How much would you pay to hear tips on how to become successful from one of the 100 most influential people worldwide? Would you pay an extra premium if the guidelines came from the only chef in the list?
Brazilian superstar chef Alex Atala shared tips on how to achieve success in a conference organized by Sebrae, The Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small Enterprises, in Mogi Mirim, a small town nearby Sao Paulo, Brazil’s financial capital.
Before the highlights of the conference hosted at the headquarters of ACIMM, Mogi Mirim’s Commercial and Industrial Association, a short introduction on Alex Atala:
Alext Atala is a renowed chef and the owner of Sao Paulo based restaurants “Dalva e Dito” and D.O.M. – the sixth best restaurant in the world, which has been in the list of the world’s best restaurants for the past eight years. During his speech, Atala revealed he became a chef almost by accident. After an errant past as a punk rocker, DJ and party animal, he moved to Europe. While working in construction in Belgium, Atala engaged in a cooking course to get a visa and extend his stay in the old continent. Atala is very active, he is the President of the Association of Professional Cookery Brazil (APC – Brazil) and also responsible for the brand Portraits of Taste (Retratos do Gosto), which promotes regional ingredients grown by smallholders farmers. The day after this speech in Mogi Mirim, he also talked at NewCitiesSummit in Sao Paulo. Recently, Atala made international headlines because of a mistake in the drawing ceremony of FIFA’s Confederations Cup, which starts this weekend in Brazil.
Below is a compilation of the words of wisdom from South America’s most famous chef Alex Atala:
Recognize the power of routine
“My mom loved her dog and thought it was intelligent. However, the dog was only conditioned. Human beings are intelligent, but we are also conditioned! We do way too many things on the automatic mode. Develop the best routines and stick to it.”
“You don’t need to be smart to make money. You need to have plenty of ideas to be smart but you can be stupid and still make a lot of money. The only way to achieve greatness is to do the exact same thing everyday. To achieve perfection you must have the right routine.”
Costs are like nails, cut them every week
“We have to be obsessive about costs. Costs are like nails, they always grow. We need to cut our nails weekly. Similarly, we should also dedicate time to cut costs periodically. Be on the top of every small costs at your business but be careful with stupid saving.”
Training is key to success
“One of my most famous dishes is Aligot. The recipe is so simple that it could easily be done by a child. [Watch a video of Atala preparing it here]. But the service is perfect. We turned a simple recipe into an unforgettable experience. One may wonder, “Oh, so the waiter is great!” No he is not. He just has a chef that orders him to practice tirelessly until he masters that skill. Training is the key to success.”
Creativity is Essential
“Creativity is not to do what nobody does. It’s to do something everyone does but nobody expects.”
“The first time I eat foie grass, I did not like. In fact, I did not enjoy neither whisky nor caviar the first time I tried them. I needed to first develop my taste before being able to appreciate those things. Work diligently, do your homework and develop your tastes before expecting to become creative.”
Have clear rules for EVERYONE
“The three golden rules at D.O.M. restaurant are: Do not run, do not stop, and do not talk. To build teams with clear rules is fundamental.”
Be Attentive to Details
“D.O.M. opened its doors 14 years ago. I still have some of the same frying pans of its first day. I teach my team to never slam the door of the fridge. Why? To do that once is not a problem but 300 times could break that down. Don’t forget to be careful and attentive to details, it will only save you unnecessary costs.”
Be True to yourself
“In my restaurants, I have never placed an item in the menu only because I believed people would like it. Do not try to do something only because it sells. If your product or service is excellent, it will attract its public. Don’t go after the public, do your best and the public will surely come after you.”
Atala’s words remind me of Steve Jobs, “Customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them” as well as Henry Ford, “’If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”‘
Perfectionism sells
“I don’t bother paying an expensive price for any raw material. But I want a perfect product. It is not hard to do what nobody does. It is hard to do what everyone does but better. Once you deliver a perfect product/service, money will come to you.”
forbes.com
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