Gessler: They don't know how to cook
Soon she was running her own catering company and serving dinners for the King of Spain. She had gone to Spain with her father, who was a Polish Press Agency (PAP) correspondent there, and studied painting at Madrid's academy of fine arts. She returned to Warsaw and during the 1990s designed a series of restaurants – Fukier, Casa Valdemar, Tsarina and Belvedere, all of which bear the stamp of her sense of elegant design. In total, 38-year-old Gessler has started seven restaurants in her time. Early next year she will open her next two creations in the coastal city of Sopot, where she has also established restaurant Villa Hestia. The WBJ's Gregory Keller met Gessler in her newest venture, Russian restaurant Tsarina located in an Old Town cellar to talk about how the business has changed since 1989, the challenges facing aspiring restaurateurs here and where the industry is heading. The following is an edited version of their conversation.
Q: Of all your restaurants, which is the biggest success?
A: Fukier. I suppose Tsarina is exceptional – exceptional cooking and exceptional decoration. But Fukier is 9 years old, and every day it's full.
Q: Why is Fukier successful?
A: Because it is authentic. It accurately portrays Polish cooking, decoration and (feels) like an old Polish home. It's very friendly and normal. People like places with tradition. And I suppose that it's the only place in Warsaw with tradition, which is difficult to find in this city because everything is new. And it's really the only Polish restaurant. People are creating restaurants like my restaurant, but not new restaurants with new Polish cooking and a new look. They're always exotic, such as bad Italian, not very good French, very bad Mexican. There are very good American restaurants; (Restaurant) 99 is a very good restaurant. But in reality it's very difficult to make a very good Polish restaurant. For me, in Poland, my favorite Polish restaurant is Chlopskie Jadlo in Krakow. Have you been there?
Q: No.
A: It's wonderful. It's very easy, simple, cheap, but the atmosphere is wonderful, the cooking fantastic. For quality and price, it's the best restaurant in Poland. It's in the Jewish district. But Ariel (in Krakow's Jewish district), no, it's very bad. But this one is wonderful, really wonderful. Another one is Pod Aniolami (in Krakow).
Q: I've been there.
A: You went there? I like the first courses, but the second courses are bad, worse than the first ones. But Fukier has 10 dishes, which for 10 years have always been the same. It's always the same taste. That is very important for the guests, who have in their memory that this dish is exactly how it tasted two years ago. For me, that's very important.
Q: So Fukier is your biggest success. Have any of your restaurants been a disappointment?
A: No, no, no. I have one very special product, Casa Valdemar. I put together the menu, the decoration and everything, and I ran it for two years. But two years ago – no more. (Gessler sold the restaurant two years ago). And now look what is happening at Casa Valdemar.
Q: What's the problem?
A: The problem is that it's very important who runs the restaurant. It has to be a very cultured person, with a very big personality, who is not only interested in the dollars. And this is the problem in Warsaw; they are all now, like … money, money, money. But in this business, you have to like people very much. The best is also when the owner comes from a very rich family.
Q: Is that your case?
A: Yes, of course. I'm an aristocrat. I come from the Sapieha family from Lithuania. And my family always had a lot of money. For me, this business is O.K., but it's not my goal to make money. I like my job; I like to cook; every dish is my dish, and it's my idea. That's the fun of it. When it's only about money, it's impossible.
Q: Are you very involved in the menus and cooking?
A: Yes, of course. I'm not a very nice boss, because every day I check almost every dish. It's not easy but it's necessary. The owner must like it, and must like tasting it. It's a very funny job, but when the owner is only a manager, only interested in business, I suppose it's impossible to make a good restaurant.
Q: Tell me about your beginnings in the restaurant business in Madrid.
A: I began in Madrid with a French friend named Sylvie, who is the nicest woman, but very, very difficult to work with. But it was a good experience for me. I started out as manager of her restaurant, then I had to deal with the potatoes (kitchen work). For me, the most important person was the chef, not the person who was in charge. That was a bad experience.
Q: Why did you get into the restaurant business?
A: With a very important husband, a Der Spiegel journalist (her first husband), I often had to make dinners, and people told me I was an exceptional cook. So I made a restaurant. It's so easy.
Q: Before the first restaurant opened, what were you doing?
A: I was painting, and I still paint. I painted Tsarina, with Dorota Zemur.
Q: Your first restaurant in Warsaw was …
A: Palac Blekitny, where Vivaldi is today.
Q: But you're not involved in Vivaldi, are you?
A: Not yet, but it's possible …
Q: When did you open Blekitny?
A: 1989.
Q: What kinds of problems or difficulties did you have?
A: With the restaurant? Everything was a problem. I had to serve the alcohol to the guests in tea cups, because there was no permission for serving alcohol at that time. There were problems with meat, fresh fish, always problems, problems and problems. People drinking all the time …
Q: The staff?
A: Yes, the staff. They were very, very difficult. Waiters came to work drunk. It was incredible.
Q: What kind of restaurant was it?
A: Polish, of course, and it was the first place to serve nouvelle Polish cuisine. I did Polish nouvelle cuisine, which was later copied by the Bristol and Sheraton, but I was the first. I mean really Polish cooking with Polish traditions. I also set up the Belvedere restaurant. My idea was to make the Belvedere restaurant, but the Starak (family, owners of the Belvedere) only wanted a cafeteria, no more. And I said, 'I'm making this place my restaurant.' And I was the manager of the restaurant for a half year. Half a year and I left, because it's impossible to make a restaurant with someone who doesn't like to eat. Mrs. Starak is a model. I'm sorry, but it's true. She only thinks about calories, no onions, no garlic, no butter, no nothing. Nothing. It is impossible to work together with someone who thinks only about her body. It's impossible. But I made that restaurant, the menu, the cooking, not the decorations.
Q: At Blekitny, your first restaurant, you mentioned that you had a lot of difficulties. Is that why the restaurant closed?
A: No, later there was a very funny situation. I had my husband, and he has a brother, and he has a business partner. We had to divide the three locations between us, so we had a lottery. They drew straws: three matches for three places. One is the garden, where Vivaldi is, the other is Trebacka, which is now closed but at the beginning had a nice club with Italian food. Trebacka had a very big problem with the mafia. It was a very dangerous situation. And the last one was Fukier, which was completely empty at the time – no kitchen, nothing. Absolutely nothing. And in this lottery, my husband took the match for Fukier. His brother got Trebacka. And this partner won the restaurant on ulica Senatorska. He's a loan shark, a very bad person. And this guy had the luck to win the Senatorska restaurant, Blekitny, and he had no idea about restaurants, only money, money, money. He closed the restaurant in half a year. Only Fukier kept going, and we did it with $10,000. This was the beginning. I made the cheapest restaurant ever, but the best. But the brother of my husband, the other Gessler, the bad Gessler, he made Dom Gessler on the rynek, which always has problems with bills, with the city.
Q: Fukier is an old name, wasn't there always a restaurant named Fukier on the square?
A: It was only a wine cellar. Very cheap and very bad, people came only to drink. But the establishment had a very long tradition. The building was erected in 1555. The family came from Augsberg. They imported Hungarian wine to Warsaw, and they had this cellar with the best Hungarian wine in the world. It ended with World War II.
Q: What influence has Fukier had on the restaurant scene here?
A: Lots of my ex-employees leave and start their own restaurants, which are neither good nor new, only copies of Fukier. For example, Dom Polski. These two women worked in my restaurant for five years. I took them to Paris, to the best restaurants in the world. I expected her (the one who started Dom Polski) to make a new restaurant, but she made it exactly the same as Fukier. I don't understand. Someone who is five years with me, with the experience in France, enough experience for new ideas, new restaurants, but every time it's the same. Another one made a restaurant in Gdynia, this woman worked with me for two, three four years, making the Villa Hestia, but now she has a restaurant that is completely different, and this one is nice. But here on Old Town Square, everything is copied from Fukier. I don't understand this. Everything is for money. People think, she has money; she has people; she has a nice restaurant; so I will make the same. It's a formula for success.
Q: Earlier you talked about a problem with the mafia at the Trebacka restaurant. Is that still an issue?
A: Now? For me, no. No longer. But here in the Old Town, four years ago we had a very big problem with the mafia. We closed every restaurant for three days and held a strike. From then on, I have had no more problems with the mafia. In places easier to reach by car, I suppose they still have problems with the mafia. But in the Old Town, it's another situation. 'Security' is very important.
Q: Restaurants have to pay for security companies?
A: Yes. They have to pay very much.
Q: How much?
A: $10,000 (per month).
Q: What problems did the mafia cause?
A: Some restaurants paid the mafia, and they wanted other restaurants to pay as well. The other restaurateurs came to me and said, 'You must pay these people. If you don't pay – well, you have children, no?' Yes, I have children. 'You have to care for your children, because the mafia is coming if you don't pay.' So I closed the restaurant; I went to my children; and I waited in my house; I let my security take care of the mafia. They did a very good job – there were no more problems. But it was only conversation, no 'boom boom boom.' They just talked, said this is mine, and this is yours. Diplomacy. The security is like the mafia, but safer. They do not want more money every month. With the mafia, it's strange, you never know what they want.
Q: In general, how has the Warsaw restaurant scene changed since 1989?
A: I suppose the quality is better, the products are fresh. But the art of cooking is not better. Polish cooking is complicated, so restaurateurs say, 'Italian cooking is very easy, why not? Mexican cooking, why not?' And this cooking, for me, well, can you find a good Italian restaurant in Warsaw?
Q: Chianti is good.
A: It's normal.
Q: Roma is good.
A: It's American. My grandmother is from Florence. It's O.K. It's not bad, but it's not exceptional. But the Mexican cooking, El Popo – nothing. There's no good Mexican cuisine. French cooking? Bistro de Paris? So, so, not very bad. I like Rabarbar, do you like Rabarbar?
Q: I've never been there.
A: It's nice cooking. It's light – for models, no calories. I like American cuisine, 99, the Boathouse. But good, real Italian cooking is difficult to find. It always tastes American, heavy. I like Venezia, have you been there? On ulica Marszalkowska. That's not bad. But it's an Italian who makes it. There are two Russian restaurants. This one (Tsarina) is O.K. But Caryca Katarzyna, I don't know, it has very heavy cooking. Lots of flour. It's heavy, thick. But Polish people like cooking from a different nationality. That's easy, but making very good Polish cuisine is very difficult. (Warsaw now has) restaurants for the upper-middle class. The prices are not very expensive – they are expensive, but not like Fukier or Tsarina or Belvedere. The best restaurant in this category is 99.
Q: I ate at Tsarina once, and the service was perfect. I can't imagine you having any problems with service here, but in other restaurants …
A: That's a very big problem. Not in my restaurants. When I pay well, I don't have problems with the waiters or the cook. I pay very good money.
Q: What restaurant opportunities are left in Warsaw?
A: There is no good French cooking, nothing in Warsaw. And also no really good Italian cuisine. Or a place that has very good meat, with Argentinian beef. I suppose Warsaw needs such a restaurant.
Q: How much money does it take to start a restaurant in Warsaw?
A: Nothing. The money is not the problem, it's only the idea. The question is where, why, which cuisine. How much money? I don't know. People in Poland don't like places that are too good. Simple and cheap. The example is Roma. The decor is nothing. Absolutely nothing, but it's cheap, small, nice and homey. Very few who make money here understand the importance of good eating – a good dinner with atmosphere, with good decor. This is coming, but very, very slowly.
Q: So how much do I need to start a restaurant like Roma?
A: $20,000 minimum.
Q: And how fast could I make it back in Warsaw?
A: Very quickly, a half year. When the restaurant is good, it's really good business. Particularly in this market, where the prices are not very high and the people do not require such high quality. An example is Blue Cactus. The cooking is nothing, but it has nice (interior) colors. It has strange dishes, though.
Q: Out of 10 new restaurants that open in Warsaw, how many will be successful and how many will fail?
A: Everything that opens works. But a restaurant like Tsarina, you must have very good cooking and very good service. It's a very big problem for a good restaurant.
Q: What are some of the mistakes you see other restaurants making?
A: They don't know how to cook, or what to cook. The example is Belvedere. The cooking is French, Spanish, new cooking, I don't know what. The Bristol has a problem. It's empty. Four years ago, it was always full. That's the change – then, hotel restaurants were always full. It's O.K. when there are lots of people in the hotel, but for dinner it's empty.
Q: Are there any hotel restaurants that are very good?
A: Now every hotel restaurant is going down. The Marriott, the Italian restaurant is very good, Parmizzano, but it's so expensive that no one will go there. The prices are outrageous. I went with a friend, it was zl. 700 for two, with just a bottle of Chianti wine, no more. That's too much.
Q: Is it difficult to get good wine here?
A: Now it is better. Spanish wine is very nice for quality and price. The French wine here is horrid. The quality is the worst. The vintages that come here are the poorest of the years for French wine. But only this wine comes to Warsaw. People see the bottle and say, 'Ah, St. Emillion. Wonderful, I'll buy it.' But the most important thing is the vintage. All the garbage comes to Poland. With the Spanish wine it's a different situation. And now Chilean wine is coming to Warsaw, these are wonderful, the quality and price is the best. It's very nice.
Q: What do you look for in your waitstaff?
A: The servers must be intelligent, read books, have an education and speak languages. This is most important. Most of my staff have finished university studies. My policy is for the long term, not only for today. It is important to develop the staff. The manager of Tsarina today was my first waiter at Fukier. He went to the Bristol, to the Sheraton and returned to me.
Q: What is your dream project?
A: A hotel. No, more: one whole village, a small village, like Michel Gerard in France. He is the man who created nouvelle cuisine. And he has one village in France in the Pyrennes, which has hotels and shops, everything is his. My dream is to build it in an old Polish countryside village with 20-50 houses, hotels, shops – my shops. It would be like a fairy tale, with a lake. This is my dream.
Q: Of all your restaurants, which is the biggest success?
A: Fukier. I suppose Tsarina is exceptional – exceptional cooking and exceptional decoration. But Fukier is 9 years old, and every day it's full.
Q: Why is Fukier successful?
A: Because it is authentic. It accurately portrays Polish cooking, decoration and (feels) like an old Polish home. It's very friendly and normal. People like places with tradition. And I suppose that it's the only place in Warsaw with tradition, which is difficult to find in this city because everything is new. And it's really the only Polish restaurant. People are creating restaurants like my restaurant, but not new restaurants with new Polish cooking and a new look. They're always exotic, such as bad Italian, not very good French, very bad Mexican. There are very good American restaurants; (Restaurant) 99 is a very good restaurant. But in reality it's very difficult to make a very good Polish restaurant. For me, in Poland, my favorite Polish restaurant is Chlopskie Jadlo in Krakow. Have you been there?
Q: No.
A: It's wonderful. It's very easy, simple, cheap, but the atmosphere is wonderful, the cooking fantastic. For quality and price, it's the best restaurant in Poland. It's in the Jewish district. But Ariel (in Krakow's Jewish district), no, it's very bad. But this one is wonderful, really wonderful. Another one is Pod Aniolami (in Krakow).
Q: I've been there.
A: You went there? I like the first courses, but the second courses are bad, worse than the first ones. But Fukier has 10 dishes, which for 10 years have always been the same. It's always the same taste. That is very important for the guests, who have in their memory that this dish is exactly how it tasted two years ago. For me, that's very important.
Q: So Fukier is your biggest success. Have any of your restaurants been a disappointment?
A: No, no, no. I have one very special product, Casa Valdemar. I put together the menu, the decoration and everything, and I ran it for two years. But two years ago – no more. (Gessler sold the restaurant two years ago). And now look what is happening at Casa Valdemar.
Q: What's the problem?
A: The problem is that it's very important who runs the restaurant. It has to be a very cultured person, with a very big personality, who is not only interested in the dollars. And this is the problem in Warsaw; they are all now, like … money, money, money. But in this business, you have to like people very much. The best is also when the owner comes from a very rich family.
Q: Is that your case?
A: Yes, of course. I'm an aristocrat. I come from the Sapieha family from Lithuania. And my family always had a lot of money. For me, this business is O.K., but it's not my goal to make money. I like my job; I like to cook; every dish is my dish, and it's my idea. That's the fun of it. When it's only about money, it's impossible.
Q: Are you very involved in the menus and cooking?
A: Yes, of course. I'm not a very nice boss, because every day I check almost every dish. It's not easy but it's necessary. The owner must like it, and must like tasting it. It's a very funny job, but when the owner is only a manager, only interested in business, I suppose it's impossible to make a good restaurant.
Q: Tell me about your beginnings in the restaurant business in Madrid.
A: I began in Madrid with a French friend named Sylvie, who is the nicest woman, but very, very difficult to work with. But it was a good experience for me. I started out as manager of her restaurant, then I had to deal with the potatoes (kitchen work). For me, the most important person was the chef, not the person who was in charge. That was a bad experience.
Q: Why did you get into the restaurant business?
A: With a very important husband, a Der Spiegel journalist (her first husband), I often had to make dinners, and people told me I was an exceptional cook. So I made a restaurant. It's so easy.
Q: Before the first restaurant opened, what were you doing?
A: I was painting, and I still paint. I painted Tsarina, with Dorota Zemur.
Q: Your first restaurant in Warsaw was …
A: Palac Blekitny, where Vivaldi is today.
Q: But you're not involved in Vivaldi, are you?
A: Not yet, but it's possible …
Q: When did you open Blekitny?
A: 1989.
Q: What kinds of problems or difficulties did you have?
A: With the restaurant? Everything was a problem. I had to serve the alcohol to the guests in tea cups, because there was no permission for serving alcohol at that time. There were problems with meat, fresh fish, always problems, problems and problems. People drinking all the time …
Q: The staff?
A: Yes, the staff. They were very, very difficult. Waiters came to work drunk. It was incredible.
Q: What kind of restaurant was it?
A: Polish, of course, and it was the first place to serve nouvelle Polish cuisine. I did Polish nouvelle cuisine, which was later copied by the Bristol and Sheraton, but I was the first. I mean really Polish cooking with Polish traditions. I also set up the Belvedere restaurant. My idea was to make the Belvedere restaurant, but the Starak (family, owners of the Belvedere) only wanted a cafeteria, no more. And I said, 'I'm making this place my restaurant.' And I was the manager of the restaurant for a half year. Half a year and I left, because it's impossible to make a restaurant with someone who doesn't like to eat. Mrs. Starak is a model. I'm sorry, but it's true. She only thinks about calories, no onions, no garlic, no butter, no nothing. Nothing. It is impossible to work together with someone who thinks only about her body. It's impossible. But I made that restaurant, the menu, the cooking, not the decorations.
Q: At Blekitny, your first restaurant, you mentioned that you had a lot of difficulties. Is that why the restaurant closed?
A: No, later there was a very funny situation. I had my husband, and he has a brother, and he has a business partner. We had to divide the three locations between us, so we had a lottery. They drew straws: three matches for three places. One is the garden, where Vivaldi is, the other is Trebacka, which is now closed but at the beginning had a nice club with Italian food. Trebacka had a very big problem with the mafia. It was a very dangerous situation. And the last one was Fukier, which was completely empty at the time – no kitchen, nothing. Absolutely nothing. And in this lottery, my husband took the match for Fukier. His brother got Trebacka. And this partner won the restaurant on ulica Senatorska. He's a loan shark, a very bad person. And this guy had the luck to win the Senatorska restaurant, Blekitny, and he had no idea about restaurants, only money, money, money. He closed the restaurant in half a year. Only Fukier kept going, and we did it with $10,000. This was the beginning. I made the cheapest restaurant ever, but the best. But the brother of my husband, the other Gessler, the bad Gessler, he made Dom Gessler on the rynek, which always has problems with bills, with the city.
Q: Fukier is an old name, wasn't there always a restaurant named Fukier on the square?
A: It was only a wine cellar. Very cheap and very bad, people came only to drink. But the establishment had a very long tradition. The building was erected in 1555. The family came from Augsberg. They imported Hungarian wine to Warsaw, and they had this cellar with the best Hungarian wine in the world. It ended with World War II.
Q: What influence has Fukier had on the restaurant scene here?
A: Lots of my ex-employees leave and start their own restaurants, which are neither good nor new, only copies of Fukier. For example, Dom Polski. These two women worked in my restaurant for five years. I took them to Paris, to the best restaurants in the world. I expected her (the one who started Dom Polski) to make a new restaurant, but she made it exactly the same as Fukier. I don't understand. Someone who is five years with me, with the experience in France, enough experience for new ideas, new restaurants, but every time it's the same. Another one made a restaurant in Gdynia, this woman worked with me for two, three four years, making the Villa Hestia, but now she has a restaurant that is completely different, and this one is nice. But here on Old Town Square, everything is copied from Fukier. I don't understand this. Everything is for money. People think, she has money; she has people; she has a nice restaurant; so I will make the same. It's a formula for success.
Q: Earlier you talked about a problem with the mafia at the Trebacka restaurant. Is that still an issue?
A: Now? For me, no. No longer. But here in the Old Town, four years ago we had a very big problem with the mafia. We closed every restaurant for three days and held a strike. From then on, I have had no more problems with the mafia. In places easier to reach by car, I suppose they still have problems with the mafia. But in the Old Town, it's another situation. 'Security' is very important.
Q: Restaurants have to pay for security companies?
A: Yes. They have to pay very much.
Q: How much?
A: $10,000 (per month).
Q: What problems did the mafia cause?
A: Some restaurants paid the mafia, and they wanted other restaurants to pay as well. The other restaurateurs came to me and said, 'You must pay these people. If you don't pay – well, you have children, no?' Yes, I have children. 'You have to care for your children, because the mafia is coming if you don't pay.' So I closed the restaurant; I went to my children; and I waited in my house; I let my security take care of the mafia. They did a very good job – there were no more problems. But it was only conversation, no 'boom boom boom.' They just talked, said this is mine, and this is yours. Diplomacy. The security is like the mafia, but safer. They do not want more money every month. With the mafia, it's strange, you never know what they want.
Q: In general, how has the Warsaw restaurant scene changed since 1989?
A: I suppose the quality is better, the products are fresh. But the art of cooking is not better. Polish cooking is complicated, so restaurateurs say, 'Italian cooking is very easy, why not? Mexican cooking, why not?' And this cooking, for me, well, can you find a good Italian restaurant in Warsaw?
Q: Chianti is good.
A: It's normal.
Q: Roma is good.
A: It's American. My grandmother is from Florence. It's O.K. It's not bad, but it's not exceptional. But the Mexican cooking, El Popo – nothing. There's no good Mexican cuisine. French cooking? Bistro de Paris? So, so, not very bad. I like Rabarbar, do you like Rabarbar?
Q: I've never been there.
A: It's nice cooking. It's light – for models, no calories. I like American cuisine, 99, the Boathouse. But good, real Italian cooking is difficult to find. It always tastes American, heavy. I like Venezia, have you been there? On ulica Marszalkowska. That's not bad. But it's an Italian who makes it. There are two Russian restaurants. This one (Tsarina) is O.K. But Caryca Katarzyna, I don't know, it has very heavy cooking. Lots of flour. It's heavy, thick. But Polish people like cooking from a different nationality. That's easy, but making very good Polish cuisine is very difficult. (Warsaw now has) restaurants for the upper-middle class. The prices are not very expensive – they are expensive, but not like Fukier or Tsarina or Belvedere. The best restaurant in this category is 99.
Q: I ate at Tsarina once, and the service was perfect. I can't imagine you having any problems with service here, but in other restaurants …
A: That's a very big problem. Not in my restaurants. When I pay well, I don't have problems with the waiters or the cook. I pay very good money.
Q: What restaurant opportunities are left in Warsaw?
A: There is no good French cooking, nothing in Warsaw. And also no really good Italian cuisine. Or a place that has very good meat, with Argentinian beef. I suppose Warsaw needs such a restaurant.
Q: How much money does it take to start a restaurant in Warsaw?
A: Nothing. The money is not the problem, it's only the idea. The question is where, why, which cuisine. How much money? I don't know. People in Poland don't like places that are too good. Simple and cheap. The example is Roma. The decor is nothing. Absolutely nothing, but it's cheap, small, nice and homey. Very few who make money here understand the importance of good eating – a good dinner with atmosphere, with good decor. This is coming, but very, very slowly.
Q: So how much do I need to start a restaurant like Roma?
A: $20,000 minimum.
Q: And how fast could I make it back in Warsaw?
A: Very quickly, a half year. When the restaurant is good, it's really good business. Particularly in this market, where the prices are not very high and the people do not require such high quality. An example is Blue Cactus. The cooking is nothing, but it has nice (interior) colors. It has strange dishes, though.
Q: Out of 10 new restaurants that open in Warsaw, how many will be successful and how many will fail?
A: Everything that opens works. But a restaurant like Tsarina, you must have very good cooking and very good service. It's a very big problem for a good restaurant.
Q: What are some of the mistakes you see other restaurants making?
A: They don't know how to cook, or what to cook. The example is Belvedere. The cooking is French, Spanish, new cooking, I don't know what. The Bristol has a problem. It's empty. Four years ago, it was always full. That's the change – then, hotel restaurants were always full. It's O.K. when there are lots of people in the hotel, but for dinner it's empty.
Q: Are there any hotel restaurants that are very good?
A: Now every hotel restaurant is going down. The Marriott, the Italian restaurant is very good, Parmizzano, but it's so expensive that no one will go there. The prices are outrageous. I went with a friend, it was zl. 700 for two, with just a bottle of Chianti wine, no more. That's too much.
Q: Is it difficult to get good wine here?
A: Now it is better. Spanish wine is very nice for quality and price. The French wine here is horrid. The quality is the worst. The vintages that come here are the poorest of the years for French wine. But only this wine comes to Warsaw. People see the bottle and say, 'Ah, St. Emillion. Wonderful, I'll buy it.' But the most important thing is the vintage. All the garbage comes to Poland. With the Spanish wine it's a different situation. And now Chilean wine is coming to Warsaw, these are wonderful, the quality and price is the best. It's very nice.
Q: What do you look for in your waitstaff?
A: The servers must be intelligent, read books, have an education and speak languages. This is most important. Most of my staff have finished university studies. My policy is for the long term, not only for today. It is important to develop the staff. The manager of Tsarina today was my first waiter at Fukier. He went to the Bristol, to the Sheraton and returned to me.
Q: What is your dream project?
A: A hotel. No, more: one whole village, a small village, like Michel Gerard in France. He is the man who created nouvelle cuisine. And he has one village in France in the Pyrennes, which has hotels and shops, everything is his. My dream is to build it in an old Polish countryside village with 20-50 houses, hotels, shops – my shops. It would be like a fairy tale, with a lake. This is my dream.
