A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

BMW Friend of the Brand, multi-Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton reckons he wasn’t the most talented, but was the most determined. He explains how planning, sacrifice, obsession and hard work are the foundation of success in business. 

WHEN YOU WERE WORKING YOUR WAY UP, YOU WORKED FOR SOME OF THE BEST CHEFS IN THE BUSINESS. HOW DID YOU LEARN FROM THEM?

I suppose I'm now more than halfway through my career, and I reminisce a little bit on what we've done and where we've been, who we've worked for and what we've achieved here. But I was quite strategic in the way I went about my career. 

All the chefs I went to work for I did so for very specific reasons. So Pierre Koffmann, for example, he's absolutely known for great flavour first and foremost, while presentation comes last, and that's a philosophy I always stick to even today. 

Then with somebody like Marco Pierre-White, it was all about perfection: how can we be the most perfect restaurant in the UK, in every way. Or when I went to France, it was to lay a foundation of classic cuisine, the fundamentals of sauces, roasting, baking. It all sounds basic but you have to learn from people who have mastered their art and then take those elements on yourself. 

What strikes me is the sacrifices and choices that you have to make, in order to progress, and that when you make those sacrifices – changing jobs, moving to another country – it’s important to understand why you've made them, that they're not impulsive, and not just because you want to put a shiny name on a CV. 

During your career, whatever your chosen thing is – a doctor or cook, in finance or property – you should set your own timelines and plan accordingly so you work with people that broaden your understanding. And you should also be self-critical: if there’s an area of expertise you don’t have find somebody who does and go and learn from them. 

DID YOU ALWAYS PLAN TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS?

So many people today are in this crazy rush and you know there's a good chance that you're going to be here for 70 or 80 years. Why are you in such a hurry? I was in no rush to start my own business. But when I did I knew exactly what I was going to do, and how to do it. 

I don’t think there was there anybody more determined than me in the kitchens I worked in. I wasn't the most talented chef. But I was determined, and I said I'll have my own restaurant when I'm the complete cook: when I can bake, when I can do bread, when I can cook fish or meat properly, and when my sauces are immaculate. 

But it’s not just cooking. There’s the business aspect too, and one of the reasons for that was I’d worked for Gordon Ramsay. He was a master at everything and it was like a business university for me. When I went into Gordon's management team, there was so much to learn: the financial side, writing rotas, P&L, the media, and I realised that Gordon was the best in the business at all of this. He made fine dining profitable, and it was notoriously hard to do that. 

So although we were heavily leveraged when we started Pollen Street Social, and essentially had to start making a profit pretty much straight away, I knew how to do it and what to do, thanks to what Gordon had taught me. 

YOUR BUSINESS HAS TREMENDOUSLY HIGH STANDARDS. HOW DO YOU KEEP THOSE STANDARDS?

By being obsessed! Most successful people in the world are obsessed. I know I am. And then you have to absolutely love the world you are in. For me it is cooking, but it can be anything. In order to have that drive you need to immerse yourself in whatever world you choose and learn everything there is to know about it. If you're not obsessed by being the best, you will not reach the highest summits. 

YOUR ETHOS “IS TO DO BETTER TOMORROW THAN I DID TODAY.” HOW DOES THAT WORK IN PRACTICE?

I like it as a mantra because it's really simple to put across to everyone in the group, and it also works in two really useful ways. 

If you've had a really amazing service and you're full of adrenaline when you go into work the next day, you can say, yes, we had a fantastic day yesterday but we could have maybe just done that thing a little bit better, we could have sold an extra bottle of wine on table 12, or served that meal marginally more efficiently. So that’s a really positive message about little details in order to improve excellence. 

But then there’s the flip side. You’ve had a really bad day, got problems at home, things haven’t gone right, and it has that optimistic tone that yesterday is gone, and no matter what has happened, make today a better and more positive experience. A lot of companies try to over-complicate this kind of message, but short and sweet works for us. 

HOW DO YOU SPOT NEW TALENT? 

Every now and again I get one come through my kitchens and I grab them, and I'm like, you're like a unicorn. These are the people I get excited about because they're the next generation of amazing young people. 

When I was growing up, there were hundreds of them, willing to work on their days off, in other people's restaurants, for free. Just to get extra knowledge. And when you see one of those people, you hold on to them, because they might not always have the talent, but they have the dedication and attitude. 

It’s like David Beckham. Everyone sees this multi-millionaire jetting round the world, but what they don’t see is when he was at Man Utd’s academy still practising in the dark, long after everyone had left, and having to be told to go home. He wasn’t born David Beckham the footballer. So I look for that in young people, but it’s hard because many see all the upsides all the time on social media, and think there are shortcuts. But there aren’t. 

I realised at a very young age that I was never going to be a great chef overnight, it was going to take me a long time because I wasn't naturally gifted. I look like I know what I’m doing now, and it comes so naturally, but that is years and years of honing my craft, non-stop, and I’m doing it still today.