• 2 days ago
Read the full story here:

See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Transcript
00:00You know what? Okay, I'm gonna open the best restaurant. I'm gonna hire a really good chef.
00:03And of course, I love to talk so I aced the interview like no tomorrow.
00:07So and then they're like, okay, John, let's open a restaurant. I was like, okay, let's do it.
00:12I was like, okay, so how do we do this?
00:20So my name is John Bonaventura. I am a professional chef.
00:24Well, I need to stop saying I'm a professional chef. I'm a chef by heart.
00:28I've been in the UAE for a good 17 years now. Well, yeah, turning 18 years.
00:34When I got here, I said I was gonna stay for one year.
00:37One year became two years, three years, four years. I left the UAE at some point,
00:41but I also came back for some reason. UAE just kept on pulling me back and,
00:46you know, giving opportunities here and there. So it started when I was a kid,
00:49I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was very good in drawing. I was
00:53being very creative. I was always failing math, science, chemistry was a headache,
01:02but I was always good at physical education, arts, and music. And back in the day,
01:08if you show that to your parents, they don't really like it.
01:11Culinary studies were still very new and very expensive and my family couldn't really afford it.
01:17So I applied for any scholarship or whatever. Of course, I didn't get it
01:20because there was math questions in the scholarship. So eventually I failed.
01:26So I still went. I remember my dad and my mom told me,
01:30John, is this what you really like? Because if this is what you really like,
01:33we're gonna really work hard and get the money to pay for the culinary studies for you.
01:38I said, yeah, I like it. After culinary school, after the honors and everything,
01:42I graduated. At the same time, I met this Chinese girl who was, I think,
01:50she was about to inherit the fortune of the family, but she was the eldest.
01:55And I think the father wanted to kind of like teach her a lesson wherein I'm gonna give you
02:01the money and run a business, get the feel of it and experience or whatever.
02:06So this girl, you know, okay, I'm gonna open the best restaurant. I'm gonna hire a really good
02:10chef. And of course, I love to talk. So I aced the interview like no tomorrow.
02:14So and then they're like, okay, John, let's open a restaurant. I was like, okay, let's do it.
02:19I was like, okay, so how do we do this? So I started drawing the layout of the kitchen on a
02:25paper and I patterned it to the culinary school. But at the end of the day, it really didn't work
02:30because I had no clue what I was doing. I said, you know what, I think the Philippines is a bit
02:34too small. So luckily, at that time, Intercontinental in Dubai Festival City was
02:41hiring for its pre-opening back in 2007. So I got an interview. Obviously, in my CV,
02:48it was written Executive Chef because I was so proud, right? And then the one who interviewed
02:52me, I remember he's one of a good leader or mentor that I had before. His name is Christian
02:59Tner. He's German. He's now, I think, working for Marriott. I think he's the Senior Director
03:03of Culinary. And then he interviewed me not because he could interview anyone he wants.
03:10He interviewed me because he thought my CV was so funny. Like, how can you be an Executive Chef
03:16at 18 years old? And we were talking about it. And then it was like, so what do you do? And I
03:20was so arrogant and I was bragging. He's like, okay, I'm going to give you a position. Yeah,
03:25for sure. Executive Chef. No, a commie position. I was like, okay, fine. No worries. But I'm going
03:31to show you what I can do. So before these chefs nowadays have opened their restaurant,
03:36I opened it in 2016, same time as Akmal with three fills. And Chef Mohammed supported me a
03:44lot. Chef Mohammed, he was there in the restaurant every time. It was a struggle. So the restaurant
03:48was open for a good almost one year, but I had to fold because there was no more money anymore.
03:53It came to the point, I was selling everything. I even sold my car to pay for my vegetables for
03:59the next month because I didn't really have any money. And then one day, I got a call from my
04:06restaurant manager. I said, John, are you coming to work? I said, yeah, I'm coming now.
04:09Why? One local guy came here, CID or something. Okay, what did he do? No, he told me to open the
04:16restaurant and he checked the place and then he made some calls. He was speaking Arabic, I didn't
04:20understand. And I had the gut feel already because for the last couple of weeks, that was the time
04:24when Sheikh Fazal was going to different restaurants in Business Bay. I was like dreaming,
04:29maybe he would come. Maybe he'll come. So I went there and then the CID was there. And then I said,
04:35As-salamu alaykum, can I offer you a coffee? I said, can I do anything for you? You will see
04:41what I will do here in this restaurant. But the guy was always coming to our restaurant a few
04:45times. I said, okay, what's happening? And then my God, I had only three staff at that time.
04:51G63s rolled in in Steigenberger, like two or three of them. I was like, oh my God,
04:55it was so surreal. It was like, what do I do? What do I do? Okay, wait, switch on the barbecue grill.
05:00It's not open. And we didn't know if he was going to go to our restaurant because we thought he was
05:06going to check out the hotel or whatever. Sheikh Fazal went outside of the G63, went straight and
05:11then he was looking for the restaurant. And then I went upstairs to the second floor. I was like,
05:16what do I do? What do I do? And like 12 locals came in. I was so proud and I was so happy. I
05:23was shaking. I was cooking. I was just in my shorts and my rubber shoes because the restaurant's not
05:27open yet. And he sat outside. We cooked, but I didn't get time to actually talk to him and
05:33really introduce myself because no one was cooking. It was three of us. But that was amazing. And I
05:40really appreciated, that's why I love Dubai so much. They really support you in whatever
05:46endeavors you do. And I think they really understand how difficult it is to run a business
05:51here. So when that happened, so after that, so they left, we had the photos. It's like,
05:58can you pinch me? What happened? Because I really think he's the only true celebrity in Dubai that
06:03people really look at and follow. And I love him. Whatever he does, these extreme sports and
06:10the way he sees, it's just amazing. Anyway, so that happened. So after that,
06:16we can breathe. So I was having my coffee and then all of my team, and then the staff started
06:22to come out. Thanks guys for turning up early at work. News picked up, Filipino Times picked up,
06:28picked it up, and I think other publications picked up. And then after that, people started
06:35coming in the place. We're like, bam, bam, bam. Our sales was the highest. We broke even a bit
06:44more during that month he was there. So it was so good. It was so good. But again, it was only
06:50breaking even. We were not making profit yet. But if we didn't owe a lot of money to our suppliers
06:57or the backlog of rent and everything, and if we were okay, we would have still survived. The
07:03problem was we were already so behind that we didn't have any more cash flow to pump in the
07:08restaurant to keep it going. And what happens is, and it's a hard death for any restaurant,
07:14quality starts to go down. Before you were using really big prawns, now you end up using smaller
07:20prawns, which as a chef, it hurts me. But I couldn't manage it anymore. I think one of the
07:28points that I really took from that is I hired people who are not better than me. I thought that
07:36I had to be the best amongst everyone. And I think I thought I had to be the most intelligent person
07:43in the room, which was wrong. Because at the end of the day, I was wearing all the hats all
07:47together. And it ended up that no one was challenging me. There were days that I really
07:54didn't sleep. I was sick. I was really sick. A lot of times I was like pulling myself together.
08:00There were only a few people who really was there beside me throughout that hard time. Eventually,
08:06it closed down. And I could give up and just forget about it, leave this and start a new bit.
08:12Dubai has been very nice to me. And I think it's unfair for myself and unfair for the people who
08:19believe in me if I'm just going to run away and give up. And that really pushed me
08:26to be better. After one year, I'm very thankful for the Hilton team, especially the
08:33corporate office, like especially Emma Banks, Christian Granitzer, who's now working with
08:39Ricas Group and Chef Sebastian. They actually gave me the opportunity to open Hilton Abu Dhabi
08:46Island. So I went to Abu Dhabi. That was COVID. I successfully opened Hilton Abu Dhabi Island,
08:51which is an amazing property. If you go there now, I'm so proud of it. This is like my baby.
08:57I poured a lot of love and effort to that place and I really got the confidence.
09:02The team there was so good as well. My GM was amazing. His name is Matthew Mullen.
09:07He's now in Hilton in London in Park Lane. So we did well there. And then after a good two years,
09:16I had the opportunity for Emirates. I still feel the times where you're sad, you're low in
09:26the struggles that you had. But sometimes you need to kind of like stop and take a look back and like,
09:31John, you see where you were before and where you are going now, you know?
09:35And things are progressing the right way, right? And one day things will happen.