Pearls of Wisdom: Claudio Pulze

I came to the UK from Bermuda in 1975.​ I was only supposed to be staying in the UK for a few months and then fly to America to start my career in the restaurant business, but a friend of a friend was opening a restaurant in London – Montpeliano - so I decided to get involved with that. It was the first London restaurant I ever opened. The rest is history really.

Nothing beats the feeling you get when you find the perfect site​, the perfect team and then design and open a restaurant. A lot of people at my age have a traditional hobby like sailing or golf – this will always be my hobby.

The key to overcoming obstacles is ​patience.​ The last major restaurant that I opened just over two years ago was built completely from scratch and it took six months just to get connected to the electricity grid.

There are many people for whom I have tremendous respect​ within the industry - Alan Yau, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King – to name a few. My inspiration came as a 15 year old when my father sent me to work in a local hotel in Turin, Italy, as punishment for being bad at school. I fell in love with the glitz, glamour and delicious food in the restaurant and I knew then that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

In the early nineties the industry became much more focused on chefs​ - that was when I started working with Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing and Jason Atherton. The digital age also means that now everyone is a critic so restaurants have to look after every customer equally, which is, of course, how it should be.

The restaurant business in London has become a lot like the Premier League​. Over the last few years there have been a lot of rich, foreign businessmen buying restaurants because they have the money to spend but don’t necessarily care about the industry or making a profit. When you don’t have to worry about making a profit it makes it a lot easier but in my opinion you lose the focus.

You have to keep adapting to stay afloat​. You have to decide whether to sink or swim. I am still heavily involved in the restaurant scene with Cuisine Collection and the destination restaurants at Vinopolis but having Vinum take over the event catering at the venue as well was a natural transition.

Event catering is a huge part of the industry​ and many well-known chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Heston Blumenthal are now realising the importance of it as well.

I am working on a few different projects at the moment​. Obviously Vinum has just taken over the event catering at Vinopolis as well as running the destination restaurants but we are also working on a new Italian restaurant concept there which is due to open In February next year.

To succeed in the restaurant industry​ you need to have passion, work hard and have a great deal of luck. No secrets!

I don’t regret anything​. There are some things that I may have done a bit differently but I think it’s very sad if you get to my age and have lots of regrets.