10 minute read
FAMILY MATTERS
Santiago Lastra, KOL
The restaurant sector is one part of the economy where the concept of the family business continues to thrive, creating a welcome sense of warmth and intimacy. The Journal talks to four prominent restaurateurs about the pleasures and pressures of working with husbands, wives and siblings
Interviews: Clare Finney Images: HDG Photography, Nyla Sammons, Orlando Gili
LIMOR CHEN Limor is co-owner of the Tel Aviv-inspired restaurant Delamina, together with her husband Amir
Amir and I discuss everything related to the business, and although we divide our day-to-day roles we make all important decisions together. My main area of responsibility is the food, while Amir focuses on operational matters, HR and finance. He always says the food is the most important part; no matter how brilliant the service and atmosphere are, if the food isn’t great, guests won’t come back.
I designed the menu at Delamina to reflect the way I cook at home. It celebrates the core ingredients of my heritage, with a focus on good nutrition. I use very little butter or cream in my cooking and rarely fry. I try to remain as true as possible to the cooking methods I was brought up with.
Growing up in Tel Aviv was a culinary inspiration in itself. Israel is a young country made up of immigrants from across the world, with each community bringing its own cooking methods, dishes and ingredients. My parents came from completely different culinary backgrounds. My mum, originally from eastern Europe, was born in a kibbutz, a socialist commune where all meals were taken in the communal dining hall. These were uncomplicated meals comprising of local produce: dairy, poultry and lots of vegetables and fruit. There is a richness to home-grown produce. I still have fond memories of gathering pecans in the kibbutz, cracking them all afternoon with my sisters and enjoying their delicious flavour.
My father, who emigrated from Iran as a child, introduced another dimension to my mother’s cooking by introducing her to the spices and herbs of his childhood. He loved cooking and had a real flare for it, and I think that’s what filtered through to me. His dishes were so fragrant, with lots of herbs – coriander, parsley, dill and mint – and more exotic ingredients such as barberries and dried lime. In fact, one of the dishes at Delamina, the beef koftas, was inspired by my dad’s famous barbecues. He never followed a recipe, so I had to remake it several times before it was ready for the chefs to prepare. I learnt from my dad how to combine sweet with sour, use dried fruit, work with lots of herbs and spices, and not be afraid to experiment and use my intuition.
Amir’s maternal grandmother was a great cook. She emigrated to Israel from Bulgaria and made amazing Balkan and Mediterranean dishes. I particularly loved her stuffed peppers; she used to make a whole tray of these, freeze them and then Amir would take them in his suitcase back to London when he was at university, it was that good! I wanted to make her dish at the restaurant but it’s far too labour intensive.
Our children are an integral part of our food journey and have a lot of input into the dishes I make at home and in the restaurants. Our son is a big foodie – a natural in the kitchen. Our daughter has more of a sweet tooth; she bakes a lot and we have so much fun experimenting with desserts. The family is usually my first port of call when I’m thinking about new dishes for the restaurant. We’ll have a big dinner where I’ll lay out the food I’m trialling, and the whole family will give me feedback. It’s a great sanity check before talking to the chefs.
Working together as a married couple has its challenges. Amir can be relentless; he could talk about the business 24/7. We have to make a conscious effort to disconnect from the restaurants, but somehow there’s always something relevant to discuss. We’re also available to the chefs and managers at all times, including holidays, so it can get quite intense. It’s very important not to project relationship issues into the business and I do think we’re quite good at that.
There are also many positives. It’s comforting to know that your partner’s business objectives are exactly aligned with yours. We have different personality strengths and can connect with each member of our team in a different way, or deal with personal situations more holistically. And since working in hospitality is so all-consuming, we’re probably better off doing it in partnership than being in separate businesses!
Limor Chen (right), with her husband Amir DELAMINA 56-58 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2NX delaminakitchen.co.uk
Limor Chen
Karan Gokani, Hoppers
Karan Gokani (right) and his wife Sunaina
Melody Adams, Lurra
SANTIAGO LASTRA
Santiago is chef-patron of
Marylebone’s newly Michelinstarred restaurant KOL. His brother Eduardo, an industrial engineer, moved from Mexico to help him manage the restaurant
I always knew I wanted to do something great. I always knew I wanted to be successful. But I didn’t really know what I wanted to do until my dad, grandfather and grandmother passed away within a few months of each other, when I was 15 years old. I was working in an Italian restaurant at the time, and I enjoyed it: cooking, transforming ingredients, sharing them with people I liked. When they died, I would bring food home to my brother and mother, and cook for them – and while we ate, they’d be happy amid all the sadness they felt. It wasn’t a cheque with money. It wasn’t a movie. It was food that was making them happy, and I decided I wanted to do that for everyone. That feeling I had with my family is key to our success. It is a big part of it, even though the menu isn’t inspired by the food we ate. The city I’m from isn’t really traditional, in terms of cuisine, so the menu doesn’t have much of a connection to there. It comes more from my travel and research trips. But my brother has been involved in KOL since the beginning and, when I told him what I wanted to do, he came here to help me build the concept from scratch. He’s an industrial engineer, and he had a really good job, but he left it two years ago to help me create the concept.
He’s made sure that everything – from the layout to the orientation, to the logistics, to the overall management of the project – is set up and runs smoothly. He helps me with kitchen management to reduce waste and ensure the restaurant is working as sustainably as possible. He makes sure that my ideas are focused and run in the right direction – for KOL and for my other projects. He is a very, very good person to have around.
KOL 9 Seymour Street, W1H 7BA kolrestaurant.com
KARAN GOKANI Karan is director of the Hoppers restaurants. He is married to Sunaina Sethi, who together with her brothers Karam and Jyotin founded JKS Restaurants, the group that includes Hoppers and Trishna
The downsides of working with family are obvious: work never really ends, there is nowhere to hide. We’re talking about it all the time, both inside and outside the office. The upsides are far, far greater: yes, you’re talking about it all the time, but you’re thinking about it all the time too. You care about it constantly, and because the hours are antisocial your friends end up being people who are in the industry with you; people who you either work with or meet through work.
As a family, because we know we’ll be seeing each other tomorrow, this weekend, or at Christmas, we can’t let disagreements linger – and we’re professional, when it comes to work. One minute we’ll be talking about the kids’ parties, schools, home; the next minute we’re working in a very professional manner. If we’re visiting each other’s restaurants with our own friends, we don’t play the JKS card. We visit as guests.
That said, because we’re family, that culture extends to our restaurants. We treat the staff we work with as family, whether they’re family or not. We’re interested, and we always talk about them and think about them and how they’re doing. I think that makes for a good culture in the kitchen, and in the restaurant too. Hoppers is very much influenced by the best meals I’ve had with my family and friends, where the sharing, the experience and the people are more important than the food. The food is important – that it should be great is a given – but what you remember more, years on, is everything around it: the warmth, the camaraderie, the atmosphere. That’s what we want to bring to the table. That’s how we grew up eating.
HOPPERS 77 Wigmore Street, W1U 1QE hopperslondon.com
MELODY ADAMS Together with her partner Nemanja Borjanovic, Melody is the co-owner of Lurra and Donostia. Her brother Charlie has worked with her for almost 10 years and is now the head chef of Lurra
At the same time that my partner Nemanja and I were looking to open a restaurant in Marylebone, my younger brother Charlie was training to be a chef, up in the Orkney Isles where my mum lives. Of course, he was drawn to the bright lights of London, and he’s worked with us ever since Donostia first opened, which will be a decade in June. From there, he worked his way up to being head chef at Lurra, which he became when he was just 25 years old. Charlie and I are 10 years apart, and part of a family of 10 – but he is my closest sibling, through working together and always having a shared passion for food. That’s the thread that runs through our working relationship and our personal relationship. There are ups and downs, as there will be with anyone – but we’ve managed to balance business and family. Charlie and I just get each other, and I know he wants the same things out of the restaurant that I do.
Like Nemanja and I, Charlie has a real vested interest in the family business; in fact, we have that with our wine buyer and general manager as well, even though they’re not family, as they have both worked here with us since the beginning. They feel like family now too, so there’s never been a sense of hierarchy. We don’t have a head office, and we’re really open with all our staff. Nemanja, Charlie and I are here all the time. Above all, that creates a personal touch, and a different kind of loyalty: we don’t have key people leaving every two years, so there’s always been a strong sense of continuity.
Over the years, my relationship with Charlie has changed as well as deepened. It used to involve going out a lot, but now we both have children, we spend time together with our families and our kids. My daughter Isle is six now and comes into the restaurant a lot to potter around. Hopefully when she’s old enough, Charlie’s daughter will come in as well, and they can hang out together – and polish cutlery!
LURRA 9 Seymour Place, W1H 5BA lurra.co.uk
DONOSTIA 10 Seymour Place, W1H 7ND donostia.co.uk
