message is coherent and straightforward, creativity helps you highlight your presence in a sea of possibilities. I would say that creativity, without a doubt, is the key in standing out,” Ardeleanu concluded.

On the company side, Amber rolls out different employer branding activities throughout the year. One attractive programme is called Amber Academy, which is already in its third year and is based on three pillars: workshops dedicated to students and recent graduates (talks about the industry and the roles, raising awareness about what it means to work in the gaming industry and especially at Amber), a two-week summer camp for young people who want to gain more knowledge about game development and an internship phase that takes three months. At the same time, Amber Academy is open to current employees who want to grow, develop new skills and become mentors for the new generations.

In her turn, Anca Teletin, chief operations officer at Grapefruit, believes that an employer branding campaign for the IT & gaming and digital sectors doesn’t have to be creative as much as it has to be friendly. And that’s because people tend to choose friendly job postings rather than rigorous, formal ones. “We want to show our friendly side to potential candidates, to give them the same ‘vibe’ we have here at the office. We are looking for passionate people who would match our Grapefruit values, people who want to be the best in their field, and we’re always mentioning that in our job openings and social media posts,” Teletin stated.

“There are two major principles we follow when it comes to our recruiting process: people, not jobs, and the right people in the right seats. We also hire based on our values: passion, accountability, fairness, pragmatism and being an A-player. With this recruitment process, we are making sure that we are indeed choosing the right people and, on the other hand, that candidates know for sure that they want to work at Grapefruit. This way they can discover whether our company is the best place for them in terms of personal and professional growth and development. The compatibility between the Grapefruit team and the candidates weighs the most in our decision-making process. We’re not neglecting the technical side, but we care a good deal about our chemistry with each candidate. We have a compatibility test where our HR representative and our personal development and team integration specialists have a conversation with candidates in order to find out more about them and see whether they are a good fit, said Teletin.

Failure is nothing

more than feedback

A professional fire-walker, a board breaking, bar bending, arrow breaking and glass-walking instructor, hypnotherapist, and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) trainer, certified and registered with The American Board of NLP (ABNLP) since 2006. Oluwatosin Ogunnusi - or “Tosin” as he is known by his friends, family and colleagues - has trained thousands of people worldwide and is a very dynamic and charismatic presenter, considered to be the UK’s number one motivational speaker. BR talked to him about the fear of failure and his main teaching principles in personal development.

ABOUT

Tosin Ogunnusi

Tosin’s experience and passion lies in helping individuals and organisations improve their performance, with over 20+ years of experience in Personal Development, Sales and Leadership within a range of organisations. His company has worked with the likes of the FA (UK Football Association), Aviva (one of the largest insurance companies in the UK) and O2 (telecommunications company).

By Romanita Oprea

How did you choose this professional path? In a funny way, I think this professional path chose me because as a kid, growing up in a poor family, I didn’t have much else except a passion and didn’t know what gift I had, so it took a while to figure that out. But I started to realise that whenever people would ask for my help and I told them what I thought to be true, they always said my advice was amazing and that it really helped them. At the same time, by sharing things with other people, I didn’t know I was actually helping myself. My father used to work for the Nigerian High Commission, and in 1992 he got posted to London, therefore I had to go to school there and master my English language skills - I was in college, but I was also working part-time and then full-time. When I got my first full-time job, at one point I started to ask myself why I was doing that type of job - I was sitting behind the desk doing accounting, but that wasn’t me. I had a lot of energy and didn’t know what to do with it. One day, a lady came to our company to do a review and she brought along a speaker. His name was Bob Proctor. I saw him speaking and within three hours I was blown away. I was amazed. It was the moment when I realised that this was what I wanted to do. So I asked him how much it would cost to get trained after his method, and he told me 10,000 dollars. But I didn’t have that money. He told me: “son,

if you cannot afford it, you cannot afford not to”. And he walked away. What he actually said was that I shouldn’t give him my excuses. If you really want to do something, you have to forget about your story, you have to get up and do something about it.

Then I decided: I will show people that I can do it. I went and borrowed 12,000 pounds from Barclays bank, in order to also cover other expenses such as traveling, accommodation, and so on… it took me eight years to pay it back. And that was the beginning of my transformation. Now, I spend hundreds of thousands on personal development. I never stop investing in myself. Every year I do some sort of coaching, training. I am still a work in progress, but over the years I have been able to impact thousands of people and also to write. I am on my fourth book; it’s a journey.

It was internal motivation in this situation, wasn’t it? Yes. And I had to figure out my own path in my journey. My book is called “Time to break free”, because this is what I’ve learned in my experience so far. There were 7 key principles that I had to break through, some of which are: Mindset - having the right mindset to deliver; Values - what are mine, which ones are driving me to do what I do, to figure out who people are in all areas of my life; Success - what is that? Because people don’t define it. They think it means celebrity status, money, houses, cars, etc. But it’s not. Those are byproducts of success. You must define what it is you want. Success is a progressive realisation of a worthy idea. And I’ve had to figure that out myself; Emotions - I had a lot of negative ones growing up, I was damaged, but I learned how to let go of them, and I have a system to help other people do that; Purpose - I have always wondered: who am I, why am I here? I’ve always been a seeker and a learner. And I am trying to help people figure out who they are. The purpose is bigger than ourselves and it’s always about serving others. You have to have a goal and all of a sudden the Universe comes to support you in your journey.

What are the main challenges you’ve faced besides the money factor, and what are the main challenges you encounter with the people you coach? I only have one challenge and that is our conditioning. We are glued to what we know and are ignorant to what we don’t know. The biggest challenge for me was not being willing to fail. The fear of failure is a big one for many people. Everybody wants to be right and I think that when you overcome those two fears and brace the unknown, life seems to be But we forget that. Now that we are adults we want everything to be perfect.

If you are employing people, if you are an entrepreneur, you have to give people a little bit of leeway to make mistakes, especially ones that are not costly. People have to figure it out, especially if you are innovating and trying out new stuff. If you are creative, you have

effortless. Because life is a rollercoaster: it’s hard on the way up, it’s fun on the way down, and so on. If you are in it, it’s the same for me and you, for everybody.

When it comes to the fear of failure, do you see any difference in the way an entrepreneur sees it versus a CEO or a manager

in a bigger company? And how do you work with that, on each level? The answer is quite easy. The fear of failure means that we don’t want to look silly. We don’t want to be wrong in front of other people. When it happened to me I didn’t want to move, therefore I wasn’t growing. And I see that in a lot of people. The reason is that we are so afraid to see who we really are, but this is the only way we learn. As children, we know that first we have to first roll around, then crawl and then get up and fall down, get up and fall down again, etc. That’s what we all did and we all figured it out eventually. Therefore, a series of failures led to success. to test your ideas. I think it was Brian Tracy that said “if you make enough money in business to cover your mistakes, you’ll survive”. Because you are always testing (new market, pricing, products, ideas, etc.) And after a while you have to re-innovate, because what got you here won’t get you further. And life is changing. Look at Kodak, for example. If you are running your business like you did 5 or 6 years ago, you will soon be out of business. People have to keep innovating, changing, testing, and failing. One of the best quotes somebody shared with me was “failure is a way towards success”. Because failure is just feedback. Whether your idea worked or not, you learned something. Both scenarios are about learning.

So this applies to any category of business

people? Yes. Any category of business people and people in general, regardless of their gender, age or occupation.

Bucharest’s best kept secret: the city centre facelift

Between Unirii Square and Victoriei Square, the city centre sometimes offers glimpses of what it should be, but isn’t: a commercial area where both tourists and locals can enjoy walking, with a mix of great historical buildings and new architectural gems, where shops, restaurants, bars, cafés, and cultural institutions all fit in. What’s happening instead? Let’s go for a walk together.

By Oana Vasiliu

Bucharest’s best known cafe back in the days

UNIRII TO UNIVERSITATE Since the colourful upgrade of the fountains (recognised by the World Record Academy in 2019), I was under the impression that the area would seriously improve. In fact, the Dambovita shore looks pretty international with all the restaurants and bars and the quite nice view over the river, but the same can’t be said about the other side… While Unirea Shopping Center’s ground floor looks somehow connected to 2020, I don’t recommend going upstairs, where it’s still 2010. 100 metres later, Cocor, yet another emblematic building, which USP is the shopping destination for Romanian designers, is incredibly empty - but it’s a great and safe place to park your car and it’s one of Bucharest’s best billboard advertising spots. Highly recommended. Going north to Universitate, the city seems to take a breath in front of the Sfantu Gheorghe Orthodox Church - where there’s always a nice buzz due to the tram station. Furthermore, Coltea Hospital is looking incredibly good - and you probably won’t guess that the building is a hospital; and just around the corner, you’ll see Bucharest’s best selling postcard: the National Theatre (also facelifted) and the Intercontinental Hotel, at the very heart of the capital city.

The opposite sidewalk looks like an outlet shopping destination: from clothes to books, from kitchen stuff to pawn shops where you can buy second hand phones. And pretty nice glimpses of the old city centre’s vibrant life Old vs new on Calea Victoriei

- music, bars, and restaurants. Furthermore, following an investment of EUR 6.5 million, Magazinul Bucuresti is currently designed to combine retail spaces, Class A offices and a restaurant under the same roof. The building has a total leasable area of approximately 3,150 sqm, distributed over seven levels, so a new vibe will be added to the area. Yet another great spot in Bucharest is the Municipality Museum, a palazzo that is not promoted to its true potential. Truly recommend a walk inside - you are going to be impressed.

UNIVERSITATE TO ROMANA Or as I often say, where sadness really happens. The Magheru boulevard used to shine, offering the finest stores, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, and of course, stories and legends. But since the development of malls and later on the tragedy of the Colectiv fire and new safety regulations, the boulevard seems ghosted. The ground floors have big, dirty windows with FOR RENT/FOR SALE signs on them, the graffiti is quite unaesthetic, and the red dots reminding everyone that an earthquake is inevitably coming aren’t very pleasant either.

Nice view to Unirii Square: Magazinul Bucuresti, the boulevard and Cocor Store Entrance of the National Museum of History

Two things worth mentioning: recently, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) opened the doors of one of the best known galleries - the Dalles Hall - in an attempt to draw attention to the fact that the gallery remains closed due to some political issues: the City Hall decided to give the building to the Romanian Academy, but a judge decided that it was MNAC’s property. Until the new lawsuit is finalised (the previous one took 15 years) the gallery will remain closed - and it will need a major facelift. Still, the museum organised a window display where people could see pieces of Romanian contemporary art.

A big round of applause should go to the complete facelift of the Lido Hotel, which reopened for the public in 2019. They preserved some of the hotel’s features - such as the brasserie, the elevator and even the original ceiling, but also some details from the 30s, when the Lido Hotel was the place to be. High hopes for the pool with artificial waves, which used to be a sensation back in the day. very vibrant lately. Cafés, restaurants, small galleries, pop-up shops are attracting more and more customers, while Bucharest’s historical landmarks are better highlighted. Thumbs up for the National Museum of Art, which hosts temporary exhibitions on its fence and getting many people to stop and take a look at the installations.

THE REAL DEAL o Revista magazine published an article explaining what would happen in Bucharest if a big earthquake took place - a previous one destroyed the city in 1977. Long story short: over 6,500 people could die, more than 15,000 would get hurt, the entire emergency system would collapse, and the remaining population won’t know what to do. Since then, the Bucharest Community Foundation has been raising a fund with the help of ING

ROMANA TO VICTORIEI The scenery changes completely at this point: buildings are prettier and incredible houses guide you to a fairy-tale Bucharest. It could be picture perfect, if cars weren’t parked on the sidewalks. The good news is that after a long wait, the Astronomical Observatory finally got its facelift - not yet completed, but it’s a start.

CALEA VICTORIEI For some reason, Calea Victoriei has been In 2014, an article in the Guardian said Bucharest was Europe’s earthquake capital, and everyone was outraged. Due to its geographical position, it’s true. In the old city centre alone - including most of the areas mentioned above - over 350 buildings have a Class I risk label. Later on, in 2017, Decat Bank, IKEA Romania and Lidl - called Prepared Bucharest - where NGOs can apply for funding for projects that include providing education and information on what to do in case of a calamity, finding places suitable to shelter people or training dogs. One can only hope for the best.

Gopo Awards: Romanian films in review

Once again, the Gopo Awards will celebrate the most important Romanian movies through a gala which will take place on March 24. 91 films entered the competition and some of them have already been under the international spotlight. So who’s who this year?

By Oana Vasiliu

Gopo’s Little Man is offered as prize for the winners

2019 FILMS IN REVIEW Although local cinema is still underfunded and there’s barely any infrastructure for author cinema, 2019 was another great year for Romanian film, with most of the films taking part in competitions/screenings at top international festivals. At Berlinale, Marius Olteanu’s Monsters received Public’s Award, and was also the only Romanian movie to take part in the competition at the 2019 edition. After that, the world’s best critics applauded Corneliu Porumboiu’s La Gomera, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, while the Locarno Film Festival offered its Special Jury Prize to Ivana Cea Groaznica (Ivana The Terrible) by Ivana Mladenović. Autumn came with Alexander Nanau’s Colectiv movie, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and went further to the Toronto Film Festival, where critics once again offered good reviews for the chosen topic.

In terms of the Romanian box office, 2019 had 192 premieres, of which 26 were Romanian movies, according to Cinemagia. Cristina Iocob’s Oh, Ramona! had 260,531 film-goers and revenues of RON 5.09 million, half of it obtained in its first weekend on the big screen. Secondly, the documentary Mary, the Queen of Romania attracted 139,081 filmgoers. Iura Luncasu’s Taci sau Faci brought in 89,548 people, with a total revenue of almost RON 2 million.

GOPO 2020 NOMINATIONS The big surprise this year is Corneliu Porumboiu’s La Gomera, which obtained a total of 13 nominations. Catalin Mitulescu’s Heidi took 10 nominations, while Marius Olteanu’s Monsters had 9 nominations. The 2018 Golden Bear film, Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not, also received 9 nominations, as did Tudor Giurgiu’s 2019 drama Parking. The Best Feature Film category nominated Anca Damian’s Marona’s Fantastic Tale, Corneliu Porumboiu’s La Gomera, Marius Olteanu’s Monsters, Tudor Giurgiu’s Parking and Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not. The Best Director Category is disputed between Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Anca Damian (Marona’s Fantastic Tale), Catalin Mitulescu (Heidi), Corneliu Porumboiu (La Gomera) and Marius Olteanu (Monsters). The Best Actress category recognises Belén Cuesta (Parking), Catrinel Marlon (La Gomera), Catalina Mihai (Heidi), Dana Rogoz (Mo) and Judith State (Monsters), while the nominees in the Best Actor category are Gheorghe Visu (Heidi), Iulian Postelnicu (Arrest), Mihai Smarandache (Parking), Radu Botar (The Cardinal) and Razvan Vasilescu (Mo). For Best Documentary Feature, nominations went to The Distance Between Me and Me, directed by Dana Bunescu and Mona Nicoara; Emigrant Blues: a road movie in 2 ½ chapters, directed by Mihai Mincan and Claudiu Mitcu; Being Romanian. A Family Journal, directed by Serban Georgescu; The Man Who Would be Free, directed by Mihai Mincan and George Chiper-Lillemark, and Timebox, by Nora Agapi. The Lifetime Achievement Gopo Award goes to Romanian actress Adela Marculescu, known for her thousands of film and theatre performances. Currently, Adela Marculescu is playing on the Bucharest National Theatre stage and can be seen in The Idol and Ion Anapoda (directed by Ion Cojar), The man who saw death (directed by Dan Tudor), The suicide (directed by Felix Alexa), and Terrorism (directed by Felix Alexa).

600 Romanian film professionals vote

91 Romanian films nominated

22 feature-length movies

14 documentaries

IS THIS THE BEST IN TOWN?

>>> Kane, 9 Dianei Street, 031 410 0016 <<<

There are three restaurants which can equally claim the accolade of being the best in the land, and KANE is one of them. They add the “New Romanian Cuisine” tag to their name, which is misleading and initially put me off going there, as I envisaged sexed-up versions of such local horrors as saramale and mici. But I was so wrong.

The reality is that they create contemporary European cuisine, and the Romanian twist is in the fact that they source all their ingredients locally. So do not expect to see Italian salami, Spanish ham or a French cheese board. But you won’t miss those things, because what they do create is quite sensational. So let’s eat. It is housed in a historic villa which lends itself to a warm casual ambiance. The staff are amazing: I have never seen waiters who are so well versed in the details of each dish. If you have any questions, there’s no need to drag the chef out of the kitchen - the waiters are so knowledgeable that they can answer any queries you may have.

Blondie and I opted for the tasting menu, which gave us a broad spread of dishes on which we could judge the talent of the House. We could not fault them on any dish. So we started with the “amuse bouche”, several tiny dishes made to get you excited about the meal to come. I shall not describe them as they will doubtlessly change by the time you go there.

As we munched on our bread and butter - both were made in house - we awaited our first main of “carrot cake”. You may well ask how you can sex up a carrot, but the House pulled off a master stroke. Picture a carrot cake, but fried in butter, garlic and rosemary. Then they top it with pickled mustard seeds, drown it in carrot puree and add a squirt of bacon and chive oil. It plates up like a work of art before your eyes.

Away we went to a zander with what the House described as a “hay/grass mayonnaise” with kale, mustard stalks and sorrel, all swimming in a fish sauce. I hope you are all taking notes because I am pained to give you the intel on the work the House has engaged in. And if you want further proof at this juncture, if you were in France

you would get a fruit sorbet in a champagne glass to cleanse and refresh your palate before gorging on a delicate desert. But no, not at Kane. Here you get a white chocolate mousse sorbet, but with a slice of pear and a reduction of acacia flower and pear consomme. It was superb.

So how does the House pull it off? Well, it is all down to the Chef. They have a fine fellow, Catalin Bejenariu, who is distinguished for being one of the few formally trained Romanian chefs. Be aware that 98 percent of all local chefs have had no training whatsoever, and have “learned” their craft by reading western cookbooks and watching international foodie programmes on TV. Their incompetence makes my blood boil with anger when I see them on Romanian TV, and yet they charge top dollar in Bucharest, while in Europe they would be relegated to washing dishes.

But back to Mr Bejenariu. He had the good fortune of being trained in England, a country that - to the disdain of my dear French friends - is now recognised as the centre of excellent world cuisine. He trained in many of England’s top restaurants, which by default means he trained with some of the best in the world. And it shows in his work.

In a nutshell, KANE can stand its own

alongside the finest restaurants in London,

Paris, Milan or Madrid. I’ve purposely erased New York from this list of gastro cities as its lard tubbed, obese population has chosen to pig out on junk food MacMuck outlets rather than sophisticated and beautiful cuisine.

But all is not good in paradise. The House wines were priced through the roof. The standard markup is 300 percent over the retail price, but KANE pushes it up too far. So if you see me eating there, you will be able to identify me as the man who is making one glass of wine last for the duration of my entire meal, but with a satisfied smile on my face.

Cultural calendar

By Oana Vasiliu

NOSTALGIA party March 6-8, Romexpo

It’s the 80s and 90s all over again, but this time with a pop and dance playlist, as well as decor and costumes. Furthermore, everything is seasoned with some Romanian flavours from back in the day, so this party is going to be fabulous. Tickets still available for RON 77.

Mariza concert March 7, Sala Palatului

If Daddy Cool, Rasputin, Rivers of Babylon and Ma Baker sound familiar, it’s definitely time to get a ticket to the Boney M concert. The band that has sold more than 80 million records worldwide is now coming back to Bucharest. Bonus: Precious Wilson from Eruption will be opening the show. Tickets cost between RON 50 and 200.

Avishai Cohen concert March 25, Cinema Pro

Fado singer Mariza will once again delight the Romanian public with her incredible voice, followed by Luis Guerreiro (traditional Portuguese guitar), Carlos Ferreira (acoustic guitar), Adriano Alves (bass), Joao Freitas (percussion) and Joao Frade (accordion). Book your seat for prices starting from RON 99.

Boney M concert March 8, Sala Palatului

Jazz Syndicate Live Sessions once again presents trumpeter Avishai Cohen, this time introducing Big Vicious, an album featuring a blend of electronica, ambient music and psychedelia, as well as grooves and beats from rock, pop, trip-hop and more. The project includes two guitarists (Yonathan Albalak and Uri Ramirez) and two drummers (Aviv Cohen and Ziz Ravitz), and has gained a devoted audience at international festivals. Ticket prices start at RON 50.

Pink Martini feat. China Forbes concert March 30-31, Sala Palatului and Fratelli Studios

Pandele is mostly focused on the discoveries he makes during the creation process, searching for that essential, unique image which truly deserves to be seen.

Oregon-based musical group Pink Martini returns to Romania, together with singer China Forbes, for yet another two great concerts. The world’s smallest orchestra, Pink Martini, sings in 22 languages in opera houses, concert halls, film festivals, museums, and fashion shows. Of course, they’ve also reinterpreted a well-known Romanian song by Maria Tanase: Pana cand nu te iubeam. Tickets start from RON 120 and go up to RON 350.

WTFWJD solo exhibition Until March 21, Mobius Gallery

The solo exhibition of recent works by artist Pandele Pandele comprises a large variety of works, from paintings to drawings, sound elements, ceramic objects, ready-mades, light boxes and digital art, as well as a sitespecific installation. The exhibition reads as a guide for decoding what we currently call common reality. Each work stands alone as a coherent statement against the ordinary, turning the artistic process into a “guerrilla product placement”, as the artist states.

Tag Your Ideas: Mihnea Mihalache Fiastru x FREE NOW Until March 20, Control Club

On the alternative scene of Control Club, the Tag Your Ideas project brings a meeting with multidisciplinary artist Mihnea Mihalache Fiastru, featuring a photography installation compressed into easily recognisable urban details. Speaking about his photographs, Mihnea Mihalache-Fiastru explained that “The pictures I take are the stories I can’t write anymore, and the stories I write are the pictures I can no longer take.” These are Mihnea’s photographic stories, about memories and a past that no longer exists, but that, bizarrely, you can still feel. “The details build the image, and the image builds the photo - the city becomes a topic of investigation and the people and streets exhale routes that Mihnea presents in his photos,” describes curator Eugen Rădescu’s installation for Tag Your Ideas. While you’re there, grab a beer and look up at the club’s schedule - you will definitely find a live concert or a party concept that will get you to stay longer.