Word by Isabelle Wright.
When we sat down recently to interview Mourad Mazouz during the Muzungu Sisters’ press launch at Momo, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The larger and more successful an empire one owns, the more we expect the frantic, money-driven businessman. With Mourad, nothing could be further from the truth. Dressed all in black and promptly announcing his return from Monaco, the Algerian-born restauranteur displays an innate elegance that unfortunately the British all too often seem to lack. We couldn’t help but wonder what he thinks of the potbellied, beer-swigging, Union Jack wearing natives of the country in which he has had so much success.
He is the type of silver haired gent one would expect to find in the corner of some dark piano bar, cigar firmly in hand, barely visible through a cloud of thick smoke. He does in fact remind us of the Dos Equis beer male pin up, whom they touted for a whole year, as the ‘Most Interesting Man in the World’.
Whilst he may not achieve quite so lofty a title, Mourad certainly does not disappoint once he begins spilling the beans. Leaving Algeria at fifteen Mourad didn’t play the part of the teenage gap year student, staying in youth hostels and acquiring causes to fight for, only to, on his return, bore his mates discussing carbon footprints and the third world.
Instead he worked on a yacht in Indonesia, found the world’s most amazing parties in India and eventually settled – for a short while at least – in Paris, where (funded by four friends) he opened Au Bascou, his first bistro. When we asked what had prompted the venture, we expected a line on his all-consuming passion for food or restaurants; instead the answer was far simpler and more unassuming.
“I had run out of money, and all I wanted to do was keep travelling, and that was the way I saw to continue”.
Mourad talks quickly and animatedly, filled with emotion he barely stops for breath. And nor would you want him to. More a sage than a restauranteur, he doles out quotes too quickly to write, even in shorthand.
It’s hard not to wish you were a part of the whirlwind of passion he describes. Indeed it was a beautiful woman he fell for, who finally drew him to London – a theme, which seems to run through many of his ventures – in which he follows friends and lovers around the world.
It was one such friend who led him to open an establishment in Selfridges (the dashing Italian Mourad describes, was manager at the time). Yet when he left, so too did Mourad, making it the only restaurant he has ever closed down. Clearly Mourad’s mantra of “when you have good ideas, people will follow” works both ways.
Arguably Mourad’s greatest success is Sketch, the Michelin starred restaurant he owns on London’s Conduit Street. If you have yet to visit it (and we seriously urge you too) it’s unlikely that you haven’t heard of the infamous egg toilets, complete with farmyard or sexual sound effects, depending on what month it is. Unflappable as ever, Mourad rose above the acerbic criticism he was met with, with barely a wave of his hand.
“When we first opened the critics hated us. The Guardian rated us 0/20, GQ wrote we had “no future”, one review even described our menu as “dogfood”. The turning point was A.A Gill who writes for the Times, he gave us our first good review. After that, things started to change.”
Why the critics were so quick to tear down Sketch is hard to imagine, surely it was not just Pierre Gagniere’s food. Maybe it’s because (at the time) the newly found title of Britain’s ‘Most Expensive Restaurant’ was what had the critics baulking, or maybe it was the slightly too ethereal presence of the bathrooms coated in crystal. Whatever the reason for the initial cold reception, the critics have warmed (considerably) and Sketch retains it’s incredibly loyal following, and also still maintains that original novelty that many found so fascinating.
“We still have London tour buses driving down Conduit Street, and you can hear in the parlour the tour guide announce “and on your left is Britain’s most expensive restaurant”. The tourists all get their cameras out at that point – it’s quite a sight”
However the furor that surrounded that title is still something Mourad finds a little baffling.
“In England people will pay £400 maybe £500 to see a football match, charge that for food and they will be screaming. It shouldn’t be about the price, but that at the end of the night you can say, you had a good evening? Was it worth it?”
That’s not to say Mourad believes the price of a meal at Sketch’s lecture room should be de riguer, “it’s not somewhere you go to eat every week. The lecture room is something apart from that. It’s the place you go to celebrate something incredibly special, an engagement for example.”
The success of one venture though is not enough to keep Mourad tied down.
“Money and business do not drive me. They never have. I don’t care how many hours I work in a day but I also don’t know what I’ll be doing from one day to the next. I have passion for nothing and everything.”
This evolution of Mourad’s seems constant; he is currently in the process of starting another restaurant in Abu Dhabi.
“It will be non-alcoholic, there are so many places there for the tourists and I thought it would be fun to think about the locals and their needs.”
Through all the successes, if a failure were ever to emerge I doubt it would much affect Mourad.
“Life will pass by quickly if you spend your time looking back. Never regret your choices. Life is simply about doing what we can with what we have”. Well said.
