There's something distinctly rock'n'roll about restaurateur Mark Fuller. Maybe it's because he rides a Harley-Davidson and wears black leathers. Perhaps it's just the vibrations from his never-silent mobile phone, or his larger-than-life personality. More likely it's down to the fact he used to be a band manager and that his business partners and customers usually turn out to be rockers themselves.
The Embassy London restaurant and club in Mayfair, which he runs with acclaimed executive chef Garry Hollihead, is a "celeb magnet" . So if you were planning Live 8 and you needed to feed armies of rockers and pop royalty, who would you call? Yup. You got it.
This Saturday (2 July) in London's Hyde Park the great and the good of the rock'n'roll world will be fed by Flying Fish Special Events, run by Fuller, Hollihead and one of their financial partners, the chairman of Sanctuary Music, Andy Taylor. Flying Fish is the events division of Concept Venues, which is the newly renamed holding company for Fuller and Hollihead's growing range of ventures, including Embassy and the Inn on the Green hotel at Cookham Dean, Berkshire.
The charitable nature of Live 8 and its bid to raise awareness about poverty in Africa means the company won't get a penny for the job. The overall food and drink costs for the event will be about 60,000, although a lot of the cost will be offset by sponsorship from companies such as Budweiser, Bacardi and Diageo.
However, despite the fizzy, glitzy showbiz aura that surrounds Embassy, neither Fuller nor Hollihead are strangers to charity work. Both are family men in their mid-40s and regularly host bashes for a number of charities, such as Sunshine and Great Ormond Street Hospital for children.
They've also been quietly notching up the experience to handle a big concert such as Live 8. For the past seven years event operator Clear Channel Entertainment has been contracting Flying Fish to do the catering for the artists and their guests at the Prince's Trust's Party in the Park at Hyde Park.
"Bearing in mind our clientele, it's not strange to see us in the music arena," explains Fuller. "We do it every year with Party in the Park for the Prince's Trust. We like to raise money for it, and the sponsors are generous, so we usually break even."
The deal at Live 8 is that they will provide all the backstage hospitality for the artists, their guests and the media. Fuller estimates that during the eight-hour concert they will be feeding about 3,000 people (the 25 or so bands will arrive with big entourages). Elsewhere in the open-air stadium the catering will be handled by the likes of Eat to the Beat, Eat your Heart Out and Soho House.
In the spirit of the cause, Flying Fish won't be providing Champagne and caviar. Instead, as Fuller puts it, it will be "a glorified barbecue". He's budgeted for 5,000 hamburgers, eight whole lambs, 200 sides of salmon, 2,500 sausages and 1,000 veggie burgers, plus the ubiquitous buffet.
Plug in and get started
Hollihead - famous for his fine cuisine rather than grilling skills - says he's more than happy for a change of scene and menu. He's possibly relieved that he won't have too much of a headache when it comes to the logistics, because Clear Channel will hoist a kitchen into the backstage area and he'll simply plug in and get started. He's expecting four stoves, a separate walk-in freezer and fridge and dishwashing equipment. All he has to do is bring the chopping boards - oh yes, and organise the staff. They'll need up to 100 workers including 24 chefs, which he's pulling in from other restaurants as well as 30 free staff from the Off the Streets and Into Work charity.
As many of the rock'n'roll guests have left their wild youth behind them - think Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John - it's unlikely anyone will be trashing the place or throwing their guitars out of the tent. But it will be hard work, nevertheless.
"We're not expecting to get a suntan," says Fuller. "Garry and I become gypsies and live in the park when we do this. It's hard work."
Fuller's heart might be in the right place, but he's also a shrewd businessman. Certainly, the years of charity work look as if they might have paid off, because Clear Channel has recently given Flying Fish the catering contract for all the events it operates in Hyde Park, such as the O2 Music Wireless Festival, with New Order, Kasabian, Keane and Basement Jaxx, as well as Queen and REM concerts - and these will be fee-paying.
Spotting an opportunity for higher profit margins and lower costs, Fuller's hoping that Clear Channel will expand the contract to take in festivals such as Reading and Download. He estimates that non-charity events would be a lucrative interest for the business and that there is a strong market.
"Clear Channel likes us there, because I am in the music business and I'm aware that food is just a necessary cog. We aren't prima donnas. We find out where the water is and plug in."
He also reckons he's got the added benefit of understanding his customer: "I've grown up with most of them, so there won't be many on the day that I don't know. I'm not fazed," confirms Fuller.
But anyone who's tracked Fuller over the past few years would guess that Flying Fish isn't where his plans end. In fact, he has just returned from a hunt for restaurant sites in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which will be off the ground within 18 months. He'll also soon be off to Florida with Hollihead to check out a site for a 200-seat restaurant in Sarasota, which is being planned in partnership with singer Brian Johnson of AC/DC.
As Fuller is never more than 6ft away from a celebrity, it's no surprise to discover that this well-heeled area near Tampa lists the likes of Jerry Springer and a plethora of pop and rock stars as its residents. And he reckons it's ripe for some Hollihead cooking.
Closer to home, there are a few plans in London, including a private members' club in Park Lane due to open this year. And work has begun to convert an office building in Warwick Street into a 4.5m hotel called Sanctum. The 28-bedroom hotel will have a 60- to 80-seat restaurant, 100-seat bar, private cinema and swimming pool. Hollihead's task is to develop a British menu to provide "the stuff people go to the Ivy for". Once again, their business partner is Andy Taylor, but Fuller says they are also expecting two or three "singing stars" to assist in the design.
Last but not least, the team are also thinking over an opportunity to feed a TV company at Pillar Hall in the capital's Olympia.
A chance to shine
The aim of these new ventures is partly to give talented staff a chance to shine. "We want to do what Gordon [Ramsay] did with Angela Hartnett and Mark Sargeant and the others," says Fuller. "We've been here four years now. Mark Grogan has been head chef at Embassy, and a few of the boys are coming up and looking to be developed."
Fuller is the first to admit that his plans don't always come off. A recent plan to do a golf-themed restaurant with Nick Faldo fell through because the backing was "too thin", and there was also that false start with Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) at Marquee in north London a few years ago. Even the Embassy had a rocky start, opening as it did so close to 9/11. But after two years' hard graft, Fuller says, the business consolidated, with profits of 380,000.
"We had problems in the past, but now it's OK," he says. "We are fully funded for the new hotel. We've got 4.5m in cash."
So, why the need to expand in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Florida? "They've all got beaches," explains Fuller. "We're not as green as we're cabbage-looking."
The business in a nutshell
- Mark Fuller starts his career as a photographer's assistant and lab technician working for Lord Snowdon and Patrick Litchfield.
- He went on to become a band manager.
- Through music contacts he began organising club nights. Moved on to run the original Embassy Club in 1983, which closed in 1986.
- In 1999 founded the 500-eat Sugar Reef Bar & Grill in London's West End.
- This promoted a partnership with Jimmy Lahoud and Marco Pierre White and led to the White Star Line Group being formed.
- In 2000 opened Red Cube Bar & Grill in Leicester Square. Former Michelin-starred chef Gary Hollihead is executive chef of both.
- In June 2001 sold Sugar Reef and Red Cube to Chorion for £7.5m. The directors went separate ways.
- In November 2001 Hollihead and Fuller become partners (Fuller has two-thirds stake in partnership). They open Embassy London.
- In August 2002 marquee Club and Grill opens in north London in partnership with Dave Stuart of Eurythmics. After one month the club closes due to "musical differences" (Fuller had left the business before the administrators took charge).
- In 2003 opens boutique hotel and restaurant, Inn on the Green, at Cookham Dean, Berkshire, after Fuller and Hollihead join forces with Andy Taylor, chairman of Sanctuary Music Group.