Ever thought about opening up a restaurant? Or maybe you already have one on the verge of crumbling?

How to Run a Great Restaurant, an event, organized by tenthousandLi and sponsored by the likes of Hardrock Café, E & O, Garuda Indonesia, and Luna Negra provided us with insights to answer those questions.

Held in a sophisticated setting, Luna Negra, and led by Vita Datau from the Indonesian Gastronomy Academy, a talented industry panel delivered to us deep thoughts, ideas and touching experiences regarding the restaurant industry.

Will Meyrick,  the owner of three highly successful restaurants in Indonesia; Sarong and Mamasan in Bali, and Eastern & Oriental, (E&O) in Jakarta, speaks up about his struggle and how his restaurant establishments came to be.

Originally from Scotland, Will dropped out of school at the age of 15. He moved to Australia and landed a job in a restaurant. His passion for food began here, and so did his passion for Asian culture.

Working his way up to managerial position, he decided it was time to start his own venture. Will travelled extensively around Asia exploring its most remote villages in the pursuit of authentic Asian dishes and to understand the culture in greater depth.

While the current trend in Indonesia is to focus on bringing western style cuisine and modern decor to Jakarta, Will does the complete opposite. He instead brings authentic food from remote villages by spending days in local families kitchens, exploring cheap local stalls, and tracing old family recipes to its deepest roots.

Will also has an eye for people. He realizes the importance of passion and determination to learn and swears you do not always have to recruit the most qualified people. One of his head Chef’s came from a small village in Bali with no qualifications. His hunger to learn is what has made him head Chef of one of Jakarta’s most popular restaurant.

The authenticity of the food and the people he recruits from his travels is what truly sets him apart from other restaurateurs and is what he believes has made him a success.

The funny and entertaining man that he is, it’s no surprise he is also a host of his own TV show, Street Food Chef.

The next in line to speak was Christian Schild. With over 50 years experience working in restaurant and catering in the hotel industry, there is almost no question this man can’t answer. He stresses that people who create restaurants with minimal involvement can expect a failure rate of about 99.9%.

Speakers also included operations manager of Hard Rock Café, Paulus Pangabean, exposing a new Hard Rock establishment recently built in Pacific Place Jakarta. He also shares his thoughts on restaurant concept, authenticity, extreme passion, and more hard work.

Social Media expert Marsyellino Cambey spoke on the importance of the Internet to brand your restaurant. The new world of social media and the likes of twitter, instagram and facebook are slowly taking over our society and are to be given attention. One trick in his book is to hire university students specifically for social media to cut costs and raise awareness.

Questions were asked towards the end, giving greater insight into the audience’s reason for attendance. Most of the attendees were either restaurant owners, restaurant managers, or people looking to start a restaurant.

Great insight and one on one conversations with experienced restaurateurs as well as networking with fellow restaurateurs is what made this event a success.

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Text: Amanda Cole

Images: tenthousandLi, Thorsten Schmitt, Pavel L Photo and Video, Denys Prykhodov/Shutterstock