Jerzy Pisula

General manager of Belvedere Catering

In 1980, after winning four consecutive national fencing championships, Pisula looked to a more settled lifestyle, becoming restaurant maitre d' at the Victoria hotel in Warsaw, where he worked for two years and completed a restaurant management course. The qualification allowed him to move to other Warsaw hotels owned by Polish travel group Orbis. For seven years he also served as maitre d' at the Europejski and Grand hotels.

By 1988, poor wages and a lack of fresh challenges prompted him to leave Orbis and head for Vienna, where he spent a year working in various restaurants, starting out as a waiter and quickly becoming a chef. Within a year he returned to Poland and found a job as the banquet maitre d' at the newly launched Warsaw Marriott hotel. As the head of the first professional catering firm in Poland, he organized banquets for the likes of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the King of Spain. Five years later he was involved in creating the banquet department of the Dubai Marriott and in return was named director of banquet operations for Poland.

But Pisula already had greater things in mind. He had talked with the owners of the Belvedere about becoming the restaurant's manager as early as 1991, and when the post of assistant manager was vacated five years later, Pisula leapt at the chance, taking only a year to become the restaurant's general manager.

Past notes:

1976 - Left Wrocław University

1980 - Maitre d' at Victoria Hotel, Warsaw

1983 - Maitre d' at Europejski Hotel, Warsaw

1985 - Maitre d' at Grand Hotel, Warsaw

1989 - Banquet maitre d' at Marriott Hotel, Warsaw

1997 - General manager of Belvedere restaurant and catering

Word of advice:

"You have to put a lot of emphasis on training. Teach your employees respect for the workplace, the equipment and the client, because the worst clients are those who don't come back."