This Valentine’s Day, we celebrate love in all its forms by getting up close and personal with the couples who jointly run some of the best restaurants and bars on the planet. Here’s how to run a successful business and keep the love alive
Ask any chef or bartender with a venue on the 50 Best lists and they will always tell you that the secret to success is their team. Running a restaurant or bar – opening it, managing it and making it sustainable – is a stressful business, and being surrounded by a trusted and supportive team is essential. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that many of the world’s most successful food and drink personalities choose to share their life-long dreams, passions and challenges with the same partners they have decided to share their lives with.
Almost a quarter of the restaurants voted on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 list, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, are run by couples. Everywhere from Säo Paulo to Tokyo, California to Barcelona, chefs and bartenders are getting into bed with their better halves – and consistently making it work. Despite this, the spotlight all too often appears to fall on the male half of these duos.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, and to promote the work so many women are doing behind the scenes at these world-beating restaurants and bars every day, we asked 14 power couples about their secrets to harmony and how they keep the love alive through the highs and lows of running a hospitality business. Here are their recipes for success.
Couples who work together stay together
Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, Dante
When asked about the pros and cons of working with their romantic partners, the response was overwhelmingly positive. “It is the best decision we ever made,” says Nathalie Hudson, who, with her partner Linden Pride, runs Dante, No.1 in the list of The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019. “There has not been a day that I have ever regretted it or looked back. Honestly, the worst thing is that I wish we had decided to do it sooner.”
“The good side of working with Janaína is that she brings me such strength and balance to follow my career,” says Jefferson Rueda, chef-owner of A Casa do Porco in Säo Paulo, Brazil, which debuted at No.39 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list 2019. “She never holds back in helping me with everything I need. The bad side of working with her is... I can’t name even a single one, because all I’ve ever had by her side is success.”
Janaína and Jefferson Rueda, A Casa do Porco
For many couples, working together is also a way to spend more time in each other’s company, especially in a profession where hours are long and shifts finish late. Chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pía León took this to the next level when they moved their restaurant in Lima, Peru to a new building in 2018, where they also integrated their family home as well as León’s own restaurant, Kjolle, and cocktail bar, Mayo. “The best thing is that we have more time together, we do what we are passionate about and share it with each other,” says Martínez.
“We share our passion for cooking and we share our knowledge, ideas and dreams. Virgilio is an important support for me, because he understands everything that goes through my mind since we live in the same element,” adds León.
Although the jet-setting chef couple are in high demand and often travelling around the world, pulling everything under one roof allowed them to create a routine with their four-year-old son, Cristóbal. “Whenever we are both in Lima, we always have lunch together with our son, without exception,” says Martínez. “He is part of our world and often visits us at the restaurant, so that we can take advantage of any free moment to spend time with him,” concludes León.
Pía León and Virgilio Martínez, Central and Kjolle
Heading north to Healdsburg, California, another couple basks in the extra time they’ve been able to spend together as a result of opening their own restaurant. SingleThread, which won the Miele One To Watch Award at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018 and is ranked No.71 in the current list, is the result of the joint efforts of Katina Connaughton as farmer and Kyle Connaughton as chef. “After working separately for so long and living chefs’ hours versus farmers’ hours, it's been such a pleasure these past few years to be able to work so closely together,” highlights Kyle.
“We’ve been together since we were 15 and working together is wonderfully rewarding, yet also challenging at times as we experience joy and hardship in equal measure,” adds Katina. “So we strive to be present for each other and anticipate one another’s needs. Sometimes, a lovingly prepared, late-night grilled cheese and a warm hug can refuel us in the best of ways.”
Keeping the spark alive among pots and glasses
It is often said that distance can help a relationship thrive, as each partner focuses on themselves and their own improvement. So, how does it work for couples who spend most of their life together – how do they keep the flame alive?
Monica Berg and Alex Kratena, Tayēr + Elementary
“I think the first step to working with your partner – or even anyone – is to acknowledge that we are all human, and it’s human to make mistakes,” says Monica Berg, the winner of the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award at The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019 and co-owner of Tayēr + Elementary in London, UK, with her partner Alex Kratena. “There’s no point in holding a grudge and there’s no room for ego. At the very core, you should always seek to give people the benefit of the doubt and remember that there’s a reason why they are with you in the first place. It’s easy to assume that those who love you will always forgive you – and maybe they will, but it doesn’t mean you should exploit it.”
At the same time, it’s important to not let the excitement of the honeymoon phase of a relationship go, no matter how long it’s been. The Connaughtons know this well, as they have been a couple ever since they were in high school. “After almost 30 years of building this dream together, the best part for me is getting to admire Kyle in his element,” says Katina.
“As we were growing up together, my window into his culinary career was limited and we only saw each other very early in the morning and late in the evening. Now, running into him at the restaurant is very reminiscent of those starry-eyed high school days of catching a glimpse of him across the hall. Those heart-pounding feelings still run incredibly deep. And I mustn’t fail to mention those foggy-headed pillow talks about radish varieties!”
Kyle and Katina Connaughton, SingleThread
For some couples, the love is so palpable that other people pick up on it too. Alejandra Tagle, who is the designer and administration manager of Boragó, the restaurant in Santiago, Chile, ranked No.26 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019, recalls the time her partner Rodolfo Guzmán was launching a book about the restaurant. Guzmán was having lunch with a journalist to publicise his latest endeavour, when the journalist said there was something missing: where was Alejandra? “He realised that he didn’t want to write about the book – the real story behind Boragó was a love story,” she recalls.
Back in Peru, Martínez also highlights the importance of affection. “Love is the most important thing. If we always do things with love and respect, it is unlikely that difficulties will overwhelm us and damage our relationship,” he says. “We also understand that personal life and work aren’t separate – they make a single, healthy dynamic. Before, we thought that the work should stay in the restaurant, but the best thing that is happening to us these days is that we see the whole as a unit.”
Pink jobs, blue jobs
For so many of the couples running the world’s best restaurants and bars, the true secret towards working harmoniously is division of labour, alongside respect for the other person’s area of expertise. Nathalie Hudson of Dante puts it best: “In order to work well with your partner, there are four pivotal non-negotiables. You need to have respect for one another, so that you always have the other person's back; you need to have trust in one another, even if sometimes you may have made a different decision than the other person; there has to be total transparency and clear communication channels; and lastly, you need a shared common goal, which is your dream.”
May and Jordy Navarra, Toyo Eatery
In the Philippines, Jordy and May Navarra have been running Toyo Eatery since 2016 – Jordy as the chef and May as the front of house manager. “We both have different and shared responsibilities, but we believe that respecting each other and the work we do are key to working well together,” says May. “We know for a fact that we’re on the same side and we only want what’s best for everyone, which helps keep things in perspective.”
The couple learnt this the hard way after an accident in the kitchen: “I tried cooking the staff meal once a few years back, and I ended up asking everyone in the kitchen and even front of house to help me with prep, forcing them all to stop their actual work,” laughs May. “I made a mess, but the food turned out great because of everyone’s help… but they never let me do the staff meal again.
“It was a lesson learned: knowing one’s limitations and appreciating your partner’s work help to work better together as a couple.”
Renato 'Tato' Giovannoni and Aline Vargas, Florería Atlántico
Division of labour is as important in bars as it is in restaurants, highlights Aline Vargas, one half of the team behind Florería Atlántico in Buenos Aires, Argentina, No.3 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019, together with husband Renato ‘Tato’ Giovannoni. “It’s essential for us that I don’t get into his area and he doesn’t get into mine,” she says. ”If there’s something to change or improve in the bar, we talk about it together before we lower the communication to the other ‘sailors’ (that’s what we call our family of employees), so that decisions are shared.”
Respect also means being able to be honest to each other and give the other person candid feedback, whether good or bad. Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores, who form the core team behind Mexico City restaurant Quintonil, make this a tenet of their relationship. “We receive feedback from each other in the best way, because we know that it comes from the heart,” explains Jorge. “We found that we have to be very honest with ourselves, give each other good feedback, listen and above all have well-defined roles and responsibilities in the restaurant.”
Alejandra Flores and Jorge Vallejo, Quintonil
Communicating without words
Another restaurant thriving on a husband-and-wife dynamic is Den in Tokyo, Japan, which most recently achieved the No.11 spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 list. Den is run in equal parts by Zaiyu Hasegawa in the kitchen and Emi Hasegawa in the front of house, as well as their much-loved pet and restaurant mascot, the chihuahua Puchi Jr. “The best thing about working as a couple is that we know each other so well that communication comes naturally, which is very important when managing a team,” says Emi.
Zaiyu and Emi Hasegawa, Den, with their team
“We also share the same idea of what kind of restaurant we want Den to be and how to serve our guests. It gives us the tacit understanding to support each other so that the service can run smoothly. Even with just a simple gesture from Zaiyu, I can understand how he would like me to support him and the kitchen.” Zaiyu and Emi’s communication runs so deep that when the chef has a cold, she steps in to taste the food he’s preparing, as she has developed a similar sense of taste as her husband over the 20 years they have worked together.
This type of communication can also be a catalyst for creativity in the creation of new food or drinks menus. This was the case for Italian bartender Giacomo Giannotti and his Venezuelan partner in crime, Margarita Sader, who together run Paradiso in Barcelona. “We talk a lot about what happens in the bar, about the service, about creativity or cocktail flavours,” says Giannotti. “Once, we were at MoMa [Museum of Modern Art] in New York, and we saw a light book that became the inspiration for the design of our cocktail menu.”
Giacomo Giannotti and Margarita Sader, Paradiso
At this moment in time, the hottest restaurant in the world is Mirazur – the venue in Menton, France, that was named The World’s Best Restaurant 2019, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. Chef Mauro and his wife Julia Colagreco find ways to make it work by striking a balance among the different aspects of the business. “Running a restaurant like Mirazur takes teamwork, a lot of communication and management,” says Mauro.
“What makes the success of our restaurant is not only the excellence of our cuisine – it is a global vision that takes into account several aspects. This is what has allowed us to evolve personally as well as in our business, and to continue to develop other projects for the years to come too. The key is respect for each other's work, passion, a lot of dialogue and above all love for what we do.”
Julia and Mauro Colagreco, Mirazur
Love and laughter, laughter and love
Shining through the couples’ reflections on their lives together is also a sense that beyond the daily chores and the routine of running a restaurant or bar, they love what they do. “When I come out of the kitchen at night after service and meet guests, they often call out: ‘Ah, here is the boss’,” says Heinz Reitbauer of Steirereck in Vienna, Austria, a regular on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. “My answer to that is always the same: no, I’m just the husband of the boss,” he laughs, referring to his wife Birgit, who runs the front of house.
He’s not the only one to share this philosophy, whether jovially or otherwise: Den’s Zaiyu Hasegawa says that Emi’s business card bears the job title of “Big Boss”, and Toyo Eatery’s Jordy Navarra says that he has replaced the saying that goes ‘the customer is always right’ with ‘the wife is always right – even more than the customer’. Jonnie and Thérèse Boer of restaurant De Librije in Zwolle, The Netherlands, make it a part of their motto: “Be happy and have a lot of fun with each other”.
Birgit and Heinz Reitbauer, Steirereck; Jonnie and Thérèse Boer, De Librije
Reflections of love
For all these couples, Valentine’s Day is about sharing their love with their customers – followed perhaps by an “intimate champagne toast after the service”, as practiced by the Colagrecos. But there is one couple for which this particular day means much more. “Valentine’s Day is a very special day for us, because it’s the day when we decided to work together,” says Rodolfo Guzmán of Boragó.
“It was a February 14th in the afternoon, and we were very happy because we had just signed the agreement for the space that was going to be Boragó. We were in the restaurant’s garden, when we looked in front of us and there was a mirror. We saw ourselves together and without talking, we understood that working together was our path. We stopped thinking and felt a great energy, which to this day is our core.
“Often, we find ourselves wondering what are we really doing, or what mess did we get into, but immediately and without thinking, together or separately, the image comes to us of our reflection in the garden, and everything starts again with that same energy.”
Rodolfo Guzmán and Alejandra Tagle, Boragó
‘50/50 is the new 50’ is a content series created by 50 Best and supported by S.Pellegrino with the shared aim of promoting equality, inclusivity and balance in the hospitality sector and beyond.
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