Black Sheep Restaurants founder Syed Asim Hussain and protégé Marc Hofmann on the opening of Jean-Pierre and the notion of limitless hospitality
Syed Asim Hussain
What qualities did you recognise in Marc that signalled he was ready to lead Jean-Pierre?I haven’t seen those qualities yet [laughs]. I’m kidding—the most beautiful thing about Marc, not just as a hospitality person, but as a human being, is his tremendous sense of care. You can’t teach care. You either have this in your blood or you don’t. He’s worn different hats during his ten years at Black Sheep Restaurants [Hofmann started as an intern in 2015], and the care, effort and intention have been there since day zero. He’s going to stand up for what he believes in and do it in a manner that’s dignified.
Did you think he’d still be a part of your team ten years later? No, I thought Marc was annoying, entitled and self-important [laughs]. He always wanted to have a meeting with me. He was an intern, and he’d ask for a weekly meeting with me to discuss his “future”. I could have killed him. Like—[all you have to do is] show up on time. Now, Marc is one of the most important people in my life. I call Marc’s mum “auntie”. He calls my mum “auntie”. We’ve got this deep, beautiful friendship, and the fact that we get to do cool, creative things together is just an added benefit.
You’ve described Marc as having this “innate sense of play” in his work. How has this quality shaped the development of Jean-Pierre?I’m a good South Asian boy and I’m really driven by duty, which is really important to me. Marc’s a little bit different in that play is really important to him. I didn’t really grow up with a lot of play—I’m a bit of a taskmaster. Marc brings this kind of childlike enthusiasm and wonder to the world. Without it, our restaurants would be very austere and serious. There’s a little bit of responsibility on us as restaurateurs, especially good restaurateurs, to help you remember the things you need to remember and forget the things you need to forget. This notion was so important to us as we were building Jean-Pierre. It’s nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia. It’s a son’s love letter to his father.
Syed Asim Hussain (Photo: Zed Leets/ Tatler Hong Kong)
I’m a good South Asian boy and I’m really driven by duty. Marc’s a little bit different in that play is really important to him. Marc brings this kind of childlike enthusiasm and wonder to the world. Without it, our restaurants would be very austere and serious.
By - Syed Asim Hussain
You mentioned Marc graduating from the “Black Sheep Academy”. What is your philosophy on mentorship and how you nurture talent within your organisation?While I wear the mentorship cap in this relationship, Marc has been my mentor too in a lot of situations. I’m not an expert in this matter and I’m very hard on myself. There is a saying: “Heavy is the head that wears the crown”, and I have a lot of responsibility. I think I’m a good leader because of people like Marc on the team. This is my thirteenth year doing this, and [Black Sheep Restaurants] is greater than what I could have ever imagined. We have close to 50 restaurants in two world-class places: Hong Kong, Singapore—and soon, Dubai. The gods have been super kind. I want to work in such a way that when the next generation of people walk in our footsteps, they say these are the footsteps of giants. I’ll never let anyone say we’ve been complacent. No one will ever put that label on us. Why am I like this? I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t get hugged enough as a kid [laughs].
Black Sheep Restaurants has become known for creating distinct, story-driven dining experiences. How does Jean-Pierre complement the group’s existing portfolio?We’ve been talking about this restaurant for about a decade. Marc and I went on a recruitment trip to Les Roches in Switzerland [one of the world’s leading hospitality schools]. We met a mountain man who gave us absinthe. I remember being on a sledge and eating fondue, and we had our first conversation about it [the restaurant]. Jean-Pierre is about fun, celebration and play—that’s the price of admission. If you don’t want to do that, you can go somewhere else. Marc and I are so beautifully aligned on this. We want this to be a place where time is suspended. Food and beverage is the last non-digital frontier—it’s us and churches, and our business always invokes an emotional response. We’re trying to look after you through the medium of food and wine.
In 2020, Bong Joon Ho, the director of [the 2019 film] Para Site, said during his Oscar acceptance speech [for its win for Best Picture]: “The most personal is the most creative.” I’m sorry if it’s cheesy, but I really like this. With Jean-Pierre, we’ve fallen back on this adage. We win when you feel the amount of thought and care that has gone into it. We practice limitless hospitality. Marc understands this: If Jean- Pierre becomes a roaring success, who’s responsible [Hofmann points at Hussain], and if this thing is a flop, who’s responsible for it? [Hofmann points at himself, laughing].
Marc Hofmann (Photo: Zed Leets/ Tatler Hong Kong)
Marc Hofmann
What is the fondest memory of your late father [Hofmann’s father died when he was 18]?The three best gifts I have in my life are my mother, my wife Charlotte and to be able to call this restaurant Jean-Pierre. Asim came to me and said: “Hey, would it be OK if we called this restaurant Jean-Pierre?”. It was an amazing tribute and beautiful gift. When I think about my dad, I think about my first glass of wine. I was two-years-old. He was a bon vivant and there was always food on the table, long lunches talking about life in Tunisia [Hofmann’s grandparents moved to Tunisia from France, where his father spent his early childhood. His father moved back to France in the 1960s]. My mother always laughs because people always ask if my father was a good cook, and my mother says she’d never seen him cook anything in his life. But he had big opinions about how the food should taste. My dad was larger than life and lived life in the fast lane.
Your father would say, “Everything on the table is to be shared by everyone.” How does this philosophy manifest in both the menu and service style at the restaurant?This is not a French restaurant for French people in Paris. It’s a French bistro, yes, but it’s a Hong Kong restaurant first and foremost for Hongkongers. Asim and I have travelled a lot together—to Australia, France and the UAE—and we’ve always enjoyed food that’s presented in a sharing style. French food can be very boring. Sometimes when I go back home to France, my friends and I will go to a restaurant together and they will order their own starter or their own main—I find it so weird. At Jean-Pierre, we want to express French dining in a different way for Hong Kong people. It’s about more than just food—everything is for everyone. We’ve put our heart into every single detail of the restaurant.
How has your view of hospitality evolved since you first joined Black Sheep Restaurants a decade ago?I didn’t go to hospitality school; I’m a Black Sheep alum. There are things that I learned from my upbringing, but everything about hospitality, I’ve learned here. I feel we’ve stuck to our guns. We look after guests, one at a time, one night at a time. You’re only as good as your last service, right? I hope we’ll have a lot of success with Jean-Pierre the way we’ve had in our other restaurants, but what really matters is how consistent we are in delivering that experience to our guests. It’s not about our ego or your ego. If it’s physically possible, we’re going to make it happen.
Jean-Pierre is an homage to a time known as Les Trente Glorieuses, between 1945 and 1975, when the French standard of living became one of the world’s highest. What was your favourite part of that era in hospitality?There were no phones or Instagram. When the food hit the table, you were just excited about the meal you were going to have. You were going out to spend time with the person that you were dining with or to spend time with yourself. I also loved the big dessert trolleys with sparklers—the big celebrations. Now, what’s really important is that we don’t take the big celebrations for granted. If tonight, we have ten birthdays booked, that means we have ten groups that made the decision of putting their celebration in our hands. That’s ten chances to make core memories—whether a birthday, an anniversary or a first date.
What element of Jean-Pierre are you most proud of that might go unnoticed by the casual diner?We’re not just trying to bring another iteration of a French bistro to Hong Kong to make money. Our work is very important to us—every single detail. For example, we’ve spent maybe 50 hours on the playlist, with music that I listened to as a kid when my mum was driving me to a sports lesson. [Even if you don’t understand the language], we hope it resonates with our guests.
What do you think your father would say about this?My dad put a lot of emphasis on me obtaining my baccalaureate degree. He always stressed the importance of it because he had it. I was never a very good student, but I got it a few months after he passed away. Later, I found out he never actually got it [laughs]. I think deep down he knew that I’d be OK. If he saw me today, he’d laugh—and he’d be very proud.
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