Transcriber: Chryssa R. Takahashi Reviewer: Denise RQ
So, here I am today.
I was kind of debating if I would do the presentation in English or in Greek,
but it's going to be a bit of both, I think.
So, I'm going to use some images as well, which are mainly pictures and photos
that have been taken with my mobile during service,
and it's all about the lovely people
that are actually there today, doing a very busy service.
And I'm here with you, and I just love them.
So, the Fat Duck of Heston Blumenthal in Bray.
What I'm going to do,
I'm going to go quickly through the story, the small story,
because it would take quite a while.
So I'll make a long story short,
how I ended up in Bray, in England, more than five years ago, actually,
when I was planning to be there for a year.
If you ask me now, I will tell you, "I'm going to come back pretty soon,"
but how things are moving and evolving, it's a bit crazy.
Lovely, nice craziness.
I'm going to play a bit with my clicker.
Maybe I'm going to need two of these,
because the guys yesterday told me that probably I got really excited
and I put like 195 images, which I haven't done before.
So I'm going to play a little bit of Game Boy, I think.
So Uncharted Waters, my mind was …
I went to the Internet, got some images.
So situations that are not predicted,
we can take something which can be really bad or whatever
and make something comfortable, convenient and positive out of that.
So I just got some images, I love that particular one,
"I'm going to take this photo, whatever is going on."
So, it was 2007, summer of 2007,
I was in Greece,
I was in the islands, I was in Mykonos.
Back at the time, I was working for a very prestigious company.
Restaurants have always been my passion, since I was pretty young,
even though my professors at school didn't agree
with what I would follow back at that time.
(Greek) Technical Institution of Athens,
Department of Tourist Business Management, Hospitality Marketing Management,
(English) whereas I was supposed to go to a university
to study economics and stuff like that,
which are amazing, but I think I ended up doing what I really love.
So this is a lovely picture from Santorini,
that's the view from the restaurant that I had back at that time,
during a break that I had from the Fat Duck.
I will be on the story in a while, just keep these pictures [in mind]
because we're going to end up in England, just to see the beautiful weather.
Here I'm just a bit relaxed in beautiful vineyards in Santorini.
I love this port in Mykonos.
Mykonos is an amazing place
that has its own beauty, even in winter.
I'm back for Christmas for example, and I might pop to Mykonos for two days.
It's going to be me and two cats.
It's an amazing place we do not really ... we do appreciate it,
but then, when you are out, and you come back to Greece,
you're like, "OK, Parthenon, Acropolis:
just respect, nothing else."
The good people, for all of us whether we're going just for a trip for two days,
or we move somewhere,
we're always going to meet some lovely people,
and there are very good and close friends
which we can count I think, on two hands.
Above all, the family.
I just said that because actually it would be a bit of surprise
for my parents, who were supposed to be here today,
but we're having an even greater event than this one,
in that my elder sister,
Efi, gave birth to her sixth.
(Applause)
So, I need two hands. So, well done.
It's a boy. So, I wanted to show them,
they are the people responsible for what I am today.
My younger sister, she's here today,
Adamantia, she's my star.
That's me;
I just made sure that I had a proper t-shirt
just before I moved to the UK and tried to wear it.
Classic photo, my favorite airline.
(Laughter)
I just love that piece.
I don't know who posted that somewhere in the Internet, but it's just brilliant.
So, we're going back to London now.
2008, I moved to London.
I start at The Fat Duck, it's a 3 Michelin star Restaurant,
one of the most famous restaurants in the world, let's put it this way.
It was back in Mykonos
where Heston, just entering the restaurant during a very busy night --
I was looking after the floor,
but it was two-three VIP tables for us on that evening.
And a guy just came in with his family, I was just placing an order,
I said, "Hi, good evening," we greet in Japanese,
I was like, "Oh, shit."
I'm running to the host, I'm like,
"I'm sorry, is this Blumenthal?"
"Let me check. Yeah, Heston Blumenthal. Yeah."
And the guy, he was siting at the table with his family.
And I'm like, "Oh my God, the man himself is here."
So, I just move to my station, we got to meet each other,
I saw him next day at the local market, accidentally,
and he's like, "Oh, how are you?
Thank you for yesterday night," blah blah. "I'm cooking for some friends."
I just thought how lucky his friends are.
So he got some local ingredients, Hellenic products and wines.
And then he came back before he left, and all of a sudden,
I got a phone call, "Would you like to join us in Bray?"
I said, "Well, yeah why not?"
In the meantime, I was going to St. Moritz with that company.
St. Moritz to me was mountains, champagnes, snowboarding.
I was like, "Right, in three months I'm going to Bray,
I'm going to work for Heston."
OK, champagne yes, and Jägermeister, and all this up in the mountain,
but no snowboarding, because you can break your leg,
you need to think about what will happen in the next three months.
So, I'm going to Bray.
I'm starting as a waiter, from the very beginning.
So, from Mykonos, St. Moritz, high life and everything brilliant,
I'm just moving to the Fat Duck,
and they say, "Keep calm," and I say "I can't keep calm, I'm Greek!"
(Laughter)
Transformation.
You need to stay humble and remain positive,
all of us, generally, in our life.
So, I started as a waiter.
I stayed for one year,
in six months I gave my notice, even though I was just a waiter.
I have members of the team now
that they might tell me, "Look, I need to go in a month, two months."
In six months I said, "OK, I won't stay here,
it's not what I think I will do, and I need to go."
The reason was because what I saw there,
it was something just amazing, fantastic, the food, the whole operation.
It's just front of the house-wise, our service, our performance,
it was a little bit strict, it was great, it was very good, very attentive
but there was something more there.
There was the food, we had the tools to play with,
all the games around, bring the guests in,
and just take them somewhere else,
as I've been, as I said, the last day and a half.
I'm like a kid in a sweet shop.
That will make sense later on.
But have fun, and enjoy, and just keep it simple.
So, he is the one, he is the man himself, Heston.
An amazing person, very down to earth, very humble.
If you ask him, if you tell him something about a week,
about two or three weeks ago,
we're talking about recruitment and something,
and the first thing he was asking was humility,
"Is he humble, is he going to be able to join our team?" and so, humility.
Roman yesterday was talking about empathy.
All these elements.
OK yes, it's hard-working, precision, consistency,
the sense of responsibility that we say, everything, but ...
Is he humble?
That's what he is and he is a great inspiration for us.
He just started the Duck, it was just him,
one more guy in the kitchen, who was actually a kitchen porter.
So first day, during service, he [started] a fire in the kitchen,
and then he hit his head, he had a bag of peas on his head,
and he was showing his kitchen porter, who was from abroad
and didn't speak English, just to tell him "Get this, get this done"
for I think probably two tables of adventurous guests.
Whereas today, we need two months, very strictly, to get a booking.
So, we are in Bray now, this is the Fat Duck.
I'm very happy as well today for one more reason.
I'm just flying in a couple of hours back to England,
the weather is going to be like that.
And in a way, I'm happy that the weather today is like that,
so I'm going to have a smooth induction.
And I won't need to put on my t-shirt and then go to minus 1.
So, in Bray, a small cottage, 3 Michelin stars, 2004, the accolade.
As I said, I'm going to start [showing] different images.
These are mainly taken in the restaurant,
and I will also show you some pictures of our food.
We have a tasting menu that we offer,
there are 14 courses, we cater allergies, dietary requirements,
everything, it's not an inconvenience for us at all.
And it takes an average of a year of development
for every dish that we serve in our tasting menu.
The reality is, as we say, that if we have 40-45 guests
that they manage to get a booking with us, they are 40-45 VIP guests.
Some people say, "Oh, you have celebrities here, who's around?"
And we're like, "You. You're here today."
"Yeah, yeah, but ..."
"No no, you are the one because there are only 14 tables,
you're in your microworld, and you're with us.
And hopefully, we're going to take you to a trip for the next 4 hours."
That's another thing.
You say to somebody that they're going to be with us for 4 hours
and they say "Excuse me? I need to go out in two hours."
"Yeah, that's fine."
I always say this actually, "Just fasten your seatbelt,
and we're taking off now. Just leave it to us."
And then they're like, "Oh my God, it's been 4 hours?"
"Yes, because you had fun."
These are some great images from Sergio Coimbra,
a professional photographer, a food photographer mainly,
that we're working with, from Brazil.
And you can see the difference, obviously,
from somebody taking professional photos
and the ones that I've taken during service with my mobile.
And there's a great point on what Olivia was saying earlier,
and that's general I think in life and professions.
You can tell the difference.
These are elements from our tasting menu, what we serve.
They are pretty particular, pretty different things.
We play with the senses.
Heston back in time introduced a multisensory experience,
so he was very pioneer with that as well.
Childhood memories, how important is when we have something,
when we taste something, when we see something, we have the sound,
and you're like, "Wait a minute I know that I know that, that's …"
Yes, this is mainly childhood.
And we don't understand that, we don't get it.
But then, through the course of the years
you're like, "Yeah, I was there when I had that. What is that?"
So, Snail Porridge, one of our signature dishes,
it tastes better than it sounds, as I always say.
Snails, porridge, sweets, green. Amazing.
So yeah, different dishes, courses.
Tomorrow actually we're presenting a Christmas menu, in December,
as Theo said, it was really good, in December, tomorrow.
So we have a Christmas menu,
which is going to be served only for three services,
and we've been working on these 12-14 courses about a year,
and it's going to be one off.
So we spend time on improving our skills
and becoming better and better.
This is the sweet shop I was talking about before.
Like a kid in the sweet shop,
because this is the last, in a way, course that we serve,
so we invite our guests to feel,
like kids in a sweet shop.
It's how I feel today.
And honestly, above all, I was really happy to be here in Athens
just to say that even if you've visited different places,
and I feel very proud and privileged
of being able to travel for my industry,
visiting many restaurants around the world,
let's say some of the best restaurants,
spent some time with them as well, which is very important.
So I've seen their operation, and I'm actually pretty proud of that.
And it's very important, the way we treat our people, it's crucial.
We need to love our members.
We need to tell them, "Look, It's you guys,
it's this amazing team that is around you,"
these amazing people, the chefs, the front of house,
these are guys that have been working
in the restaurant for the last course of the years.
And I just wanted to -
Isa Bal, our head sommelier, great friend, master sommelier,
and here - oh my god, they took my profile, you see that?
Normally, I say to the guests,
"Please don't take my profile when you take a picture."
Right, liquid nitrogen, different stuff that we have in the restaurant,
part of the development, happy moments, a lot of training,
a lot of incentive trips for the team, training,
we have a reflexologist that is visiting the restaurant twice per week.
So during service, the guys have a foot massage.
We're working with psychologists,
neurologists, cognitive scientists,
with different universities.
We do yoga courses, visiting our food and wine suppliers.
I mean this is something that generally happens in the business anyway.
Yeah, Christmas party, it's going to be like that tomorrow.
Recruitment as I said, very important.
We need to evolve our members,
to make them become better, we need to feel mentors.
Time management.
This is actually from the food festival, the coronation festival.
So we were invited at the Buckingham Palace
to do a presentation with Johnny,
Jonathan Lake is our Head Chef, an amazing guy as well.
So the three of us I think we worked really well,
and that comes across with the guests, and above all to the team.
So, being an inspiration, hopefully, I do believe we are like that.
So, these are other members that have been around,
and they are the ones that are doing the job, right?
To be realistic.
So, back to what I was saying about time management,
very important in an operation and delegation,
so make sure that everything works as it should be,
whether you are around or not, and I'm not talking about myself on this.
So more images, that's what I was talking about,
me playing a little, like PlayStation.
So, different people -
We are fully booked.
As I said, two months in advance, we're closed for Christmas for three weeks
so in this industry, you don't really get it.
So we're very privileged, we have our annual cricket match
that Heston is very keen to win, and actually wins almost every year.
Ąnywhere he goes, he needs to win.
That is a little bit more of the training.
I'm closing like that, offer love and happiness to the people around you.
It's very important.
It's what I got here.
I would just like to dedicate this
to the memory of these two guys, Jorge and Marcus,
they're not around us anymore, since last year, and we love them.
And they're always going to be with us.
(Greek) Carpe Diem, Athens. Thank you.
(Applause)