The culinary pioneer

Michelle Garnaut, the Australian founder and owner of the award-winning restaurants M at the Fringe in Hong Kong and M on the Bund in Shanghai, tells Colette Steckel about her success in the competitive restaurant business

Michelle Garnaut, has just spotted an enormous vase of flowers perched on a table at the entrance to her eponymous restaurant in Hong Kong. �These are just gorgeous,� she exclaims, cradling in her cupped hands a bright pink peony the size of a dinner plate. �Who arranged these then?� she asks her staff. Australian Mark Percy, the softly spoken executive chef, and head waiter Richie, two of the least likely flower arrangers I�ve ever come across, own up. They�ve been taking lessons from restaurant manager, Espen Harbitz, who, it seems, is something of an expert when it comes to flowers. �Espen offered to come in today to do the arrangements, but we told him we could handle it,� casually remarks Mark. �It took me ages to take the cellophane wrappers off the stems.� Michelle bursts out laughing. �I hope we don�t get any fights over the flower arranging,� she jokes. Not likely. Her loyal staff are as easy-going and unpretentious as the famous restaurant they work in. Which is probably why, after celebrating 12 years serving everyone from royalty and film stars to the man and woman on the street, M at the Fringe has such enduring appeal.

�I think M is successful because it�s consistent,� says Michelle. �What people want from restaurants are good service and good food at a good price. We�ve never been cheap but we�re not expensive either. Someone once asked me why don�t I put prices up as the restaurant is always packed? I won�t do that. We can�t be so expensive that people can only afford to eat here on a special occasion,� she adds. Michelle�s canny knack of understanding the market and the needs of her customers has ensured that she has a loyal following in Hong Kong, where diners regularly flock to her small and intimate dining room in the bustling district of Central. And, despite the fact that new restaurants open regularly in the city, M is holding off the competition remarkably well. �I think other restaurants that came to Hong Kong after we opened saw that there was a shift in the market; that people wanted a different experience from eating out.�

Michelle opened her restaurant in 1989, after spending months searching for a suitable site with her former partner. The couple found what they were looking for in the Dairy Farm Building, built in 1913, and one of the few historic landmarks left in Central. �Actually, I didn�t really have any great aspirations to open a restaurant,� confesses Michelle, �but my boyfriend, who was a cook, was keen to have his own place, so we did a lot of the groundwork together.� Shortly after finding the perfect spot above Hong Kong�s entertainment venue, the Fringe Club, Michelle�s partner fell ill and pulled out of the deal and Hong Kong, leaving Michelle to decide whether to go it alone. �I had spent a lot of time negotiating for the space and had worked really hard. I was 31 and I thought, well why not? I knew the restaurant would be a success,� notes Michelle, who financed the deal with a bank loan as well as investment from a sleeping partner and a handful of minority shareholders.

Enlisting the help of an architect and a painter, Michelle set about transforming her newly-acquired venue into a beautifully decorated dining room, with murals on the copper-coloured walls, seats and cushions covered in embroidered silk, wooden chairs with backs fashioned like musical instruments, and round tables draped in starched white tablecloths. �What was lacking in Hong Kong was a modern and sophisticated restaurant that was down-to-earth,� says Michelle. �Back then, there were either fancy hotel restaurants or pubs and Chinese diners. There was nothing in between.�

With its historic location, original décor, and modern, European cuisine, based on popular dishes from North Africa to Scandinavia, M became an instant hit. �It wasn�t a big step for me to run my own business,� notes Michelle. �I�m the eldest of nine children, so I�m naturally bossy. I don�t have a problem telling people what to do,� she adds. �But from a financial point of view, I had no idea what was going on.� Her first week of opening was a case in point. Without a credit card system in place, or a cash register set up, staff wrote bills by hand, which were duly paid in cash. �I was so busy, tired and stressed during that opening week that when I cashed up I would just put all the money in a black bag and lock it away in the restaurant. A few days later, my bank manager turned up asking why I hadn�t deposited the takings, so we emptied the black bag and counted it together.� She sighs at the memory. �I learnt a lot back then and fast.�

Michelle�s interest in food and catering began as a teenager, when she started part-time work as a waitress while at school in her home town of Melbourne. She continued her studies, going on to enrol at university but dropped out before finishing her degree to go travelling the world. She spent time living and working in the US and Europe, before returning to Australia, where she earned a qualification in catering. She then kicked off her career in food with a stint in the kitchens of a five-star hotel in Melbourne, where she was taught the minutiae of canapés and banqueting. �The chef was a fantastic woman. She taught me so much about cooking. My understanding of colour, food combinations and flavours was all learnt from that microscopic work,� says Michelle. Within a few years of qualifying, Michelle had broadened her cooking experiences as well as her horizons by working in a range of international kitchens and catering companies, eventually settling in Hong Kong in 1984. She hasn�t looked back since.

Next stop, Shanghai

With the success of Michelle�s restaurant in Hong Kong, combined with her fascination with Asia, it was perhaps inevitable that another M restaurant would be open before long. In 1993, Michelle started going back and forth between Singapore and Hong Kong to negotiate for a site for her next culinary venture. The deal fell through in 1996, which Michelle claims came as a relief. By then she had decided that Singapore wasn�t for her anyway. Shanghai, however, was a distinct possibility. A visit to the city with her general manager, Bruno van der Burg, who had been at M at the Fringe from its early beginnings, convinced her that there would be a market in Shanghai for a contemporary restaurant. To make sure, she did a guest-chef appearance at the landmark Peace Hotel in Shanghai, an experience she describes as a �complete nightmare�. �It was great way of testing the waters,� explains Michelle, �but it totally eliminated any notion I might have had about working with a state institution.�

Three years later, she opened M on the Bund, a large, elegant and expensive restaurant on the top floor of a seven-storey 1920s building overlooking the Bund, Shanghai�s famous waterfront. And, like its predecessor in Hong Kong, it too struck a cord with discerning restaurant-goers who have been beating a path to its door ever since. �Our success in Shanghai comes down to a number of things really,� notes Bruno, who moved to China to manage the second M restaurant. �We were the first independent restaurant in the city, the modern menu appeals to a lot of international business people and, of course, there�s the view.� Michelle notes that M on the Bund is a very different restaurant to M at the Fringe. �M in Shanghai is a very open and public restaurant. People eat there because they want to spend money on the fancy restaurant with the big name. It�s a place where you can show off and be seen.�

Michelle learnt this to her cost when she decided to open an affordable Italian restaurant, Rollo, at the back of M, where she had some empty space. Customers didn�t take to it, preferring its more upmarket and expensive sibling. �It was a good lesson in what not to do as a business. Rollo didn�t appeal to a big enough audience, so I closed it within 10 months,� rues Michelle. �I think it�s very hard to do two levels of price and quality out of one business.� Learning from her mistakes, Michelle opened The Glamour Room, a new bar and dining room extension to M on the Bund. The room is decorated in the style of a 1930s� Hollywood movie set, complete with crystal curtains, crystal chandeliers and polished bar. And so that drinkers and diners can admire the Bund, a wall was knocked down to ensure uninterrupted views. �We�ve done quite a lot of work in trying to give The Glamour Room its own identity. And it�s really beautiful, if I say so myself,� says Michelle.

With two successes to her credit, there is an expectation that more Asian cities will be introduced to Michelle�s innovative take on fine dining, although Michelle draws the line at a chain. �I don�t know how thinly you can spread yourself when you run a business. And I�m not interested in a franchise operation. That�s not the sort of business I want,� she explains. But she does admit that she has been looking at new venues, spotting a �fantastic site� in Beijing and a �lovely old house� in Guangzhou in Canton, a two-hour drive from Hong Kong. �The obvious next step is to open a restaurant in Beijing, but it�s political and it�s hard to tell how difficult it will be to do business there. Guangzhou on the other hand is easier. And, from a business point of view, it�s tempting to open the next restaurant there. But I�ve never done anything because it�s easy,� remarks Michelle. But Bruno is confident that whatever Michelle does next will be a winner. �She has a pioneering instinct,� he simply adds.

For more information on M restaurants, visit the websites at www.m-atthefringe.com, www.m-onthebund.com and www.m-the glamourroom.com.