Food for thought

Celebrity restaurateur Markus Thesleff has discovered the basic formula for success: build a reputation, he says. Shalaka Paradkar meets the 33-year-old who is opening a modern Japanese restaurant in Dubai

Markus Thesleff would have felt right at home if Pangaea, the hypothetical supercontinent that included all the landmasses of the earth, existed today.

The 33-year-old Finn has family scattered across three continents, speaks half a dozen languages, and has lived in Belgium, Argentina, Spain, the US, Sweden and the UK before plumping for Dubai.

The reference to geological Pangaea finds context in his multi-cultured existence as well as in Pangaea, his global brand of nightclubs.

Pangaea nightclubs celebrate beauty from all over the world. They represent chic private members' lounges with sushi and Asian tapas, African and Asian tribal décor interiors and boast celebrity habitués such as Jamie Foxx and Justin Timberlake.

The first Pangaea opened its doors in New York City in 2001 and quickly became the see-and-be-seen place for A-listers and Manhattan socialites.

The next year, Thesleff opened Pangaea (Skylounge) del Mar in Marbella, Spain, an outdoor club with a large top-floor open terrace overlooking the Puerto Banus harbour and the Mediterranean.

Then, spurred on by the success of these two, Thesleff brought Pangaea to London. (The Mayfair venue earned its 15 minutes of fame when Prince Harry scuffled with the paparazzi outside its doors.)

Pangaea became the first brand to be successful on both sides of the Atlantic, evidence of Thesleff's skills
at delivering hits in whichever country he chose.

Now at 33, to put it in popular phraseology, he has it all, from a string of achingly hip nightclub and restaurant brands to a £20 million business empire and future wedded bliss with the beautiful Claire Guerlain of the famous French perfume and cosmetic house.

He plans to include more clubs in Las Vegas, Dubai and Cape Town.

In Dubai he will launch Okku Dubai, the first of another global brand that will also be present in Las Vegas, London and Macau by 2010. Okku Dubai, a restaurant offering a new style of modern Japanese dining, will be launched in The Monarch Hotel in Dubai this year.

The restaurant will be managed by a Michelin star team from London, Paris, Italy and Japan.

Maya, another Thesleff venture which opened last September in London, has already signed up Alexander McQueen and Sienna Miller as ambassadors.

Yet Thesleff hardly looks or plays the part of a flamboyant celeb restaurateur.

Apart from cheerfully confessing his passion for Nando's flame-grilled chicken and the blisteringly hot Dave's Insanity sauce, he talks about what makes venues tick or bomb.

He treats his restaurants and clubs as businesses that have to be nurtured, not flaunted. He also claims to have opened more venues for others, working behind the scenes from conceptualisation and design to staff recruitment, operations, events and marketing.

According to him, there is a basic formula for success: "Building a reputation. The best PR is satisfied customers telling their friends. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, only seconds to destroy it."

I

I trust my intuition at all times. If you believe in something stick with it.

I can come across as arrogant. I am extremely confident; I know what I want, what I can achieve, and how to get there. Some may mistake this attitude for arrogance. Especially when combined with a dry sense of humour.

I like getting plenty of sunshine. That's why I am shifting to Dubai. And I like the quiet times you sometimes get to experience in London. Like when I am driving home late from work and the streets are quieter or when I get up really early to catch the sunrise. Travelling does it for me as well.

I listen to music, rock preferably, to cheer me up. Rock ballads, which most people don't like, have exactly the opposite effect on me.

I drive myself very hard for a few weeks and then take a break for four to five days. Making time for myself and for those I care about is my biggest luxury. I take frequent breaks and spoil myself with really nice holidays.

I eat for pleasure. I like to eat at any place where the food is cooked with love. Sometimes you get the best food in the seemingly worst places. Like those Mom and Pop operations where mom is in the kitchen and kids are serving.

I love Mexican food and burgers as much as sushi. If a restaurant makes food I like, I tend to go there often. But for a last meal, I would opt for my mum's spaghetti.

I think you have to decide for yourself who you are. Certainly your parents and families influence you, but it's you who defines yourself. No one else can do that for you.

Me

Me and my itinerant childhood
My father belonged to the corporate world and we moved around quite a bit. He was vice-president at Procter
& Gamble and then at Kellogg's. One of the most memorable places I lived in was northern Sweden, very close to the Arctic Circle.

Temperatures went down to -35°C in the winter, and even when it was -28°C, (kids) were expected to walk to school. I grew up with reindeer and watching the northern lights ... It was proper Santa Claus land in winter.

We left Finland when I was nine months old and ended up in Belgium where we lived for three years. My younger sister was born there. We then moved to the UK, where we stayed for just about a year, moved back to Finland, then Sweden, then the UK, USA, Argentina, Spain and back to the UK.

My parents now live in Marbella, Spain, my aunts, uncles and grandparents live in Argentina, my sister lives in New York, and somehow I got left in England.

It's difficult when you grow up in so many cultures. The first time I was in England, I didn't speak any English. The first word I learned was 'toilet'.

I was about four, and turned up for school in Manchester, dressed in my uniform with a baseball cap on my head, but not able to understand a word of what was going on around
me. You learn to adapt quickly under such circumstances.

I went to boarding school, an American international school called TASIS which ran private boarding schools in England. The school, located just outside London, had the most beautiful campus.

My days were long with hard work and plenty of sport. There was rugby practice before school, rugby and ice hockey practice after, and I often had just five hours sleep every night.

Some people tell you it's important who you know and what you study. According to me, the most important skill to have is languages. If you are exposed to many languages when you are younger, it sets the tone for the rest of your life.

Me and my education
Careerwise, a number of opportunities presented themselves after school. I played professional sport for a while, even interrupting my university studies for it. I was offered opportunities in media, but I chose not to (take them). It wasn't what I wanted to do.

It would have made sense to listen to my parents and do my university studies in Finland, where the government covers your education and housing fees. But I chose to study in the US. I came out with a degree in economics and finance. University was one of those periods in my life that really defined who I became.

Upon graduation I joined the family business, a holding company with significant interests within the food and service sectors, specialising in strategic development and marketing.

I have always been very competitive with a strong drive to create. When I started working for my dad's company, I was in an environment where I was creating concepts and building brands. I always knew I wanted to build. There's something rewarding about that for me.

I have always been very sociable. Even though I had other businesses, I enjoyed spending my free time with friends in fun places.

I just got a bit bored with the places. I began to feel that the place had been built to further the ego of the owner rather than being about the concept and the customer.

Me and becoming a restaurateur
I set up my first restaurant in 2001. I was 25. Pangaea will always be special, since it was my first. The one at Marbella is extremely special with its view of the Mediterranean and lined up superyachts.

While working as a management consultant in my father's company, I worked with varied international Fortune 500 corporations. I helped launch new brands. For me the hospitality industry is not very dissimilar. It has a product lifecycle that has to be managed.

Before I jumped into hospitality, I spent a number of years tailoring what I do, working on the business plan, looking for and mitigating risks.

I don't just build nightclubs or restaurants for the sake of it. I am building to create value ... shareholder value and brand equity, so that it creates a brand that you can spin off, build on, sell, or float ...

I don't do things for ego preservation. There are too many people in this industry with too much money on their hands, who just open a restaurant thinking it would be fun to own one.

Some spend years planning a restaurant. My style is to put together the package very quietly, and create a big wave of excitement just before we go live. It's not easy to control the wave as it gathers its own momentum.

Honestly, that's what I get paid a lot of money to do. That's my expertise: creating the momentum, managing it, getting the whole team to support my concept, selling the idea, not only to my business partners, but more importantly, to my staff. Between me and my team, we have to sell this whole lifestyle brand.

Me and my support systems
My little sister and my fiancée Claire were friends. My sister's friends, whom I knew, would keep saying, "Oh we should introduce you'll to each other."

So we met and laughed, and haven't stopped laughing since. Claire and I have been together for a long time now, and recently got engaged. She brings balance to my life.

In Dubai, I am opening Okku with my friend and business partner Ramzy Abdul-Majeed. He's an old school friend of mine. We met while playing for the London Rugby club about 15 years ago. He is an entrepreneur and investor based in Dubai for the last three years.

He has a strong financial background having started his career in London at Price Waterhouse in the early 1990s, where he qualified as a chartered accountant.

We see things in the same way which makes for a good partnership. We had always talked about doing something
together, and this will be our first venture.

Myself

Does your kind of lifestyle take a toll on personal relationships?
If you ask anybody close to me, they will tell you I am a nightmare to be with. I work insane hours; there is always a phone ringing. Unfortunately this is a 24/7 industry, especially when you are managing projects across time zones. It doesn't take much time to mess up.

I can't remember the last time I had more than six hours of sleep. Claire is not too happy about this, but she understands my need to create.

Of course, I have an excellent management team. None of this is possible without the team around me.

What are your non-negotiables in business?
I am happily engaged, so I am not in the restaurant business for the ladies, my ego or anything else, but the joy of building businesses.

There is a formula, which I am not going to reveal. But the non-negotiables are quality, control and only working with people I like.