Alvin Leung on Michelin Stars, Losing His Wife & What Success Really Means | Gent’s Talk

[00:00:13] Alvin Leung, welcome back. It's nice to be back. There's a lot that's happened since we last spoke. You, the restaurant Akin, got its star. Congratulations on that. Thank you very much. Does it ever change the feeling when that happens? No. Do you still find yourself like super excited when you see that announcement come through? I've been, you know, I had quite a few winners, winning stars, getting stars. I've lost quite a few.

[00:00:43] You know, the excitement is not as much as it used to. You know, I'll be honest with you, you know, I don't get super excited. I don't get super, because you know, if you don't get super excited, you won't get super disappointed. And I think it goes both ways. So it is something that I'm always happy to receive and sad to lose. When you talked about instances in which you've lost stars, does that fuel you? Does that, do you, when that happens, you take a look at that and go, you know what, I'm just going to come back better.

[00:01:14] Well, I mean, that's what everybody says, you know, I've got to go and shoot myself. But, you know, I don't worry about it as much. You know, I have, I have lost stars and I've gained stars. And I've lost it again.

[00:01:35] So, you know, for me, you know, that, that, that up and down is something that I've experienced. And one thing I tell people, what you learn from your mistakes is not to, not to make them again. And that's not true. What you learn is how to, how to take it better with grace, take it better with the brighter side. I mean, you can always say, ah, you know, it's, it's going to be a learning experience, but you know, don't make excuses for yourself.

[00:02:04] This is one thing, uh, that I always tell myself, don't make excuses for yourself. Uh, you know, whatever happens, um, it's, it's you. Um, and I always say, you know, it's, it's my fault. I don't blame it on anybody. And if I get it back, uh, it's going to be a team effort.

[00:02:25] How do you pull the emotions out of something like that? So that you look at it logically and say, you know what, I'm not going to make excuses. We're just going to learn from the mistakes, get better. You don't need to pull motion. You have a lot of people supporting you. You know, I remember I was in Singapore when I lost my third star. Um, it was during COVID, you know, it was during COVID. It was a, uh, or protest. It was during protest. It was a bad, it was a bad year.

[00:02:50] And my, my late wife said to me, then, you know, you know, you, she put it down on Facebook. You still three stars in my book. And, uh, and then, you know, she passed away a couple of years later. You know, we, we, you know, we knew at that time there was something wrong with her. And then, you know, we discovered it was cancer. And, uh, so next time, you know, when this happened again, I won't have her to, uh, to write me the, uh, WhatsApp. I would love to get a message from her.

[00:03:17] But, you know, you have a lot of people that love and support you. So if you lose something, you know, there's always, it's always great to, to hear from these people. You know, when I lose a star, I hear from chef. I've heard from, you know, years and, uh, you know, giving me, uh, giving me comfort. So, uh, you know, I think I got more calls when I lost a star than I get from getting a star. So, um, you know, if you take life like this, um, it can never be bad.

[00:03:46] You talked about your wife's passing. I'm sorry to hear about that. How did that impact you from a career perspective? Well, now I'm, I'm traveling like crazy and there's no stopping me. I'm doing about, I don't know. I don't count. I'm probably doing over 80 flights a year.

[00:04:08] Uh, and, uh, I'm keeping myself busy. So, you know, definitely, you know, it hadn't, it hadn't stopped me. But a lot of times you don't, you do things for other people. You know, I do it for my children. I do it for my grandchildren. You know, you know, uh, often, you know, I'm happiest when, if I get, if I get a star, I like to see people around me happy rather than, you know, me, me happy.

[00:04:33] So it's all about, it's all for me, it's all about, you know, people that you love and people around you that, that, that's, that's my, that's the key of my success. Uh, so as long as there's people that appreciate what I do, then I'll keep on doing it. Hmm. I hope you don't mind my asking and I do so because I recently lost my father to cancer as well. So grief is very top of mind for me. I'm sorry. How did you navigate grief? Does it ever go away?

[00:05:01] It shouldn't go away. It shouldn't go away because I think sometimes, you know, uh, member, you know, remembering those moments, you know, bring, bring back, you know, something that, um, that, you know, that, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, I remember her passing away, my father passing away, and other people in my life. I'm 65, okay?

[00:05:29] So I see a lot of people going out, checking out. And then you lose stars, you gain stars. That's grief as well. I don't try to forget it, because you can't. You can't. It's not possible, okay? Unless you hit yourself in the head and knock that memory block out.

[00:05:58] But one thing that I do, my philosophy, which is very philosophical, is I'm philosophical about it, and I think I don't regret anything in life. I don't regret it because there's nothing you can do. I'm an engineer by education, and we're very practical. You cannot, things you cannot change, don't worry about it. And, you know, sometimes, you know, there are times when I, you know,

[00:06:28] I try to bring the memories back. And everybody deals in my way. I can't tell you how I deal with it, but, you know, at the end, you know, I survive it. Yeah. When you talk about, you know, wanting to see your team be happy and learn from mistakes and grow together, how do you teach that? Well, you don't want to see them too happy.

[00:06:56] You may have to give them a raise, but... What's the question again? How do you... How do you instill your philosophy into your team? Well, I think, you know, it's very important. I do care about their welfare, you know? And, you know, nowadays, you know, a lot of times, you know, it's not easy to make a buck opening, you know, restaurants. You know, sometimes I say to yourself, it's better to close restaurants now, but, you know, a lot of people will be out of the job.

[00:07:26] So, it's very important nowadays to know what the team or what no individuals, you know, what motivates them. And, you know, it's no longer money. You know, a lot of people now say it's nowadays, you know, people say it's about quality of life. So, you know, but after saying all that, it's a, you know, being a chef, it's a tough career.

[00:07:55] You know, you know, hours are long, they're backbreaking, and, you know, a lot of times, you're not appreciated. So, I think, you know, when you get credit, and when credit's due, then, you know, you should give them credit and tell them that, you know, I know you, I appreciate you. So, you know, I do a lot of judging. So, I do a lot of, you know, I've done, you know, I've done Master Chef Canada.

[00:08:24] I'm doing a new show in China, Hungry Chefs. It's called, you know, God of Cooking, you know, the Hungry Chef Challenge. It starts off with Hungry Chefs. And, you know, and now, you know, one thing they always tell me, you know, my persona is I'm tough. I'm the Demon Chef. I'm honest. I'm honest. I'm not going to give you credit when credit is not due. I'm not going to say things that I don't mean. Yeah.

[00:08:53] But I think a lot of times, I try to be positive. So, I'm not lying. I'm just seeing things from a different perspective. And, you know, I don't get to where I am today without my standards. Okay. But, you know, and a lot of times the standards are never met or they can never be met. And, you know, as a result, you get frustrated. You yell at your staff.

[00:09:23] And, but, you know, I do. I yell at them. But I also, you know, I'm also, you know, I'm also, you know, I don't keep anything in memory. Okay. So, and, you know, I'm philosophic, you know, you do it wrong. I expect him to do it wrong again and again and again. Okay.

[00:09:44] But hopefully that, you know, one day that he'll learn, you know, the, to make, to, to recover faster from these mistakes. Okay. Because, you know, my philosophy is mistakes will be made and they will be, then there will be repeated. So learn to recover from your mistake. Okay. Because you never going to learn how to not to make it. What don't people understand about opening up a restaurant? What they don't understand, it's, it's, it's tough.

[00:10:14] What a lot of time they don't understand. I mean, look, there's a lot of, there's a lot of different motives for people opening a restaurant. And sometime that motive is not really practical. Okay. I mean, when they say sustainable restaurant, I think the most important part is that for that is a sustainability. And, you know, they said, they, they talk about sustainability of, of, of, of, you know, and I say the most important thing is to see a restaurant. It has to be sustainable.

[00:10:41] It has to make a profit, you know, cannot lose money or else eventually it's going to disappear. There are people or there are institute that opens restaurant for, for marketing purposes, for service purposes, for ego. There's a lot of, you know, it's a lot of, you know, it's a lot of, a lot of people with, with, with the say, ah, I want to open a restaurant. Okay. And, you know, and they don't care about whether they would, they make money or not.

[00:11:05] And, you know, and there are, and there are other, and there are, you know, and, and restaurant restaurants back in the old days are notorious for laundering money. Uh, so it's, it's, it's, you're competing with, with these kinds of, of, of, of, um, you know, of, of operations where, you know, money making a profit may not be the main objective.

[00:11:30] And you, if you compete with them and your main objective is to survive and make money, you're gonna, you're going into a very competitive world, you know? And you say, you say, ah, you know, how can they do it at a price? Or how can they, you know, how can they spend $4 million on the kitchen? Okay. And, and expect to get it back. They're not going to get it back. And, but that doesn't mean, so you cannot spend $4 million on the kitchen if you're going to, if you're going to try to make it a profitable business. So they have to learn.

[00:11:59] Nowadays, you know, being able to cook is, it's, it's, it's, it's important, but it's, it's not, it's not, you know, uh, the, um, a hundred percent of, uh, you know, if you can cook, doesn't mean you can open a restaurant. Um, you have to be businessman. You have to be realist. You have to, um, and sometimes, you know, you know, you won't, you won't be able to fulfill your dream fully.

[00:12:25] You know, like, you know, a lot of people, they will open a restaurant and they say, you know, oh, I want this. I want, I want knives that are, you know, $400 each. Okay. I want plates that are $40 each or $50 each or $80 each. And then, you know, you got to break half of them before the first year. I tell people when they open a restaurant. Okay. First of all, okay. Do you have a sugar daddy? Do you have a, uh, you know, do you have somebody who's going to, who's going to pay and don't care? Yeah.

[00:12:54] Do then, then that, that, you know, you can do whatever you want. But if you, a lot of people do ask me, you know, you know, when they, for advice for opening restaurants and, and I say, keep the, at the, keep the cost, keep the cost down. Keep the cost down. Nowadays, you know, nobody wants to open a restaurant bare shelf. They want to take over a restaurant because you save a lot of costs. And, and this is important. Keep the cost down. And it's very important that I know you want to show your craft. You, I know you want to dot your plates a hundred dots. Okay.

[00:13:23] But will you be able to sell it at the price? Number one. And number two is, um, you know, will it be profitable? So, um, I am trying to. Economize when I open restaurants. Okay. But I still don't, I'm not going to give you a hole in the wall. Okay. I'm not going to give you dirty toilets. Okay. I'm not going to say, you know, no toilet paper. I'll sell it to you or bring, you know, you know, you know, there's no nature, you know, like you go to the toilet paper.

[00:13:52] You have to bring your own. Okay. So, you know, I'm not going to, I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to create a space where, you know, you get value for your money. Okay. I mean, I still want, I still want to make sure that you see value for your money and you know, it's hard earned money. People, it's hard earned money to, uh, to, to spend on, on, on, on restaurants, especially high end restaurants. Okay. Fine dining. You can be spending four or $500 a head.

[00:14:21] So, uh, for that amount of money, I think, you know, it should be a, a memory or should be, or should create a memory or create an occasion that is memorable. So, um, but it's very important to do that. You know, you say, Oh, I'm going to have, you know, you know, I'm going to have, uh, chairs that are $4,000 each. Okay. I'm going to have art on, on the table, on the wall.

[00:14:46] I'm going to, you know, I'm, uh, the, the forks are, are going to be, you know, uh, uh, you know, it requires a, uh, a down payment. You know, I, I, I, you know, I think people, if you want to open your own restaurant, you don't have, you know, infinite finance or infinite, you don't have infinite finance.

[00:15:09] And I, I shouldn't, you have to be very careful on how much you spend and how efficient you're going to run it. And another thing I tell people, you got to be a good businessman. You got to be logical. You got to be smart. Okay. To run a restaurant. Do you find that for chefs who want to start a restaurant? A lot of them maybe don't understand. Chefs are notoriously dumb. Okay. Why do you say that?

[00:15:37] Because a lot of times they, they, they are not realists. They're not realistic. Okay. And, and then you see them. I mean, the, the, the, the, the, the, nowadays in the old days. Okay. Let's say in Asia. Okay. I know that best. Okay. To be, you know, obviously you don't do well in school. You're not going to be a doctor. You're not going to be a lawyer. Okay. Why not try cooking? Uh, it's, it's, uh, it's considered blue collars considered vocational. Right.

[00:16:04] So obviously, you know, you're not a rocket scientist. You know, you probably, uh, did not do well in school and you find, you know, you have some sort of skill and it's gonna, it's gonna be your career. Nowadays, I can tell you a lot of the chefs nowadays, they are much smarter. They all have university degrees. Okay. Uh, even in culinary school, they give you a degree. Okay.

[00:16:32] Uh, and I, and a lot of chefs, they also very well, they come from very wealthy family. Okay. Uh, and the reason is because, you know, they, they, you know, they, they, they feel that, you know, this is an easy path to become famous. This is an easy, it's an easy path to become, to, you know, to, it's gonna be fun. And then a lot of them find out it's not so fun. Okay. And a lot of fun, a lot of them find out, okay, not everybody's gonna be famous or you're

[00:17:01] gonna be famous, but it's gonna be for a short time. It's not gonna stand the length of time. So they give up. I see a lot of these. All right. And unfortunately, some of them are actually, you know, they're actually holding a space in culinary school where somebody with the right, you know, motives, with the right attitude could, could, you know, could, could be a chef. And, and, and these have, you know, this is, this happens, this happens.

[00:17:26] And so, you know, it's, it's now become more tough to get, uh, qualify chefs because, you know, a lot of spaces are taken, taken up by people who, um, really don't utilize. Uh, and it's an issue. It's a problem. Uh, so, uh, what's gonna happen? Oh, we're gonna have AI. Okay. So AI, AI can't cook.

[00:17:54] AI can not cook, but AI can create a menu. Okay. AI can plate. AI can not cook, but you have a lot of, uh, uh, you have a lot of automated machines now that can do a lot of that work for you. You know, even you have a robot walk even, you know? Okay. So, um, all that is happening as well. So I, I guess, you know, the, the world basically, a lot of time, the, the world, the

[00:18:21] world itself will solve your issues or solve your problem. And I will, and I'm seeing, I'm seeing more and more of this, but I can tell you AI cannot cook, but you know, a lot of machines can make it more efficient. Okay. And a lot of times now, you know, you're a lot of like stocks and, and, and even vegetables take me bought pre, you know, pre cut. Okay. Pre made that will cut, that would cut a lot of your labor problems.

[00:18:51] That would make things even that could even make things more, more, um, efficient, cheaper and, and control wise. Okay. Does that hurt the industry overall? No, it doesn't hurt the industry overall because it will happen. It must happen. It has happened. Uh, uh, it won't hurt the industry, but you know, will the diner get, you know, you know, are you going to be short from the diner? You know, the stock may not be homemade. Okay.

[00:19:17] Or, uh, there will be a difference in, but I, I guess nowadays people are more really what I find. And because of the shows I do, I see a lot of people, I travel a lot. I say more and more diners are, you know, are, are more interested in the overall experience, you know, the, the, the, you know, the seam of the menu that they call, you know, how they

[00:19:45] present a story to you, uh, and rather than food alone. Okay. Food used to be, you say, ah, food used to be 80%, 90% or food used to be, let's say 75%, service 25%. Well, I know, you know, food is going down. Food is now probably could be less than 25% of people for experience. So you think food doesn't account for most of the experience at a restaurant?

[00:20:09] Of course, food counts, but, um, it's, it's the way people now look at food, you know, you know, and, you know, and, you know, it's that, you know, I, I taste the soup, I taste this, this sauce. Okay. Does it taste homemade or, you know, is it, is it, is it, is it something that's, you know, that's bought, you know, or is it, you know, is it powder?

[00:20:33] Um, food always counts because that provides you the comfort. Food will be the key for you to come back to that restaurant. Okay. You go, you go back to the restaurant for the food, right? Yeah. You don't go back to the restaurant for the decor, but you always want to see new restaurants, right? You want to, you know, put it on your Instagram and, and tell people about it and experience,

[00:21:01] you know, that, uh, what that restaurant has to offer in terms of service, in terms of food, in terms of all kinds of things. The last time you were on, you talked about how you still take photos of all of the food that you have when you go to a restaurant because the food needs to be Instagrammable. Yes. So are you saying that anytime a chef is conjuring up a dish for the restaurant, they need to be thinking about how it will present on social media? Yeah. I think it's an advantage. It's an advantage.

[00:21:29] Uh, but you know, you can't, you have to, you know, in life or in anything. Okay. You have to look at it and they say, look, I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this, but you cannot do everything. Okay. You can't say, ah, I'm going to do this terrific presentation. But at the end of the way, the food will be, it's going to compromise the taste of food. It's going to compromise the temperature. It's going to compromise the costs. All right.

[00:21:55] So I think it's important that, you know, if you present the same dish, one has more elaborate presentation, um, that would win. Mm. I say this when I judge things. Okay. I say, you know, we, you give both, give me a, a, a, a dish. They both taste good. Uh, if one has that extra oomph, you know, this extra, uh, difference in, in terms of spice

[00:22:24] or in terms of, uh, presentation in terms of ingredients, then, you know, that extra is going to win. Mm. So I always tell people, take that extra step because that puts you a step ahead. Yeah. But make sure that step is forward because if that step is not forward, then it's going to put you behind or it's going to put you the same. Yeah. So you can put a, you can take a step forward.

[00:22:51] You mean you made the food a bit, you made it a bit more special. It tastes better or it tastes the same, but it looks better. Yeah. Or you can go backward and they say, now it looks better, but it tastes bad. Or it can, you can say it looks weird and it tastes bad or it looks weird. So you take a step backward. If you take a step sideways, which means, you know, you haven't moved anywhere. Yeah. Uh, you could, you, but which means you change something, but you know, it's not, it's not giving your, your, your, your diner that effect.

[00:23:21] Yeah. You know what I mean? So, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not an easy business anymore. It's not an easy trade. Okay. It's not frying a, a, a, a hamburger or making that perfect pasta or making that perfect sauce. It's not just that anymore. It's a lot more now and you have to be qualified for that or you have to think a bit, you know, you have to think more. So, um, nowadays, you know, we always come up with new, new concepts, new things.

[00:23:50] You know, we went from, like, we went from cuisine, nouvelle to molecular gastronomy, to, to farm, to table, to, to, you know, whatever it's going to be next. But then. What do you think the next trend is in food? Well, if I knew I would be rich. Okay. I, right now, I have no idea what the next trend is, but I'm sure it's going to involve AI. Uh, I'm sure it's going to involve AI.

[00:24:18] Um, so, um, but I don't like to create trends because trends is temporary. Yep. Okay. Trends are temporary. And I've seen trends that, you know, the, you get lineup, you know, for certain products, you know, oh, they, they made this special egg waffle. They made this special cookie or cheesecake. You see, freaking line up, half an hour line up, two hours line up. And then the next year, the place is gone.

[00:24:45] Trends to me have, have, have no, no, I don't, you know, in the, I mean, when I was younger, I made my, I, I, the trends would be good. Okay. It's good to be famous for 15 minutes. Like any war. I guess fifth famous for 15 minutes. Okay. But everybody's going to get famous people for 15 minutes. That's what any war all set, but only, only the legends will be famous forever. The, you made a point earlier when you talked about how there's chefs that are looking at

[00:25:14] starting a new restaurant and either building one from scratch or taking over one. Would you recommend new restaurant owners take over an existing restaurant instead of building A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Because first of all, I'm opening a new restaurant. Yeah. I'm sure we'll talk about it later. Yeah. We are just eight months behind, which is eight months behind schedule. So if you took over a restaurant and do very little to it, you can probably turn it around

[00:25:43] much quicker. Okay. Because eight months behind schedule, it's a lot of rent to pay. Yeah. Okay. And so, um, so, you know, your investment becomes bigger. So yes, I suggest always suggest take over a restaurant to save money. But of course you've got to change some basic things and you know, you want to change the restaurant to, to the extent that, you know, it, it doesn't look like the same restaurant.

[00:26:11] So one thing I always say, spend your money on things that people can see. Yeah. So I always say, you know, you spend your money on, you know, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on your outerwear. Right. You're not going to spend a lot of money on your underwear. Correct. I don't know. I don't know. I don't wear any, but, uh, you're not gonna spend your, you're not gonna spend a lot of money on underwear.

[00:26:36] Well, unless you know, you, well, I'm not gonna say on, but, uh, but you want to spend money on people and things that, that impress people that people can see. Yeah. Right. So I always tell them, don't invest on a stove, you know, that's, that's $20,000, $30,000. Okay. I've seen, you know, these, these, these, um, these, um, units, you know, these, these line

[00:27:03] units from Europe that are, you know, five, six hundred thousand dollars. Yeah. And I said, God, you know, like how are you going to make that back? Yeah. Okay. That's just the. For every $10,000 you spend, it will take you, it could take you a month to make it back. Hmm. Okay. So I'm just telling people, first of all, don't blow it up on the kitchen. Okay.

[00:27:33] Now you see, oh, but I've been to the French laundry. Okay. I, I see this, you know, this is all white. I see, you know, their, their, their tables, a special height. Okay. So that you don't have to bend over or you don't get a bad back. Oh, fantastic. Okay. But they mess, he could be, well, be making so much profit that they are, they are basically, you know, uh, trying to, uh, basically avoid paying massive taxes.

[00:28:02] So why not invest it? So they could be paying 50 cents to a dollar because, or now, you know, they have to, it's tax. Hmm. You know what I mean? A lot of time, all these artworks and all that, you know, it's basically to avoid paying it to the government. Okay. And, and then you say, oh, he does it. Why don't I do it? Or I say, well, unfortunately you're not trying to write off taxes. Okay. Trying to survive.

[00:28:28] You're trying to, you know, start, start a project of which, you know, you can survive. So I always tell them, you know, don't spend a lot on things that people cannot see. Yeah. Kitchen is important. It has to be, but the most important thing is it has to be clean. Yes. Okay. And that doesn't take a lot of money. Okay. You go to, you go to the kitchen that, you know, they spent four million, you know, a hundred thousand dollars on the stove is dirty. Okay.

[00:28:56] And I'd rather see a, I'd rather see a, a, a, a thousand dollar stove as clean. And I can tell you that 20, you know, that hundred thousand dollars stove is not going to cook any better than that 10,000 or thousand dollar stove. Okay. If you think, if you're depending on your cooking on the equipment. Okay. And I say, wow. Okay. Then good luck. You know?

[00:29:23] Uh, so I say spend less money so you can make it back easy. Yeah. After you make a lot of profit, then you can do anything you want. Well, that makes me want to ask you, you know, given the advice that you're sharing of, you know, take over another restaurant instead of starting a new one. I mean, take over restaurants. I'm, when I say start a new one, I mean, look, you take over a space. Yeah. And you're still starting. You're still starting to take over another restaurant. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:50] So you're taking over an existing space to launch your new restaurant. Yeah. And versus building. Versus building from scratch. Unless you get some tenant in incentives. Okay. So, knowing all of that advice and hearing about what you're saying about sort of the expenses of building a restaurant, essentially the same types of thoughts that all entrepreneurs should be having. Of course. Going through the challenges of your new restaurant being eight months behind.

[00:30:19] So how are you navigating that? Well, I mean, look, things happen way much behind. So obviously, you know, you, uh, uh, things like this happen. Okay. So it looks like, you know, it's going to take longer for us to be, you know, in the profit making stage because, you know, you go first from the payback stage until you go to the profit making stage. So you're not making any profit until you, you know, return your initial investment. Right.

[00:30:47] So that's going to take longer. Uh, what do I do? You know, what can I do? Okay. You know, take food costs down another 5% or, or, you know, cut, you know, cut, cut, cut a couple of labor. I can't do that. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, no, I got to work harder. Of course you gotta work harder. You gotta work hard no matter what, you know? I mean, you know, things like this, you know, you know, I'm saying, you know, oh, we got, I do got to make sure we're more efficient. Make more.

[00:31:16] You should be doing all that no matter what. Uh, so it happens. Um, I'm not happy about it, but you know, hopefully we'll, you know, we'll survive it. Yeah. Tell me about the new restaurants. So it's in, um, it's the first one I'm opening in Markham. Uh, it's in Markham. Oh, very cool. Markham. Uh, or downtown Markham. Yep. So, um, we're right by the carousel. Uh, it's called Leo.

[00:31:45] Uh, because originally my partner wanted a Singaporean restaurant. So it was going to call Leo and I said, look, you know, let's not, let's just make it Pan Asian. Uh, and I'm learning now more and more that, you know, your basic Cantonese or Chinese, you know, Cantonese cuisine. Sometimes you need a lot more diversity on the flavors, you know, sometimes Cantonese cuisine,

[00:32:09] which is, you know, the original cuisine that came into, came into a lot of countries. Um, it's now not enough in terms of taste profile. So it's Pan Asian. Uh, so Singaporean flavors include it's called Leo. So, um, and it's, it's, you know, I have the decor is more like a, I've used a Rembrandt or, and I use, uh, Van Gogh.

[00:32:38] So I use Van Gogh as an inspiration. So the bar looks like Starry Story Night upstairs. It's my wife's favorite painting. Oh, fantastic. Well, you must bring her. I will. I plan to. We actually live near Markham. So that's fantastic. It's nice to hear a restaurant opening. Yeah. It's not always downtown. And upstairs is sunflower, which is my favorite painting. I love sunflower. I love Van Gogh.

[00:33:00] He always is not, uh, and, uh, and it's sunflower because when I look at a sunflower, it looks like a lion. It looks like a lion. So, uh, Hence the name Leo. Yeah. And it's, it's Pan Asian flavors. So, you know, we have all kinds of starters. So you, you, you have, we call it a seafood and chop house. Okay. So, uh, you have, um, and we want to make it a set menu. So it's easy. You go in the set menu.

[00:33:30] You don't have to, you know, you know what to expect, you know, the price. So you start off, we have a lot of, we have about, you know, eight, nine starters for you to choose from. Um, uh, your, your office says, you know, crab cake and French onion soup. And we have, uh, ceviche and, and, you know, tatan and all kinds of things for Asian flavors, a little bit of Asian flavors.

[00:33:55] And then, and then for the, and then you get a choice of lobster or steak or lobster and steak. So it's like a surf and turf. Yeah. So, you know, so, so it's easy. It's easy. So the only, we keep lobster steak and, and some fish. Okay. Are you always thinking about opening new restaurants or do these opportunities just sort of come your way and you go, you know what? I'm always thinking about the market.

[00:34:20] I'm always thinking about the market and what is driving it and what, as you say, you know, what is the next, what is the next, what is, what it's gotta be. You want to be ahead, but if you're ahead, you take a risk. Okay. So you're doing something nobody has done. Mm-hmm . You're taking a risk or you can try to follow somebody else idea, but change it slightly

[00:34:49] making your own, but you're, you're, you're slightly behind. Yep. Or you can copy exactly what somebody else is doing, except try to make it better or make it more efficient, cheaper or whatever, a different location. Mm-hmm . But then you risk that, you know, you will not have a lot of competition. Yep. So I'm always thinking about possible projects and you know, the good thing is, you know,

[00:35:17] I, I, I do have a reputation of, uh, I do have a brand. I do have a following. So for me to get investment. Easy. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's not difficult. Mm-hmm . Uh, but then I say to myself, wow, and then why not, you know, just open everything you can think of. But then I say, you know, if I don't make any money from, from the investments, I don't, I'm not rewarded. I'm rewarded. I'm not rewarded.

[00:35:47] So I'm wasting my time. So I am very, you know, you can come to me and say, Hey, uh, I want to open a restaurant. I'm going to give you 25%. Okay. I'll, uh, you fund it all. Okay. I, this, these offers are, these are all offered to me left and right. But I say, I'm not interested. And the reason I, even though, you know, free money and all this, I'm not interested because I, there's a responsibility for me to make it work. The chances of this working, the reputation, more, I'm just the time, time.

[00:36:16] It's, you know, like it takes me almost a year of my time or, you know, to, to, to open the restaurant. I don't want to waste my time. All right. Uh, because, you know, if it comes to nothing, that to me is a lot of money. It's a loss for me. It's a loss for, even though I didn't lose any of my money, but I wasted my time. I could have done something else. You know, I, I could have done an opportunity. So there, there's a, there's a, you know, there's one thing that I, I am working on right now.

[00:36:45] I can't tell you yet, but it's not, it's a, it's a restaurant and, and, and, you know, and, and, and other things put together, of course, it involves food. And I think that is the next, the next coming, the next, and, and it's to stay like, you know, the next coming up. You know, one thing, just for example, you go, you know, all right. You speak, you go, you know, to go to a restaurant, you know, people used to drink cocktail and then wine got in there.

[00:37:11] Everybody started to get into wine and then gets back to cocktail again. Right. You saw that, you know, cocktail in the seventies, in the sixties, it was all cocktail in the, in the eighties, nineties, 2000 went to wine now. And then 2000, it goes back to cocktail and now it goes to nobody wants to drink anymore. Yeah. You know, like the alcohol sales has been down and not just, not just from Canada, everywhere in the world. Why do you think that is? Okay.

[00:37:40] Because I think the new, the new generation, they don't, they don't like drinking. They don't like drinking. Um, I think that, you know, they want to be more healthy or they don't like the taste of alcohol, but a lot of the young don't drink and wine sales is going down. Every, every year, wine sales goes down double digits. Okay. So, you know, 10%, 20% sooner or later, you know, but you know, I mean, I'm not saying

[00:38:07] it's going to go out of fashion, but you know, it's, it's, it's, you know, the, the, the very expensive, the, the fine wine sale always survive because it's simple economics. If the demand outweighs the supply, okay. For certain labels, then they're safe. Yeah. But for the rest, I'm sorry. Okay. It's an interesting time that we're in as things are moving. I've noticed that too, a shift in the way people behave, what they eat, what they drink.

[00:38:35] And you know, they always say, ah, it's the economy, it's the economy. That's a stupid thing to say. Okay. It's not the economy. No, I think it's a genuine movement or change in how people. They're moving for change because, you know, during COVID no money was destroyed. Yeah. More money was created. Yeah. Okay. So they say, ah, it's the economy, economy. I think it's people's confidence, people's, you know, and sometimes, you know, it's peer pressure that makes you want to go to certain restaurants.

[00:39:05] And to, to, you know, and I noticed, you know, in the old days, you know, even dates are getting cheaper now, you know? Well, I mean, the old days, you know, you know, you got to spend so much on flowers. You got to spend so much on, on, on, on, on the meal and all that. I think now, nowadays, you know, they're more comfortable. I wish I was, I wasn't.

[00:39:37] I wasn't. You know? I think we're doing a soft opening on the 14th. Okay. But I think it's friends and family only. So don't go running to see me. And after that, I think we would be ready though. So it'll be near the end of the month. I cannot give you a date because, you know, it's not, it's, it's not running a hundred percent

[00:40:03] smooth yet, but you know, we're not going to open until we were a hundred percent smooth. Yeah. So I would say, you know, well, I'd love to check the place out once it's ready. Please please. It sounds like it's going to be incredible. Yes. And, uh, anytime you put your mind or touch on something, it always ends up incredible akin being an example of that. So congratulations again on the star. Thank you. Congratulations on the new spot. I can't wait to check it out and thank you so much for coming back. No, it's always great. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Please, I want to show you all the way.