Word: garnaut
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...This kind of quality control has helped to keep Garnaut in business for two decades in an industry notorious for failure. So has the combination of homely Australian cum Mediterranean cuisine (her salt-baked lamb is a comfort-food classic), served in highly original settings. The latter constitute a distinctive selling point in a country where smart restaurants are more likely to be found in the contrived spaces of soaring hotels or office-block podiums. "When I first arrived in Asia," she explains, "I was in Hong Kong and got into a lift to go up to a restaurant...
...Garnaut's first establishment, Hong Kong's M at the Fringe, was housed in a 97-year-old heritage building originally used as a cold-storage warehouse. (The landlord's decision to repossess the property meant that the restaurant had to vacate the premises in December and begin the search for a new home.) Her two Shanghai establishments - M on the Bund and the Glamour Bar - overlook the Huangpu River from the Nissin Shipping Building, built in 1921. They were the first ventures of their kind to grace the Bund since its prerevolutionary heyday. "At the time, everyone thought...
...Olympics was scuttled by delays in Qianmen's construction; the restaurant was then only open briefly before being shut again during the huge security operation surrounding the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic last October. "The restaurant business is difficult anywhere," says Garnaut. "But you do probably need more patience in China than elsewhere...
...eldest of nine children from a Melbourne family, Garnaut stumbled into restaurant work out of necessity, contributing to household income in an effort to ensure that all her siblings were fed and clothed. She arrived in Hong Kong in the mid-1980s as a backpacker and almost immediately found herself working for Nineteen 97. It was a bar, restaurant and café located in what was then an obscure back alley downtown, but has since mushroomed into fame as the Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district. Garnaut became Nineteen 97's highly visible manager during its heyday as a watering hole...
...Today, with Capital M without question one of the essential spots for visitors to Beijing and its initial teething problems seemingly solved, Garnaut says she is slowly relaxing and possibly even thinking about further projects in China. They will no doubt produce their own uniquely Chinese challenges, but Garnaut reckons she is ready. "I'm creative, but I am also tenacious," she says. Words to live by for anyone doing business in China...