THREE CHEFS, FOUR SEASONS

Article by Jayne Lintern and Gina McAdam - (LEADER April 2011)

The newly refurbished Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane opened its doors this January with a trio of top chefs. It’s been non-stop ever since, but Michelin-starred Executive Chef Adriano Cavagnini, Executive Sous Chef Mario Perera and Restaurant Chef Davide Degiovanni made time for Leader.

Leader: Four Seasons Hotel London Park Lane re-opened on 31st January. What was that like?

Adriano: It’s past now...
Mario: We had to put everything together and there was so much pressure. Everything was new. I’d never done a hotel opening before.
Davide: We didn’t know each other and we hadn’t worked together so it was challenging.
Adriano: When I arrived, the building was still wrapped up in scaffolding. We only had a corridor and a couple of rooms. So we basically started from nothing, no offices, no computer, no paper, no pens. You start to design menus even before the kitchen was operational. Everything is on paper till the day you cook for the first time. We started with the staff restaurants.

Leader: Your restaurant, Amaranto, is an all-Italian concept. Was this because of you, Adriano?
A: I think the concept was always there to have an Italian restaurant. It was Mr Stauss’ (John Stauss, GM) or probably more of a Four Seasons idea. In fact, you’ll see that many Four Seasons hotels have Italian chefs and restaurants. That seems to reflect the choice of many of our customers.

Leader: Does Four Seasons want to make their restaurants a destination in their own right?
A: Four Seasons used to have only Four Seasons branded restaurants called Seasons. Now with our restaurant Amaranto and a few other places around the world, that’s changing. For instance, Amaranto isn’t branded as Four Seasons. You don’t see the Four Seasons logo on any its business cards and the chefs wear a different jacket. It has a separate entrance. The restaurant has its own identity.

Some Four Seasons customers want their own food so while we obviously serve Italian food in the restaurant, we’re ready to serve anything they ask.

Leader: Mario, what do you think of the Four Seasons now that you work here?
M: I didn’t know until I came here what the company was all about. Once I started, I found it’s a lovely place to work. It’s very staff orientated. So far I enjoy every bit of it and it’s totally different from what I’ve done before. It’s an amazing challenge.

Leader: What are Four Seasons customers looking for in terms of cuisine?
M: Our in-house guests are mainly Americans, and they look for quality.
A: The room-service and banqueting side, which is where Mario is involved, offers a mix of all the different cuisines in the hotel. It’s very much specialised Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern. Being able to offer this alongside Italian and Mediterranean cuisine probably makes us quite unique.
M: The other day someone wanted a Persian menu so we did one. And when we did a Moroccan theme night, guests were quite shocked. When you say Four Seasons, people expect something to be very American or Canadian and they walk in and see how we’ve laid out everything Moroccan and they say wow! The first question they ask is if we brought in the food from outside!

Leader: Was it a theme night?
M: Yes, we also had a London theme night with a chippy on the corner, an oyster bar, a cafe bar and everything else to show what London night life was about. A: For four nights in a row in the ballroom, we did four different themes. It was a programme for Four Seasons to show people our operation, but we’d do it for everybody. People are looking for more and more flexibility.

Leader: How many do you have all in all in the chef brigade?
A: Fifty-five but we’d like to have some more.
Davide: Of that, I have 22. Obviously it’s never enough. It’s quite a busy operation because Amaranto is a restaurant but it’s actually not just a restaurant. We do breakfast, lunch afternoon tea and dinner so it’s a 20 hour operation.
A: Upstairs it’s 24 hours.
D: But we’re having fun!

Leader: Are your customers quite choosy about what they eat?
D: I don’t think we have this kind of problem in the restaurant. Often the customers stick with the menu, although a lot do ask for a few things that are not on the menu and as far as we can handle it, we do.
A: Some Four Seasons customers want their own food so while we obviously serve Italian food in the restaurant, we’re ready to serve anything they ask. You can come at 3pm and even if the restaurant is closed we’ll still sit you down and you can still ask for breakfast or afternoon tea at 11pm.

Leader: Is this a new lifestyle thing, a new normal?
A: It’s a way for the hotel to be extra flexible. We have customers who pay thousands of pounds a night to stay here and we feel we should accommodate them. We should try out best to do everything we can. Mr Stauss always says that in some 5-star hotels you have the hotel police, saying you must have the cocktail there and the food here. But he wants people to come here and feel free to have their cocktails in the lobby or food from the restaurant in the lounge or vice versa. This is happening, and it’s not easy. It’s a matter of training.

You keep searching and looking for products. We never stop looking. How many potatoes have we tried? I’ve been away from London for seven or eight years and suppliers and things change so there’s always more and more to see. We probably tried 30 different types of potatoes.

Leader: Do you work very closely together with front of house?
A: Of course there are meetings every day, explaining our availability, our specials and everything that we do in the kitchen is shown with pictures, recipes. Bear in mind that most of the waiting staff are not Italian. We have to explain a little bit about the ingredients just so they can get the right culture as not all of them have worked in an Italian restaurant.

Leader: Do your customers tend to eat full meals or do you find they just pick at the menu?
D: We have a few customers that go for a tasting menu but not that much.
A: Ordering little plates is very much in fashion. London is the place that brings up all these ideas and here people tend to eat less. In Italy, 90% of the customers are still eating 4 courses, here it’s quite rare.  It’s also a matter of time. People here are a little bit more on the run. You’re in time but you still run.

Leader:  Davide, what do you think you bring to the Four Seasons from your previous experiences?
D: Obviously all that I did in the past and let’s say a new concept for the Four Seasons restaurant, a new kind of preparation and service. We also try to bring in new and really nice ingredients. As Adriano will say, we still have this problem with the ingredients and all the buying that we do.
A: You keep searching and looking for products. We never stop looking. How many potatoes have we tried? I’ve been away from London for seven or eight years and suppliers and things change so there’s always more and more to see. We probably tried 30 different types of potatoes.

Leader: Who do you source from?
A: Obviously the prestige of this place attracts a lot of suppliers. When you have the money in a way and the consistency, you end up getting 15 calls a day. But you can’t say yes to everybody.
D: Now everyone’s a friend.

I have a few customers who call me and say ‘Can I come in the afternoon to make my own pasta?’

Leader: What do you look for in your suppliers?
A: I think service is the main thing. If you find a supplier that can supply the best quality tomato but you don’t know when you’ll get it, there’s no point. When you write menus or put things on paper in front of the customer, first thing is you have to be sure to be able to supply it all the time. In London, service is generally good.

Leader: Four Seasons is known for its high standards of service. Has this put pressure on you?
M: This is a challenge that the three of us have to face every day. But we have to do what the customer wants. At the end of the day, we can have Four Seasons standards but we need to learn to come out of this comfort zone when we have to and provide the customers what they want in the best way we can.
A: All of us are new to the Four Seasons. The standards are fantastic but in the past some may have been too rigid. But things are changing.

Leader: Was it not a risk taking on three top chefs who aren’t Four Seasons trained?
A: We are all in the same boat! It could be a way to change some things. Obviously we all have great experience.
M: We come from different parts of the world. A team is like our five fingers, all different sizes and different shapes. You need to have all the five fingers to have a good grip. If you lose the small one you can’t have a proper grip.

Leader: Are Four Seasons customers very loyal?
All: Very loyal!
A: Four Seasons aims to make their customers feel at home. For example, we didn’t use to do the carrot and courgette muffin, but now we do because it’s something our customers find in most of our hotels around the world.
We just met our CEO yesterday and the main focus of Four Seasons is people. Right now we have 35,000 people. And FS really cares about their staff. Yesterday, the 21st March, was our 50th birthday. We had a fantastic staff party in our staff restaurant, with as much effort from the kitchen as we give our guests.
 We’re planting 10 million trees for our birthday and we were supposed to plant one in our garden but because of the Japan situation, we postponed it and now we’re concentrating on raising funds for Japan.

Leader: How do you think London has changed or evolved as a food capital since you were here last?
A: Better for sure after 7 years, although when I left in 2003 it was already at a very good level as a food capital. But compared to the first time I came to London 20 years ago, it’s a different world for sure. Then, it was difficult to find good products from abroad.  Finding a good buffalo mozzarella or a good parmesan or good olive oil was quite difficult. Now in London you can find all the best things.
M: The meat and fish are very fresh. You can call a supplier during the day and it’s delivered that night.
A: London never stops. There are always different ideas coming up. Rome is a fantastic city but if you go there in 2000 years, it will still be the same.
D: Here, restaurants close, restaurant open. But if you want to do something good professionally, you can do it here.
A: Even if your business is very good, you have to keep up with the standards and change with new ideas otherwise you’ll go out of business. So what’s here today may not be here in a year’s time. You have to keep on top. But London is the place to be for chefs. More than New York.  A lot of French chefs are here.

Leader: As a restaurant chef, Davide, what do you think is the wave of the future?
D: I think we’ll see the things we’re doing now, for instance, we like to take people to the kitchen so they can see what we’re doing. They love it so much. There are people who don’t want to eat pasta, but once they see how we do the ravioli, they become very interested. I have a few customers who call me and say ‘Can I come in the afternoon to make my own pasta?’
A: Yes, people are very interested to see our back of house. When they actually see what we do, they fall in love. I think Four Seasons is already in the future. I’m new to the company but what I see is already the new trend, what other people will follow. This way of being so open in terms of our food offer...this for me is the future.
M: In London, anybody who sits down at a restaurant doesn’t just want to see the plate coming to the table. They’re so educated. You can’t bluff.
A: They’re very knowledgeable. This is another difference compared to years ago. If you just see the people who take sommelier wine courses, they know what they want to drink, and even about prices. Now if we sell wine we have to sell it at the right price, although we still have to make a profit on our operations.
M: And even companies, like to send their people to have a master class with the chef and then have a meal, rather than just coming for a meal. This has become quite a new trend.

A team is like our five fingers, all different sizes and different shapes. You need to have all the 5 fingers to have a good grip. If you lose the small one you can’t have a proper grip.

Leader: How much of your time do you spend managing versus creating?
M: It’s an on-going process. Day to day, every minute is managing and on top of that you have to be creative to get things done. You have to find a balance.
A: At the moment the three of us are constantly here from morning to night but we were discussing yesterday that we have to delegate a little bit more to our people otherwise we’ll always be here. And this is our way of creating our managers and our people. We have to transmit our motivations, our knowledge and way of doing things.

Leader: Describe your perfect chef.
D: Passionate, knows what he’s doing, knows about the ingredients and of course how to treat other people. You can have a brigade of 20 people but without them you are no one because you can’t do the job alone.
M: Someone who can understand you and your standards and meet them. It’s very difficult to find the right person, but if you do, you have to make sure that he’s there and doesn’t leave.
A: Generally, I like people to be passionate, serious and concentrate on the job. If they have these qualities, it’s then down to us to get the very best out of the person. We’re all different but as long as they’re serious, focussed, and consistent... Consistency is very important. Of course, they should understand the meaning of team work. It’s a bit like a football team. Sometimes you have great players but they don’t fit into a team.

Leader: Who are your food heroes?
A: That’s easy. It will always be my mother. She gave me this kind of passion, and maybe also my grandfather who started the family business. But professionally, it would be Jerome Dutois.
D: The passion is also a family thing. I became addicted to the kitchen when my grandmother used to do all this gnocci and pasta at home during the week.
M: For me too, it’s actually my family. My mother in Sri Lanka is a hairdresser, and very multi talented. But in the Taj, I had a head chef who inspired me and at TVU, I had David Foskett and John Huber. Henri Brosi at the Dorchester was actually like a Dad to me.

Leader: In a year’s time what would you like the Four Seasons to be known for?
A: For our flexibility to please the customer as much as possible. We want people to know that when they come here they’re very welcome to choose and ask for what they want.