Novelli's special delivery
"Marriage without sex" is how one chef likened the process of running a restaurant. If so, opening one must embody the pain and joy of an immaculate conception.
To reveal the blood, sweat and tears involved in setting up a restaurant business, Chef invited Michelin-starred chef Jean-Christophe Novelli to keep a taped diary of the whole painful experience.
Having left the helm of London's Four Seasons restaurant last summer, he now heads a team of 35 staff who have responsibility for an eight-month-old "baby" with a turnover of £1.4m. The newcomer was originally projected to turn over £400,000 in its first year.
Maison Novelli: The Parents
With his dark, Gallic features, Novelli could easily be mistaken for a film star from the south of France. Far from it. He's a child of the industrial north, "the gastronomic wilderness" as he describes it.
He made his mark on the culinary scene on this side of La Manche at Gordleton Mill, Hampshire. Here he earned a Michelin star, which Novelli claims was his "passport to London".
When Caterer's news editor phoned to get his reaction back in 1993, emotions were running high: Novelli wept for joy. "I never imagined this day would really happen."
He also never dreamed of running his own business - well, he did a bit. All chefs do. But few cooks successfully make the transition from managing the quality of the meat to managing their business.
Ironically, Novelli's first experience of the financial side of a restaurant was in 1990 during the year he spent at Keith Floyd's former pub in Tuckenhay, Devon - which went bust several years later.
Novelli is quick to pay credit to his team. "I could not have done anything without them," he says. Initially, three colleagues from his brigade at the Four Seasons - Chris Wheeler, Richard Guest and Jean-Marie Lenfant - "left the security of the Four Seasons for £150 a week gross at Maison Novelli. They took a gamble on me."
Novelli has rewarded them with shares in the business: Wheeler has a 10% stake and the others 5%.
"Luck - yes, we've had a lot of luck," he admits. But listening to Novelli's tapes you will quickly realise that luck Novelli-style is about creating the illusion of sailing calmly along on top of the pond while paddling like hell underneath.
A restaurant is conceived
Spring 1996: The impetus for Novelli to go it alone came when Ramón Pajares left the Four Seasons for the Savoy.
"Pajares appointed me. He's my mentor. It was impossible to fail or to be negative with such a strong leader. After he left, though, the hotel was never quite the same for me.
"Probably the best thing that happened was not getting a second star in January 1996. It gave me impetus to move forward. I put forward a proposal to lease the Garden Room restaurant from the Four Seasons, but it didn't get anywhere. The only way up was to open my own place."
Luck was on Novelli's side when his long-standing best friend Marco Pierre White showed him a property on Clerkenwell Green, near the City of London. Parading as Café St Pierre, it was serving cheap lunches for City boys, and it had a somewhat jaded image.
"Believe it or not, Marco's first job as a head chef before opening Harvey's was at Café St Pierre. He knew the area, he recognised it was up and coming.
"I had the confidence to succeed with my own restaurant, as I knew I had the backing of Marco if I needed it. In reality I didn't, though."
A protracted labour
A small business loan of £64,000 made up 80% of the cost of the lease on Café St Pierre. "NatWest was the only bank out of the 10 we approached who would lend us the money."
The remaining 20% Novelli earned from a consultancy project with SeaFrance ferries which he signed the day he got the key for the restaurant. "I opened with £500 in my pocket."
After his initial stroke of luck in finding the property, Lady Luck rolled the dice in his favour again. One supplier, hearing of Novelli's difficulty in trying to borrow money, lent him £10,000, which Novelli has since repaid.
"Out of the blue, he turned up at the Four Seasons with a plastic bag and told me to accept these back copies of Playboy.
"When I looked inside the bag it was stuffed with notes - £10,000-worth! Amazing. I told Jean-Marie and Chris: ‘Take the bag of magazines into the walk-in coldroom and wait therewith it.' They must have thought I was going mad.
"The next problem was getting the money out of the hotel, but that's another story."
June 1996: "The great summer weather has meant we have been able to serve meals outside on the terrace, even on the roadside - a real boost for business.
"But the only way I could survive on the existing turnover of Café St Pierre was to take over with half the existing staff. It was down to Chris and Jean-Marie. I was still working out my notice."
May to 1 July 1996: Despite working out his notice, between service at the Four Seasons Novelli spent early morning, the afternoon and every night after evening service at Café St Pierre.
"I'm making four 25-minute round trips a day on the tube to Café St Pierre. We're washing the dishes and glasses by hand. When were not cooking we're painting, cleaning, planning. There aren't enough hours in the day.
"I am so, so anxious. I realise I will soon be running my own restaurant."
The delivery
July 1: "Today Café St Pierre officially becomes Maison Novelli, when Jean-Christophe starts cooking. It's our restaurant now.
"We've been forced to take a slow and steady approach to transforming Maison Novelli. We can only invest in better equipment and new decor as the business generates the cash to do so.
"I had planned to take it over as it was, with the same decor, and rebuild its reputation. But of course I would have wanted to have it all designed and beautiful right from the start - but I didn't have the cash, full stop.
"Once designer Marcus Steel - whom Marco recommended to us - was on board, he performed miracles on a tiny budget. He transformed the premises."
Cash-flow problems affect a Michelin-starred chef as much as they do someone who runs a sandwich bar. Pride meant Novelli didn't ask friends, family or colleagues for financial help when the business cash-flow was squeezed to the limit. He and Wheeler turned to a loan shark instead.
"There was nothing else to do but call one of the small ads. I bought a copy of the Sun newspaper. Chris and I sat in the car and called the numbers one by one on the mobile.
"It was like a scene from Only Fools And Horses. We got a loan for £10,000. It saved the business. For the record, we have since paid it off."
Early August 1996: "There are queues outside the restaurant. Where has everyone suddenly come from? The builders and Marcus are still doing their thing upstairs when customers aren't eating. We've suggested those queuing in the half-painted hallway would be more comfortable in the pub down the road. We've got one of the waitresses to run down to tell them when their tables are ready.
"In the middle of service, Chris takes the prep table from the kitchen and lays it up to accommodate more customers.
"Our business plan budgeted for 54 covers a day, equivalent to £6,500 weekly turnover. We're breaking all our records. It's amazing. We're doing 1,400 covers a week and turning over about £50,000.
"We eventually trace the crowds back to our first review in Time Out magazine. For several weeks we've done 90 covers a night in the brasserie alone.
"All that time, Jean-Marie has been cooking as well as washing all the plates and glasses for the restaurant by himself. I have been cooking in the restaurant, alone, and doing the sweets for the brasserie. Chris has been running around doing front of house with a couple of waiters attempting to serve everyone on both floors.
"We're almost at breaking point. We're working from 7am right through to 3am the next morning. Sometimes we sleep on the couches because it's easier than going home. Then every other weekend I do a day on the ferry with SeaFrance to introduce new dishes. We are zombies."
Mid-August: "Chef Richard Guest joins us at the madhouse. He relieves the pressure and takes over doing the prep for the brasserie and restaurant kitchens. You can only relate to someone in business you trust. That's why Chris simultaneously hung up his apron and took over as manager."
A restaurant is born
9-10 November 1996: "We've made it. Over the past few months the kitchen has been refurbished in the restaurant and the brasserie. Everywhere is painted and looks good. We've bought loads of plants and chairs from IKEA. The carpets are down. The bar in the brasserie has been redesigned to make it fully operational.
"Hundreds of people have turned up for our opening party over the weekend. We're elated but exhausted."
January 1997: Maison Novelli is awarded a Michelin star. "I've counted seven Michelin inspections since opening."
February 1997: Plans are hatched for more offspring. Having generated the cash from Maison Novelli, the team buy a 15-year lease on a 65-seat Notting Hill restaurant, the Ark. Plans are also being hatched to open a brasserie in an office block next door to Maison Novelli.
Next week: More babies. Jean-Christophe Novelli reveals details of the expansion plans for two new brasseries - one in Notting Hill and another alongside Maison Novelli in Clerkenwell - and shares recipes for some of Maison Novelli's most popular dishes with Chef
