Christian Mongendre, Founder of Treehouse

In this episode of Grown in Asia, French-American entrepreneur Christian Mongendre, Founder of Treehouse, to share what inspired him to introduce plant-based 'Fast slow food' concept in Hong Kong.

Intrigued by the city printed on his passport, Christian decided to further explore Hong Kong after years spent in France and the U.S. That's when he was introduced to his first business partner and launched Mana! Hong Kong in 2011.

In this episode, Christian also tells us how he put together his second venture, Home eat to live, his projects outside Hong Kong, and his plans for Treehouse.

Transcript

Bertrand Théaud: Hello. Welcome to this new episode of Grown in Asia. Our guest today is Christian Mongendre. So Christian has been in Hong Kong for a while. He will tell us about all this in the coming hour. Let's say , keep it 60 minutes, maybe longer. We'll see. 

[00:00:24] Christian Mongendre: Let's try. 

[00:00:25]Bertrand Théaud:  So Christian is, what shall I say? Famous in Hong Kong? Has a strong reputation?

[00:00:30] Christian Mongendre: I don't know about famous, but I am known to do plant-based food and healthy cooking here. 

[00:00:39] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. 

[00:00:39] So you just said what I wanted to say as a short introduction of what Christian is doing. So he's a plant-based chef and restaurateur. It's just something I've seen on your website. Yeah. So to start, Christian, can you just tell us, make a short introduction of who you are, where you come from, that will help people to follow, you know, your different experience when we go deeper on this podcast. 

[00:01:02] Christian Mongendre: Absolutely. So a short description would be, I'm a French American. I was raised in both France and America. I was originally born in Hong Kong. 

[00:01:10] Bertrand Théaud: You feel French or American? 

[00:01:11] Christian Mongendre: Uh, I, I feel more French when I'm in America. I feel more American when I'm in France, so I kind of feel always out of place.

[00:01:19] So that's why I'm in Hong Kong because that was my birth place. And now I guess I feel more home here than anywhere else. 

[00:01:26] Bertrand Théaud: That's good. Soon, you will start feeling Hong Konger right? 

[00:01:29] Christian Mongendre: Yes. I think. 

[00:01:31] But I definitely do, because for my whole life, I had this place where it said on my passport, Hong Kong.

[00:01:36] And so it does, kind of where you were born, I think does feel in some way energetically, like my home. So we'll talk more about that and why that's important to me. 

[00:01:48] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. So, sorry, I interrupted. Yeah. So you're describing you were born in Hong Kong, spent some time in Hong Kong and you're French American. 

[00:01:54] Christian Mongendre: Yes, exactly.

[00:01:54] And so I've been here now for eight years, uh, back in Hong Kong. And I basically run restaurants that are fully plant based, whole foods focused. So we don't use any processed foods, anything out of a can, anything refined or highly processed. We believe that nature is the best designer.

[00:02:13] And basically we try to enhance food, um, by creating, exciting flavors and making plant based food available to the masses. 

[00:02:21] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. And, uh, okay. Let's take a step forward and, uh, before discussing about your existing business now in Hong Kong, uh, when did you start having this interest in, uh, plants?

[00:02:36] I mean, when, why, how? 

[00:02:38] Was it when you were in study, when you were very young at the time you made your study? Any specific reason, anything specific in your life? 

[00:02:46] Christian Mongendre: So, um, I'll try to make that journey very short. But it started very early on. Actually, my mom, when she was pregnant with me, she, she kinda was not so much into meat and fish, even though she was not a vegetarian.

[00:02:57] So it's almost like she started shifting her diet to a vegetarian diet. And so when I was born, I was almost pretty much vegetarian. But after moving to France at a young age... 

[00:03:07] Bertrand Théaud: That was how many years ago? How old are you? 

[00:03:10] Christian Mongendre: I'm 34 now. 

[00:03:10] Bertrand Théaud: 34. 

[00:03:11] But that was not so common, right? 

[00:03:12] Christian Mongendre: It was not common at all. 

[00:03:14] Bertrand Théaud: Because today, I mean, I wouldn't say, I shouldn't say everybody's a vegetarian.

[00:03:18] Christian Mongendre: Everyone's aware of the need. 

[00:03:19] Bertrand Théaud: Yeah but 30 years ago. 

[00:03:21] That was in France? 

[00:03:23] Christian Mongendre: Yeah. 

[00:03:23] Bertrand Théaud: Especially in France. I'm French, and I can't exactly remember anyone who was vegetarian 30 years ago

[00:03:28] Christian Mongendre: So you can imagine how much pressure I got from like being sort of naturally vegetarian and after being exposed in a school system and so on to meat, to all of that. 

[00:03:38] So I did start eating meat because I didn't have a value system or understanding why, but I did have a close connection to, to nature and animals. Like I was raised in a, in, um, in an old farm house outside of Paris where we used to have dogs, geeses, rabbits, hamsters, dogs, cats. 

[00:03:56] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. 

[00:03:56] Christian Mongendre: All types of animals. So I was very, very connected. And my parents were quite open in terms of the understanding of nature and relationship to nature, and the impact they had, um, their generation had on, on the, the current world that we have. So, that belief system was, was kind of ingrained. And after, as I grew up and started doing high level athletics, I got into rowing and did it on, on a, on a very competitive basis, traveled around the world to do competition.

[00:04:26] Bertrand Théaud: You did that in France as well?

[00:04:27] Christian Mongendre: In America

[00:04:28] Bertrand Théaud: Or, by that time you were in the U.S? 

[00:04:29] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, basically I did. Um, I moved to the U.S. when I was 14 years old, so in high school. And in high school, I started competitive rowing on a very high level in terms of, um. In high school, um, high school, uh, level and after moved into division one rowing and, uh, in college and pretty much got recruited to row in college and, uh, did world championships and so on.

[00:04:53] And that's when I really experienced it. I started discovering the reality of the food system, but not as a professional like I did after, but more as a, as an athlete, I was interested in what do I put in my body and how does it affect? And like we would work out six hours a day. Every day except some days.

[00:05:11] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. 

[00:05:11] So when you say high level, that was a really high level. Six hours a day. Every day. 

[00:05:16] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, exactly. If we were recruited to row, we were competing, you know,  around America going to international competitions as well. So that was my life, it was rowing, so I was trying to find a competitive edge because I was one of the smallest guys on the highest level boat.

[00:05:30] And all our guys were national team guys from different countries recruited from all around the world to be in a boat. So I was trying to find an edge. And so I started playing with this nutritionist. I went to see a nutritionist on my own, did some like part time job to be able to afford that. And after I started experiencing with all different types of diets, so I went fully vegan, fully raw, fully, you know, um, vegetarian and stuff like this.

[00:05:54] And I kinda did it, as you, as you were mentioning before, on the side, not really talking to people, because at that time there was no understanding of that. And you know, my, my fellow rowers, they were packing huge cheeseburgers and having great fun and they look good. So it didn't matter. And it was fuel and there was no tangible added value to this.

[00:06:13] But I started to see my performance increase tremendously. The mental toughness that you need when you're performing was increasing all the time. My recovery rate, my lactic acid loading, like in terms of, you know, how long can you continue when you add the highest stress level and so on was getting longer and longer and longer. 

[00:06:33] So I started seeing like, wow, I have this secret power. And in some ways, the more I pay attention to what I eat, what I put in my body, my performance is increasing tremendously. 

[00:06:43] Bertrand Théaud: What is interesting is you say, okay, you, you realize that you could, I mean, an edge could be your diet.

[00:06:49] Christian Mongendre: Yeah. 

[00:06:50] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. Uh, and so you started different diets. Uh, but you mentioned that this increased also your, I will say your mental strength so. And then this is the first time you made a connection between what you eat and that it has an impact not only on your body, but on your mental. 

[00:07:09] Christian Mongendre: Absolutely. I saw that if I changed the way I eat, my, my thought process, my awareness, my empathy was increasing more.

[00:07:18] I was in a way accidentally empathetic to animals and to the food system. And the more I was eating quality, the more I was becoming more fine tuned to, to myself, to my own intuitive way of eating

[00:07:33] Bertrand Théaud: Did it help for rowing? 

[00:07:34] Christian Mongendre: Tremendously! I was, I was literally, if I, when you would put me in a challenging situation or, um, it was so competitive that, for example, one of the training that was quite gruesome and we always had to go through it, is you put two boats of similar strength racing one another.

[00:07:53] Then you change me, for example. If I'm being seat raced to another boat and you see who wins over and over and over again until you, you can tell that this person makes the boat faster or slower. And that I was really good at it because I was always able to, to harness the strength and keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going.

[00:08:13] And I was, I was, I was not, I was training like my teammates. I was not better than them and the only added value that I could find was fueling. This was actually my plant-based food that I was doing on the side. 

[00:08:27] Bertrand Théaud: Okay, and did you share this a secret weapon with your team? 

[00:08:31] Christian Mongendre: Not at the time, no.

[00:08:33] Bertrand Théaud: That was competitive.

[00:08:36] Christian Mongendre: And, uh, well, I, I was also known to train without telling anyone, which was in a different way where during real practices, I would, uh, I would, you know, play it out I'm relaxed and so on. But after I would go and, you know, train on my own and so on, I think it's a very much an entrepreneurial spirit as well.

[00:08:52] Bertrand Théaud: But were you popular?

[00:08:54] Because after trainings all the other guys, they will go to another, I don't know, cheeseburger. And then you will go back home and then do your special diet. 

[00:09:03] Christian Mongendre: Again, you'll see in a, in, when we speak, I'm not at all like dogmatic or extreme anymore in that sense of, "Oh, it's all good or all bad", like you have to find a way to balance.

[00:09:14] I still have friends. I still wanted to go out and we still drank in college, although only once a week because we literally could not, we had training at 5:00 AM all the time and so on. But it's, um, no, it has affected my lifestyle, my, my way of eating at certain moments with different types.

[00:09:31] Like when I went fully raw, when I opened one restaurant, and I'm sure we'll talk about it, Mana Raw, it was called, it was a fully plant based restaurant that was raw only, so very specific product. And my way to understand it was to eat fully raw for six months so I can understand all the cravings you could have.

[00:09:48] You know, if I want something really, you know, healthy, but if I want something more like on the naughty side with dumb, raw, like I had to be able to create via putting myself through the process. So that was difficult on, um, on a social aspect because when you're eating raw, where can you go eat?

[00:10:05] When you bring in your own carrots and your own this and your, your own raw stuff it's extremely difficult. When you travel by plane, you're like there with your bags of sprouts and like fruits and all that. But I've been known because from a young age I was doing and experiencing this.

[00:10:21] I was that in a way, that weird kid that brings his own veggie burgers at the party, at the barbecue, you know? And so, and I was doing it way before it was cool, which is now my added value though, cause I've been in this for a long time and I'm not just jumping on the bandwagon when, where a lot of people are doing that now.

[00:10:40] Bertrand Théaud: And when you started paying a lot of attention to your diet and experimenting different diets, where did you get valuable information? The day you took it, you know, you get this information from the internet? You went to the, uh, library at the university? You discuss with doctors? How did you, uh, manage the information that will be a useful for what you wanted to achieve?

[00:11:01] Christian Mongendre: So basically it became my passion and it became like an ongoing process that I love to learn about. I love to learn about the medical system, the food system, and anything that relates to us as human being and how do we, human beings, are now taught to use our bodies and listen to our emotions and all of this. 

[00:11:20] Like we go to school and we learn all these set things that I find to be not so useful in real life, but I wish I was taught, you know, how do you deal with your emotions? How do you deal with your breath to be able to deal with yourself? How do you deal with your stress levels? How do you deal with like who you are and so on? Like I wished there was more more to that, but... 

[00:11:41] I don't know if I've answered your question here, but kind of went on a tangent. 

[00:11:45] Bertrand Théaud: No, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:11:46] You say that, okay, this is the way you, the way you made it happen. But, uh, and uh, and so. I mean very quickly you reach a point where you were able to say, okay, I have this in my diet and how much of this versus that will improve my performance. 

[00:12:06] Christian Mongendre: So it became more of a relationship. That's usually what I preach or share is, share is more accurate.

[00:12:13] I, um, you build a relationship with your body. Everyone's specifically, no diet works. That's why like the diet industry and all the new diets that come out, for me, are just a fad and just a way of selling a new, supposedly... 

[00:12:28] Bertrand Théaud: A lot of marketing around 

[00:12:30] Christian Mongendre: It's just press. If not, they would not have a new thing to talk about. But for me, the real diet has to be a fine tuned element that everyone builds for themselves.

[00:12:40] We all have allergies. We all have a cultural legacy that makes us to be able to process certain foods and so on. So for me, it's, it's, um, it's really about building our relationship. And my requirement for food is always evolving according to my stress level, to what I'm dealing with. If I have, you know, relationship wrong or this or that or, you know, whether I need more food or less food, like it always evolves.

[00:13:06] So there's no like a set recipe. I eat, you know, this amount of calories and this and that, I feel great. It's more of whether or not can I listen to myself and how my body reacts to it and what I, what I feed it with. I keep fine tuning that and enable to allow it to have certain foods when it needs to and so on.

[00:13:25] So it's kind of really seeing how the food interacts once it's ingested and it goes through my system. How does it interact? Does it make me feel better or lesser and so on. And I use also food as medicine. So when I feel certain things or stress or different things, I use different ingredients and recipes and also even intuitive, uh, pairing to be able to, to, to deal with certain, uh, things that I'm experiencing at a time.

[00:13:53] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. And that gives you control. So the, the quality of the, because you know what you burn. I mean, you know what you want for your body. 

[00:14:00] Christian Mongendre: Absolutely. And quality is the key here. I found that. My background is quality, I went to, um, Institute Paul Bocuse in Lyon to a five-year cooking school and, uh, management and so on and there they were really focusing on quality.

[00:14:16] And I've done an internship at Alain Ducasse and, uh, plus and, uh, so very high end three-star Michelin. I am, and I've, I've cooked for many famous chefs and, and different, uh, like Michelin, uh, establishments. Because of that, the background of quality is very important. My issue is that quality needs to be mainstream and needs to not be just in.. 

[00:14:38] Bertrand Théaud: For rich only.

[00:14:39] Christian Mongendre: Exactly. So that's why I think that's why I love fast food. Even though maybe it has for now it's, I guess fast casual is a more appropriate term for what I do. But it's a fast way of providing food, but coming with great quality and good ingredients and, you know, um, and respecting the product at the end of the day.

[00:14:59] So. 

[00:15:00] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. 

[00:15:00] And so, uh, coming back to what you said before. So you are in the U.S., you are doing rowing,high level, really high level. Uh. And then what's next? What is the transition? Because you mentioned Paul Bocuse, you know, in Lyon, you worked with Ducasse, so you can, you went back to France and you worked as a, as a chef in a, in these restaurants?

[00:15:25] Christian Mongendre: No. So I, uh, the trigger event for me was my mother was, uh, dealing with cancer. She had breast cancer. And so I, I decided that. I was also in a situation where I wanted to change career. I've always had this dream of setting up what I'm doing now. 

[00:15:40] Essentially, I'm a fully operational McDonald's style restaurant but that is fully focused on quality. So using systems, using, uh, operation, operational efficiency, using machinery and so on to respect product and have the highest quality. So I had this, this vision that I wanted to do since I was 16 or so, but I was not really entertaining that, and I was just rowing professionally, but I didn't see, well professionally, it was not even professional, but it was like on a college level. 

[00:16:11] So I was basically studying rowing and, uh, I, I decided, I, I really wanted to know how to cook. And it was a real tangible skill as well. And so to be closer to my mom that was in France, I, I moved to, to France and was able to be closer to her.

[00:16:28] And that's when I kind of dived into a whole new world, which was the healing aspect of food and diseases, and how they were created. And, and, um. And the process of seeing my mother suffer through a radiotherapy through, um, through chemo and everything, I've started diving into the reality of doctors, how much nutrition they did understand, how much did they study of that, um, the relationship to food and healing over time.

[00:16:55] You know, does food create, how is food, you know, preventing illnesses over time or actually creating constant inflammation state and so on. 

[00:17:03] Bertrand Théaud: And I guess you're learning on your own each time. 

[00:17:05] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:17:06] Bertrand Théaud: And searching for the right information. 

[00:17:08] Christian Mongendre: Exactly. So through everything you can think of, from documentary books, talking, meeting leaders in the market, leading other people that are doing it, interviewing doctors, interviewing all that, um, checking, double checking every fact.

[00:17:22] And just again, it's, it's, it's an overwhelming thing for me, this, this food thing that it just, it consumes me in the sense that I always want to continue to learn and it's always a self evolving thing. There's always something new to learn and is always something where you realize that, "Oh, I didn't know this."

[00:17:39] And it's like, what you do with that information is really the key to, to the transformation always. Because you cannot know the impact of all these different types of food, and where they come from, and how they raise and so on. But it's like, once you have that knowledge, what do you do? Do you decide consciously to make something towards the right direction or do you just ignore it again?

[00:17:58] And so I continually try to innovate and change, uh, towards the knowledge that I acquire. 

[00:18:06] Bertrand Théaud: And then, it is at this point that you started your first, uh, restaurant. I mean, you, you, you, your first restaurant was in Europe, in France. 

[00:18:16] Christian Mongendre: No it was in Hong Kong

[00:18:18] Bertrand Théaud: And this restaurant would you say that it was the combination of your passion for food, as you just described it, plus the impact that, uh, being a, you know, a, an athlete has on you because, you know, there's  finding new challenge and so on. Did it help them and was it something that pushed you to become an entrepreneur? 

[00:18:37] Christian Mongendre: For sure, because, because I was trained as an athlete, I very much have the athletes perspective.

[00:18:43] Like I went to school, but I was maybe not the most studious student, because I really, when I had a good teacher that was able to teach well and the, the subject was of interest, I, I performed really well. But when, you know, in France and the school system, sometimes you get some people that are so unmotivated and so on.

[00:19:04] And my attention span for that was very, very low. Uh, so, uh. Definitely rowing was extremely formative in terms of my understanding of, of, you know, performance over time, pushing your own limits, uh, even to the detriment of myself sometimes to, to really be able to see the long-term work and the daily work as something that adds up and really results in, in, in true performance.

[00:19:30] And, and also understanding your own limits is incredibly powerful, I think, as an entrepreneur because you'd need to manage yourself first and then managed the business because you, you're kind of the custodian or the person that takes care of the business, you need to make sure that you take care of yourself properly so that can extend to, to your business. 

[00:19:52] Bertrand Théaud: So you knew this is where you, where you wanted to go right? 

[00:19:56] Christian Mongendre: I never imagined...

[00:19:57] Bertrand Théaud: A lot of people is, I mean, I don't know if it's a lot of people, but, uh, yeah, let's say quite a number of people just start.. Their first experience is still with a corporate, they are an employee. Then they realise "Okay, I would like to have more control of what I'm doing, you know, eight hours a day when I work." And then it transitions slowly to, uh, an experience that is more entrepreneurship. 

[00:20:17] So that was you, that was not the process. You went straight to entrepreneurship. 

[00:20:21] Christian Mongendre: No. For me the process that I, I only had one job for six months and, uh, as it was when I came to Hong Kong. And I just actually came to Hong Kong to see where I was born. Cause I lost both of my parents at a young age, at 23 and 24. For my mom from cancer. And then my dad being very upset to lose my mom. And so that was a very formative, uh, thing. If I was going to be in the food system and everything I acquired, I needed to do it in a different way and do it in a way that I believed would be providing something that was life giving and positive for people.

[00:20:52] So that, that comes from a very, very strong source of losing my mother to cancer. And also realising all these things a little bit too late to be, to be helped and implemented on my mother, although I did have this opportunity to, to apply it to, to other people as I grew. And, uh, my ex fiancée, her mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with stage four.

[00:21:18] So they were, um, deliberately giving her like weeks to live and so on. So in a way it was like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, all that stuff wouldn't work. So we put it on a full plant based diet. We supplement with, um, with the different types of mushrooms, she changed her full lifestyle and she outlived two years what she was prescribed and the oncologist and all these people could not believe what they, what she did. But again, it's, it's... 

[00:21:44] Bertrand Théaud: At the beginning you didn't have to fight against these doctors? When you said "look we're going to give up on it." 

[00:21:49] Christian Mongendre: The beautiful thing is no, because when you have that little to live and you have that little chance 

[00:21:54] Bertrand Théaud: Yeah, you were bringing hope anyway.

[00:21:56] So... 

[00:21:56] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, exactly. And it's, it's the, the, the, the ways they have to heal. They don't work for such advanced stages. So the only thing she could do was natural medicine in a way. And so that was a beautiful opportunity to dive deep into data and see if that was going to be helpful. And, and locally it was for, for quite a long time.

[00:22:17] And, um, but again, I'm, I'm no doctor, no pretention to be anything like this, but I do believe in, um, the deep, um, relationship that a person needs to be, uh, healed on a whole level. You need to understand not what happens to a certain area of their body, but what is happening for them emotionally?

[00:22:36] What is their lifestyle, what other things they need to change in order to, to heal something within themselves. That is a representation of their emotional body translated to a physical body in a way. So I hope that it's not too esoteric for this podcast. And. But yeah, so that's, I understand the healing aspect of food and so on.

[00:22:54] And so, um, after I lost my, my father when I was 24, I decided that studying was no longer needed because I was studying to kind of delay the process to, to get going and start my own businesses. And so I went on a world tour for a year, um, and traveled to all the places I've wanted to go and kind of free float, uh, until I got to Hong Kong.

[00:23:17] And I went to a yoga class and someone had heard about my background, my education, and so on. And so I got hired on the spot without having to do anything. I didn't even have like a proper dress shirt or anything. I was just kind of traveling and, um, I, I got the opportunity to stay in this, um, in Hong Kong and I, I really did not like to job, but I really liked Hong Kong, 

[00:23:41] Bertrand Théaud: But how was it to come back to Hong Kong? Because you were born in Hong Kong.

[00:23:44] Christian Mongendre: I didn't remember. I left when I was two and a half. 

[00:23:46] Bertrand Théaud: And you came back 20 years, 20 what, 22 years later. 

[00:23:49] Christian Mongendre: Exactly. Yeah. So I guess it goes back to what we were saying in the beginning. Having lost both of my parents and entering with this identity that I was born here, I felt at home as soon as I arrived here.

[00:24:02] And I felt like...I felt good. I felt a sense of peace. I felt a sense of acceptance. I felt a sense of opportunity. And very much as a, as a person like me, that that wants to do its own thing, if you have the drive in the city, it's easy to find investment. It's easy to find people and it's easy to connect to people.

[00:24:21] It's not so, you know, a cast like, like Paris would be or New York, where to enter different circles, you have to know these people and go through all these process. Here, it's all about the idea and the energy is straight to the point. And so I really liked this aspect and, and so yeah, I had that six-month job and that was my, in my first and only job I would say.

[00:24:42] And after I was like "Okay, you know what? I'm just gonna start my own place." And so I started looking for investors. And quite quickly, I found a, um, my first business partner that at the time, uh, he was trying to source, to look for funding and, uh, a person that had, um, also the skillset that I had, which is operation, uh, knowing how to cook and so on.

[00:25:04] Bertrand Théaud: So, so your partner, that was his first, uh, venture as well?

[00:25:08] Christian Mongendre: No, he had several ventures before that were in the vegetarian space. So we kind of connected. 

[00:25:12] Bertrand Théaud: Ok, so that were kind of the perfect combination.

[00:25:14] Christian Mongendre: Exactly, so at the time he had a little bit of an understanding and knowledge of the business in Hong Kong, which I didn't have, and I had the skillset to, to develop it.

[00:25:22] So it kind of matched right away. In one meeting, we agreed to do it. That same week we found a location, and months later.. It went super fast. I, I find that, uh, I'm sure you.. 

[00:25:33] Bertrand Théaud: We often say that, you know, it may not be the best thing to do: just to agree to, uh, you know, to, to become partner with someone just after a dinner, right? 

[00:25:42] I mean, in your case, it looks like it, that was perfect. That was the good, the good decision, the right decision. 

[00:25:48] Christian Mongendre: Retrospectively, um, we can dive deeper into that, but yeah I do, I do suggest now to be careful who you get in bed with in general, especially business, because you end up sharing so many things and it's so important that... 

[00:26:02] Bertrand Théaud: Yeah, because it's a cliché, but it's like a wedding.

[00:26:04] Christian Mongendre: I mean, it's more intense than a wedding. You need to go through a lot, I haven't got married yet, but I, um,  it's a very intense relationship. You spend a lot of time with a person and you know, it affects the whole vision of the company, where it's going and so on. So yeah, I, it's definitely...

[00:26:22] But I don't regret it because everything has led me to where I am today and learning so many things.

[00:26:28] And I, I, yeah. At the time it was the right thing. 

[00:26:32] Bertrand Théaud: And you decided to, um, both of you to set up this new business, you shake, you shake hands, or was there any, uh, documentation? Did you formalize anything? Because even if, you know...What I think is that sometimes even if a business is going well, then that's also a source of conflict. Because it's going well, people want it to, want to drive it in a different direction. 

[00:27:00] Christian Mongendre: That's actually a very interesting point. Because often, it's like if the business is doing okay there's, there's no problem. If it's doing very well, there's problem. If it's doing bad, there's problem. So it's kind of "Are you supposed to keep it at that, but find balance of mediocrity?

[00:27:16] Bertrand Théaud: You have to keep it mediocre so you don't have a, you don't have to have a hard discussion with your, with your partners. 

[00:27:22] Christian Mongendre: Absolutely. Because when you're doing very well, it's almost like they take, they want to take, um, everyone wants to take belonging to the thing. Suddenly it's like, they're not, they were nowhere to be seen. 

[00:27:33] But once you've built something and it's like fully operating, and it's doing really well, people want to put their hands around it. It's like this. But it got to this point without your involvement. You really think like that's needed at this point. So if I've definitely learned that, that lesson big time.

[00:27:50] Bertrand Théaud: So you've found this partner, then you,..

[00:27:53] Christian Mongendre: We opened our first restaurant 

[00:27:54] Bertrand Théaud: Seek financing for, for the venue, um, to build the place. 

[00:27:59] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, we were just, uh, it was me, him, and a, another partner. And so we were just three of us and we invested. Um, I saved some money because I was supposed to, uh, do a master's degree. And instead of doing a master, I, I did, um, this new venture.

[00:28:13] So I invested as well. Um, and...

[00:28:16] Bertrand Théaud: When was it? 

[00:28:17] Christian Mongendre: That was 2011 and we opened in 2012. 

[00:28:21] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. 

[00:28:22] Christian Mongendre: And, um, yeah, I arrived in Hong Kong in April 2011. 

[00:28:27] Bertrand Théaud: And this restaurant was the opportunity for you to share what you've learned before about, you know, the, uh, the energy and the benefit of plants. So it was  everything on the menu was plant-based?

[00:28:42] Christian Mongendre: For sure.

[00:28:43] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. And was that, was that the first restaurant of that kind in Hong Kong? 

[00:28:47] Christian Mongendre: Um, it was definitely in the first fast casual vegetarian, uh, fully focused on speed. Very efficient. Um, that was the first one. There were already vegetarian restaurants that were doing it. But no one was doing exactly like we were in terms of the scale of people being able to, to, um, to feed. And also fully focused on takeaway and, uh, really making everything in-house and having this stringent rule of not using anything processed and, and really trying to use as many eco products as we could, like timber or like different surfaces and so on. And recycling our waste.

[00:29:24] So we were really pushing the boundaries of that. And now eight years later, things that we had to import ourselves are now being imported by other people. And it's so much easier now. And there's a lot more players in the market too. 

[00:29:36] Bertrand Théaud: But at the beginning, how did you manage to find the right balance between the quality of the food that you are, I mean, that you were serving in that, in that restaurant? Because I guess if the quality is good, then the prices are higher. And, uh, and how do you reconcile that with this concept of fast food? Are people ready to pay an extra dollar for quality food? 

[00:30:00] Christian Mongendre: So it takes a lot of education to do what we do, because a lot of people don't understand that we are a little bit more expensive.

[00:30:08] Uh, and we all operate with very thin margins because we have a very high, uh, Hong Kong has a very high rent costs. But after, on top of that, we have a lot of staff because you need to process everything from scratch.  

[00:30:19] Bertrand Théaud: Yeah, it's a lot of raw ingredients. You can't keep raw ingredient that long anyway. 

[00:30:22] Christian Mongendre: Exactly. 

[00:30:23] Bertrand Théaud: In a few days, either you manage to sell it or you know, it goes straight to the bin. Right?

[00:30:27] Christian Mongendre: We made everything fresh daily. So, well, so it took a lot of staff, and a lot of resources. We were having to invest a lot on educating the consumers to know why they were paying that premium. But still we wanted to keep all our prices under a hundred Hong Kong dollars for our main items.

[00:30:45] So that was very important because we did want to be a fast casual. But developing a food like, um, like the flatbreads that we've done and so on. It's like a pizza. Pizza, pasta, and so on, the food cost is not that high. But for us it's because we feel it will require a lot of, um, premium ingredients and so on. So it is, it is quite expensive. 

[00:31:06] But having no meat and fish on the menu is actually good because that lowers our price points. And we have to find ways to engineered a food. Like, you know, quinoa is very expensive, so we can put a little bit more brown rice in it. And so we balance everything by, by thinking in terms of costs of certain ingredients and balancing them out while still having them in there...

[00:31:30] Bertrand Théaud: To keep the cost reasonable without compromising the quality of what you serve. 

[00:31:35] Christian Mongendre: Exactly. 

[00:31:36] Bertrand Théaud: But all this premium ingredients that you needed at that time, uh, they were already available in Hong Kong? I mean, on whoelsale level maybe? Or you had to find the, uh, you know, the producer of quinoa and the producer, this and that, and the...

[00:31:51] You know, you needed to do some travel to, uh, to find these, uh, suppliers? 

[00:31:56] Christian Mongendre: So we did have to import definitely some things like zaatar that we use a lot. Uh, it's, uh, it's a Lebanese, um, or Middle-Eastern spice mix, that we put a lot on our, on our flatbreads at a time.

[00:32:10] And so that we had to import from Lebanon. And we had a really good connection from my business partner. He had childhood friends. So here we had like the, the connection to be able to get the right supply. But I have so many things, like for example, kale. Kale is like something that is very popular now, but a few years ago you could not find it. Now, even at a steak house, you can have a kale salad.

[00:32:30] So now it's not difficult. But we had to rely on smaller farmers that were planting it. And we had to rely on, on people that already had like an import business. And after they would select with us, like different farms that we want and we'd be able to bring it in. So we had to specifically work hard to build the whole ecosystem.

[00:32:50] Like the, the waste management was always an issue for us. So we had to pay like a specific driver to come and take all the food waste, bring into a small farmer in the New Territories in Hong Kong and be able to transform that into compost and so on. So a lot of these things that we cared for added to our, to our environmental side of the business.

[00:33:12] We had to pay full price for them and, and, and bear all the logistics and all the, the management of bringing it in. 

[00:33:19] Bertrand Théaud: And what was your role more exactly in this restaurant? You were the chef and you were in charge of the kitchen? Or it was broader than that? You know, typically identifying these, these suppliers and...

[00:33:33] Christian Mongendre: It was, it was pretty much touching on everything. But essentially I, my, my technical term was director of operations, so I was making sure that everything was staffed properly, that we design all the recipes, that we had the chefs, they're doing it, basically everything relating to operation, but at the same time, I had the hat of the owner of the company and a partner.

[00:33:53] With my business partner, we had to basically do every single thing from the service all the way to the vision of the company, branding, design, and so on and so forth. 

[00:34:04] Bertrand Théaud: So what was the most challenging thing to, um, to handle at that time, to deal with, at that time? 

[00:34:09] Christian Mongendre: I think...

[00:34:10]Bertrand Théaud:  It's recruitment or...

[00:34:12] Christian Mongendre: Um. I think... 

[00:34:14] Bertrand Théaud: I don't know this industry but I've always heard that it's very difficult to recruit the right people, you know? 

[00:34:19] Christian Mongendre: Definitely. Definitely recruiting  is diffitult 

[00:34:21] Bertrand Théaud: Especially recruiting people that are cooking in the kitchen. 

[00:34:23] Christian Mongendre: Yeah. Definitely the recruitment is, is, is, uh, is very difficult because as you delegate, you gotta trust the people who deal with the food, and apply your ideology and respect to the produce that you want. 

[00:34:38] But also liaising, I think, having conflicting visions, um, with, with the people you work with, I think would be the most, uh, difficult aspect for me personally. 

[00:34:48] In terms of managing the business and so on. I think, um, just that it was an uphill battle for a lot of things because we had to. It was a first, so we had to make them happen and we had to make them grow. But the advantage of that is because we were creating all these new systems and because we were creating this new way of doing, we would get a lot of press and then we had a lot of stories to tell.

[00:35:10] So that became also a wonderful marketing and  wonderful word of mouth experience, because we didn't have to pay for this ad in a magazine or this and that. Because we had a real story to tell and our story was like "We don't have budget for marketing. Our marketing money is going to the story of what we do."

[00:35:29] So that, that really... 

[00:35:32] Bertrand Théaud: Okay, because I didn't ask, but so I understand this first one was very successful. 

[00:35:36] Christian Mongendre: Yeah. It's still open today. And, uh, I left that company in 2015 and was able to, to, um, to sell my shares and, and to, to, to have a nice exit and then go on to build other things more in line with, with me and not have, uh, not have, uh, uh, management, uh, day-to-day partner anymore. Just investors. 

[00:36:01] Bertrand Théaud: Okay, so you wanted to be fully in control for your next venture. That was the main trigger. That's the main reason why you decided to exit this first venture and move...

[00:36:10] Christian Mongendre: 100%. I, I had a vision that was beyond this business and I needed to apply it and I needed to give myself the opportunity to see for myself. 

[00:36:23] And with building these three first ones. So it was a chain of three, I really learned how to do all the aspects of food, the understanding of the local economy and, and how to manage the after, the whole, the whole legal aspect as well. And so after...

[00:36:40] Bertrand Théaud: Your partners, they were not interested in this vision?

[00:36:42]Christian Mongendre:  Um, I think they were not interested in giving me the power, the lead that would be required to go with this vision.

[00:36:50] So I think they had different ways of doing things and, and so I just thought I could not grow anymore with, me personally, cannot grow anymore in that company. And so, I decided to, to leave. 

[00:37:02] And, um, within, very quickly, a few weeks after, I was able to fundraise and without even looking to, to find the right partner as at the time for my second brand and a fourth restaurant.

[00:37:18] And basically then we open a very large scale, 3000 square foot, um, two floor restaurant, uh, for my new brand. So that was the big flagship. It was really cool because it was an old Burger King that went out of business. So exactly, you know the story... 

[00:37:35] Bertrand Théaud: That's like your vision...

[00:37:37] Christian Mongendre: So and beautifully, they went out of business so they couldn't even pay for removing the stuff.

[00:37:43] So I repurposed and cleaned their fridge, their ventilation and I was very proud of that because. I always say it's good business to respect the environment and to, to upcycle and see things. And I saved, you know, millions of Hong Kong dollars by re-purposing their fridge, their ventilation, and so on.

[00:37:59] And I was like, you know, this is really good for what we do. So I got to do this one. And this one was a 120 seat restaurant. I was really at the helm of it. So I was the CEO and I, I only had investors, so, so it was really a... 

[00:38:14] They gave me this beautiful potential of, of creating a whole thing from scratch with almost no oversight.

[00:38:20] And after we got to become very successful, and...

[00:38:24] Bertrand Théaud: Was it built around the same concept as the first restaurant? 

[00:38:27] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, absolutely. Basically, every summer, uh, every restaurant I've done has always been a building block for the next one. But the full ideology doesn't, you know, change so much. It's just I changed.

[00:38:41] So the, the restaurant changes with me in a way. And because I'm always getting better at what I do and more understanding, and so many, you know, beautiful realization but also some failures and some, some, you know, some, some things where I hit the wall and so on. So I've, I've learned and optimised the same products.

[00:38:59] I'm still trying to do the same thing, but it's never the same. It's never a copy. It's always, it's always really evolved into my new understanding of it. Like just my last restaurant that I've created and I'm the main owner and the next one, I already know how I'm going to do it better and be more efficient.

[00:39:16] And I've learned so much from that one as well. So... 

[00:39:19] Bertrand Théaud: And always in Hong Kong. You were never tempted to open... 

[00:39:22] Christian Mongendre: So...

[00:39:23] Bertrand Théaud: I mean, once you have a concept, you probably know that this concept, you know, can find its public in Hong Kong. And you were never tempted to open, you know, a restaurant with the same concept in another city or another country.

[00:39:35] Christian Mongendre: So I am very tempted. Um, the goal with this last one I was telling you about, called Home to live, the big one, we were supposed to scale to quite a few locations, so we got the funding to scale to multiple, multiple locations

[00:39:49] Bertrand Théaud: In Hong Kong? 

[00:39:50] Christian Mongendre: Hong Kong, and after regionally. And it's always been my goal, it's never to be just in Hong Kong.

[00:39:55] It's never been the goal. But again, I feel like I'm from Hong Kong. So again, it's, it's always a fine line between...People tell you, you know, it's just business and so on, but "just business" doesn't exist. There's the personal and the business world that interlinked always, you know? 

[00:40:10] And so, being from Hong Kong, I want my brand to leave home, leave Hong Kong and expand from Hong Kong. So be a Hong Kong born company as well as I am. And so basically this home was supposed to scale and so on. And I got some internal issues with my team because of different, um, of different, um, things that I was being pressured to change, that I refuse to change. Which I felt were against the integrity of what I was building. So I decided to, to, to leave that establishment. 

[00:40:45] And, uh, after that, I have to answer your question. I open a franchise in Lisbon, in Portugal. So after this big restaurant, this big management, this high visibility I was given the opportunity to open... 

[00:40:58] Bertrand Théaud: What was the connection with Portugal and Lisbon? 

[00:41:01] Christian Mongendre: Some old clients of mine that I knew moved there and got into the real estate business. And they knew my product. So they were, they they, they heard that I had to close down my last one, so I got this beautiful opportunity to go relax and... 

[00:41:14] Bertrand Théaud: So you spend some time there in Portugal? 

[00:41:16] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, I spent about three and a half months to four months there and, um, I got to do some personal projects and commute back and forth from France, which I hadn't had the opportunity to do so close before. And, uh, I, so I basically consulted for two years.

[00:41:32] And took a break from the restaurant business. I was consulting in the food and beverage field, but I was not running a restaurant, just a franchise that they were running. But I set it up for them and so on. And it's still running today. 

[00:41:49] Bertrand Théaud: And the franchise has how many restaurant today?

[00:41:52] Christian Mongendre: Uh, just one at the moment. Yeah. And uh, they do want to scale it up around there. Uh, but that's up to them. I don't know exactly. I was not in charge of that. And after my dream was always to come back. And why this market? Um, this market essentially understands and knows me.

[00:42:14] Now I have, uh, a certain track record in Hong Kong that knows the type of food and a type of integrity I have. And also my, my different projects and how they've evolved and so on. So it would be a shame to, for example, go to LA and open in LA, or, which I definitely considered, for example, in New York or Paris.

[00:42:32] Um, but I, I have such a track record. Again, I feel like it'd be, it'd be, you know, a waste of all these years I've done here to not leverage having a restaurant. Yeah. Exactly. To not, to not capitalize on that and be able to, to do what I initially intended. Which is to start from here and then expand to Singapore and different markets.

[00:42:57] But after directly go for major cities like New York, LA, Paris, those are for being a French American as well as, very interesting for me to open there. 

[00:43:08] Bertrand Théaud: And so, after your experience in, you know, consulting in Portugal and France. So that's the time where you came back to Hong Kong. And this is where you opened the restaurants in which you are still involved today.

[00:43:24] Christian Mongendre: Yeah

[00:43:24] Bertrand Théaud: Correct? 

[00:43:25] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, so basically I came back and I was getting ready with this, this brand that I was building on the side as well, and then the name, the logo, the whole systems, and so on. I knew I always had a step in, a foot in Hong Kong. This is my office we're meeting here and I have a lot of my friends and so on.

[00:43:40] So I was always back and forth. I was still in Hong Kong and I knew I was coming. And so I, I did, uh, um, this year, uh, early 2019, I decided to come back and got a place, uh, started renting a place I knew, I was gonna, I was gonna start my new place. And, uh, again, I went to look for locations.

[00:44:00] I found a location before I had fully all my investors. And signed on the location. Got the funding after luckily. Um, and this one is the first venture where I'm like the majority owner. I'm really able to control every aspect of the business, which I knew, after what happened with my previous business, that I needed to be in control. 

[00:44:20] But not, it's not about power, it's about protection. It's about protecting what I'm creating and also building value over time for me as well. Not just for, you know, money that was given to me. 

[00:44:32] Bertrand Théaud: But if you compare, okay, this place, this restaurant that you operate, that you run today, uh, with, I mean, the first one and the second one in which you were involved with the last almost 10 years. Business-wise, what other main differences? I'm not speaking about the product and what you serve on the menu. But things, you know, uh, that the, the way that these restaurants were run in the past and the way you run your own place now. 

[00:44:58] Christian Mongendre: So, this one is...The secret of me being the main investors is, is also because I, you know, I had to put all my savings into this. And so I, I find myself taking on everything. 

[00:45:12] Before I was, I was well-financed and I had a lot of investors, I had comfort of high salary, had the comfort of team members, assistance, all that stuff. Now I can say this is the first restaurant I've done everything from scratch, from every cheque I signed to every like the accounting all the way until we open, to all the administrative part, to processing visas. Every single little nitty gritty, though, I've done it this time. So even though I had set up many businesses, I've never got into the actual nitty, gritty until I built my own sort of, one for myself.

[00:45:48] So it was really, I think, I did it more for myself as well. But this one was definitely the cheapest I've ever done and the best I've ever done. So again, it's like all this acquired knowledge and all this money that was invested before that got me to this state where I can, I can benefit from all this experience before and, um, and have really done everything.

[00:46:11] Almost on an intimate level that now I really understand every single aspect of my business. 

[00:46:16] Bertrand Théaud: And you spoke before about some failures that you had, or bad experience. Is there any that you want to, that you want to share? Anything you knew when you started your own place that no matter what, this would not happen here? 

[00:46:31] Christian Mongendre: Well, luckily, that's why I'm French American. Because I know in, in America, if failure is a very accepted thing, while, while, while, uh, in France it's like not so well, uh, regarded in a way.

[00:46:44] So I see it more the American way. It's more convenient for me, but I do see like, you know, what you consider a failure is often something you need to learn to move to the next step. Like setting up a, you know, like closing this last restaurant, I was very successful, supposed to scale. Like I obviously had some grieving process to do because I've built so much.

[00:47:05] I really put a lot of details and thought and efforts and so on into it. And after being pushed out of that and going into franchising was actually a blessing in disguise. Because I needed to understand how to put a restaurant in operation without someone that truly, truly cares about the thing and be able to get down through with the team, with the systems and so on.

[00:47:29] Because that's the key of what I want to develop. So again, I was given this beautiful experience and, and learning potential that that is super valuable. Another experience that I can share about failure is like this raw restaurant that I, that I've created with my previous business partner that was our second brand.

[00:47:48] It's called Mana raw, and we were doing this fully raw menu and I went around the world like to all the best raw, raw restaurants. I checked them out. I, I put the full, fully myself into designing this menu and I was really proud of it. And so we opened the doors and basically we couldn't get enough clients to enjoy this type of food because this food was too advanced for the market.

[00:48:11] So I discovered the beauty of "You cannot create a product for yourself." You have to create a product for the market and then slowly guide the market alongside with you. But here, we only appeal to people that were  either became extremely sick or had ill illnesses or issues or allergies, or were a lot into sports.

[00:48:33] So that was a very, very niche products. And so I discovered that you cannot just focus on creating a great product. It has to be a product that the consumers want and truly understand. So now with all my previous ventures after that, it's been about giving the experience they want. Upping it and slowly, always guiding them because I'm never happy with what I, what I'm creating.

[00:48:59] Cause I always wanted to evolve, always pushing the boundaries alongside with the market. And that that was a, again, a truly wonderful, deeply ingrained learning experience for me to be able to process that after. And. Yeah. 

[00:49:14] Bertrand Théaud: And this, uh, the, this new restaurant, you're, you're operating in a, in Hong Kong, uh, what is the vision there?

[00:49:22] So this one you want to, cause we discussed about, you know, whether you want to grow internationally. So you will start in Hong Kong, you want then to franchise in other territory. Uh, you would need more financing? 

[00:49:33] Christian Mongendre: For sure. So this one, the goal was to set up the flagship and, uh, and the product test again, because... 

[00:49:39] Bertrand Théaud: When was it open?

[00:49:40] Christian Mongendre: Uh, just September 2nd. So, and we just had our grand opening October 26th. So now we're fully open and we're fully running and um, and the product is, is there, and we feel comfortable about what it is. So this is your flagship. This is the idea is to raise money on this one. And it was more important for me to show the product to investors after creating it, obviously than before. Because they have a lot less leverage. 

[00:50:07] But, uh, um, yeah, the goal is definitely to, to open privately and through franchise, through very selected professional F&B providers for certain markets and do region based expansions. Uh, here for Hong Kong, we're planning to launch as much as the city can take. And then we are going to go... 

[00:50:29] Bertrand Théaud: Which is rougly how many? 

[00:50:29] Christian Mongendre: About six. 

[00:50:30] Bertrand Théaud: Six. 

[00:50:31] Christian Mongendre: But I think, from a delivery perspective and accessible, more than six. But six physical, actual locations and then more dark kitchens. So dark kitchen without an actual physical, um, visible, uh, uh, space.

[00:50:45] Um, but after, a big market, we, we want to go, is Singapore and Thailand. And after, the selected key cities as well. And, uh, depending on, uh, the partners that we can get and also the type of financing and so on. But again, we're not looking for any money. We're looking for convinced, uh, money that comes with, uh, the understanding of the ideology, understanding the respect of our core value, which is environmental profit, cultural and spiritual profit, and profit, profit because we're still a business.

[00:51:16] But we want to make our decision always respecting the people that we work with, our stakeholders, and the environment process, and always rebalancing what we do because we're not a perfect business, but always having a rebalancing and obviously creating profits so we can have more and more partners and grow to the brand and providing more plant based food to the masses.

[00:51:35] And we really want to appeal to the masses, not the niche anymore. Because if the people are already convinced about something, they'll look for us anyways and they'll come to us because we provide a product that appeals to them, but we want to make it very, very appealing to the mass market because now we really, really need to change the way we eat.

[00:51:55] And one of the most polluting industry is definitely the, the, the...Well, number one is AC and number two and three is food. So by chain, yeah, it's food wastage, food rising, you know, all the cattle, all the chicken, all the water that is needed to, to, to grow them and all the food that is needed to grow them.

[00:52:16] So those are the most, um, carbon creating, uh, industries. And so we need to slow down, uh, as much as possible. And we, we feel like it should be done almost accidentally. It's like, it's, it's still a pleasurable thing. It's all about the food and the food speaks. And then once the food is, is tried and by accident you're vegetarian, I mean like you go to the menu and you want to read and you're like, Oh, you don't realise there's no meat and fish. That's the idea essentially. 

[00:52:45] And then when you try it, you feel good. And hopefully you can after two hours of eating it, you're not hungry, and you have this long lasting feeling for yourself. And that creates more of a tangible change in a person than versus having me talking about it and blah, blah, blah.

[00:53:02] And so on, like. We, we want it to be through self experience and the best ways through to the creation of the food. And then once you have the interest, you can start showing the reality of how we do it and why we do it a certain way. And why do we care about the materials that we use and so on and so forth.

[00:53:19] Bertrand Théaud: And when you started this new place, were you lucky again with having a lot of press that will bring people to the restaurant? And so you're making, you could make some saving on, you know, advertising and all that? 

[00:53:31] Christian Mongendre: For sure. I've been very blessed to, being out here eight years in Hong Kong, having relationships with press, with different providers and, and also people knowing our product and also really looking forward to have us open again. 

[00:53:44] Because since the, my last restaurant, no one has filled in the gap in two years. And it was quite humbling actually when we opened Treehouse, my latest venture. People would come in and say, I was heartbroken,I was so upset, I was devastated, and so on, of, of Home [Eat to live] closing. And it was two years later! 

[00:54:09] I was like, how did we leave a mark that was two years later, no one has filled in the gap of the type of food and the type of service that we do and so on? So that was... 

[00:54:20] Bertrand Théaud: How do you explain it? That nobody tried to fill that gap for two years.

[00:54:23] Christian Mongendre: Well. Some of my competitors and previous business have tried to, to take on certain food offerings that I was providing in my latest venture. But again, it's, it's hard to duplicate this deep instilled passion that we have for product. And product is our key, it's how do we make our food the best tasting and how do we keep evolving it?

[00:54:49] And I think that takes, that takes either...If you're going to find that to compare anybody in the market, that would cost you a lot of money because that person would leverage themselves very well. Or, and it's not a lot of people that, that have this understanding, knowledge and have been doing it for very long time.

[00:55:05] Bertrand Théaud: So how do you manage that today in this new, in this new business? Is that something that you train your new people to get this knowledge? So that, I mean, this business can be scalable? 

[00:55:19] Christian Mongendre: Yes. So it's through our systems... 

[00:55:19] Bertrand Théaud: It takes a lot of time? 

[00:55:21] Christian Mongendre: No, it's fine...

[00:55:22] Bertrand Théaud: Or are you looking for people who really have the passion, the same passion as the one you have?

[00:55:26] Christian Mongendre: No, I actually work mostly with the non-plant based chefs and people that, that just have the openness to learn and just have the, um, the right energy. 

[00:55:35] So I really hire based on energy and based on their willingness to learn and improve and so on. Because in F&B, at the end of the day you, you have to find people that are willing to go again and again, and be able to do the same thing and do it well and doing it repetitively. Repeating the same process on a daily basis. That's the key to, to the food system that we do. 

[00:55:59] I think I've been blessed to work with many of my, my teams that have followed me through all my adventures. So that definitely makes it easy. But after it's through operational efficiency, through systems, through using technology to, to, to have all the training and so on.

[00:56:16] And also having our recipes, make them extremely clear so that anyone, like if I gave you a recipe, you could follow it and execute it at a level that I could sell it out. 

[00:56:25] Bertrand Théaud: I'm not sur about that but...

[00:56:26] Christian Mongendre: That's the point! With, with like a cookbook with, with photos and so on. And it's all about standardising. And also finding in each restaurant that person that really cares and that you can trust. And that person is the person that will extend that trust and that knowledge and that philosophy to the rest.

[00:56:43] And also, again, it's how you treat them, they will treat the others. So how I treat my team is how I expect them to treat the customers the same way. So it's very important. It's always, it's always that mindset of, of, of showing by example. And, and there's no excuse that if I treat them well, there's no excuse that they show any attitude, any, any, any sort of bad behavior to, to our customers, to our suppliers, and so on. 

[00:57:13] So it's, it's really about that continued respect and creating a community of people that care as much as possible. 

[00:57:20] Bertrand Théaud: Yeah. Because based on what you say, what you offer is more than just, you know, having food on the menu, there's you building some kind of a community. Right?

[00:57:28] Christian Mongendre: Absolutely. 

[00:57:28] Bertrand Théaud: And do you think that this community, I mean... Any idea, what is the size of this community potentially in Hong Kong? If you compare again to when you started 10 years ago, I guess people are much more aware today of, um, paying attention to what they, what they have in their plate.

[00:57:44] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, for sure. And the community is growing day by day and every day there's a new documentary, a new information, everyone knows about climate change, everyone knows about, you know, plastic and, and waste issues. And all of these, these, uh, issues are now becoming mainstream. So I think there's a growing awareness worldwide, not just in Hong Kong.

[00:58:04] And that is really... No one can really deny or has fighting arguments against, you know, why they should eat low quality meat at every meal. And like, no one has a good argument for that or these things like, so now that... 

[00:58:17] Bertrand Théaud: So you think they don't have an argument against it, but do they care more than a few years ago?

[00:58:23] Christian Mongendre: Yes, because more people are carrying it for, and more people are being like "Hey, let's go eat at Treehouse. And let's try it." And after these guys are like, you know, we don't like this stuff and after, boom, there's the switch and after, once that switch is done, then they can enter their own, their own relationship to "Ah, I can have an impact on myself, on the planet and so on and so forth."

[00:58:44] And as one person, it's only one person. But as we get this to a tipping scale, and all these other businesses, and all these vegetarian restaurants, and all these other people that are doing these things to kind of push the ball forward is great. Because it's growing the market and it's growing the awareness of this type of businesses that we need to have.

[00:59:06] And it is good business to, again, to get into environmental. If you want a long lasting business, you should know where sea level is going to rise, where you have a flood site, where you know labor is going to be displaced and so on and so forth.

[00:59:20] The more information you have long-term, the better it is for your company actually. And I think the consumers want to vote and will vote more for their dollars with their dollars. So the younger generation will want to invest in companies that are doing the real thing, and are communicating about that, and are able to see the reality of what they're doing.

[00:59:41] Bertrand Théaud: And as you grow, would you be interested in not only operating restaurants, but getting involved in production? So depending on the ingredients that you use today in your restaurants, have them, you know, grow, whatever you mentioned, kale or quinoa? 

[00:59:59] Christian Mongendre: It's always been a dream...

[01:00:00] Bertrand Théaud: Is that be part of the vision?

[01:00:02] Christian Mongendre: It's always been a part of the vision and always, um, something we want to do, but it's, I think I've approached it in a way that I was very idealistic. At first, I thought it would just be like, you know, we, we work with a farmer and we partner up and they grow what we want and so on. But it is, it is tougher than I thought. And I've tried to establish it quite a few times, I've worked with different farmers and made them my full partners and so on and so forth.

[01:00:28] Uh, but I, I do see that collaboration maybe is the key to each company doing the right thing with their own passion. So if I, if I, I would love to partner up with like a farmer that really, really cares, they may able to supply the amount. 

[01:00:44] Because it is also the quantities that we do are quite large. So it's quite hard to rely on the smaller farmers and so on. So we still need large scale, but I do certain high quality and have the real organic certification. 

[01:01:00] Bertrand Théaud: But when you find the right, sorry to interrupt, but when you find the right partner, do you commit on the quantity that you will buy for one year?

[01:01:06] Just to make sure that you know they will deliver the product that you need and you will have this product. 

[01:01:11] Christian Mongendre: We, yeah, we want to. Right now we just opened, so it's been two months. It's hard for us to establish on commitment, but yes, I will. I'm having these discussions now where the farmers want to plant ahead of time for the season.

[01:01:21] And they want to know that they'll be able to sell me that one hundred kilo of this and this and that. And so the more we know on numbers and the operational workflow and the quantity consumes and so on, the more we'll be able to establish those things. 

[01:01:38] But you know...

[01:01:38] Bertrand Théaud: Your own ecosystem 

[01:01:39] Christian Mongendre: Exactly.

[01:01:40] That's it, and that's fully what we want to do. And in terms of production as well and being able to do like school meals as well. Cause that's a very important issue, it's education from a very young age, exposed to very high quality food and to develop your palate. 

[01:01:55] Cause if you're exposed to really high, you know, processed foods, your palate will not really evolved. And after when you get to an adult, the change will be very difficult to do. While, if you're exposed to it like I was at a young age and I thought, why am I, you know, why don't I have Coca-Cola in my home and I only have it for my birthday or something and everyone has it. And now I realised I was the lucky one because I had this training that, you know, is ingrained in me. So, school lunches is definitely a space that we want to move into. 

[01:02:24] Bertrand Théaud: Is it scientifically proven that, I mean, how you educate...I don't know if you say that, but how you educate your palate at a young age will have an impact on what kind of food you will, you will appreciate later on? 

[01:02:38] Christian Mongendre: No, that's, that's just my self experience. I don't, I don't have any, uh, 

[01:02:42] Bertrand Théaud: That sounds logical to me, but I don't know if there was some studies about that.

[01:02:45] Christian Mongendre: But I can imagine based on human behavior that if you're exposed at a young age...I was exposed to a lot of chef's daughters and, and you know, big, big chefs at Institute Paul Bocuse. And we get the sons and daughters of like those super top chefs and you can tell that they have like instilled in them like a, a knowledge of food and understanding of it. Of quality and so on. So yeah, I think it does come with, with the education from your parents. 

[01:03:11] It's really your formative years, so if they teach you about food and quality and different types of food, and vary it along, like my mom, you would always talk about the rainbow. You have to eat your rainbow. And so yeah. There's always this notion that if I go to a place and it's all yellow, like you know, fish and chips for example, like you know, you're, you're lacking stuff, but when you have like green and reds and purples and, and so on, like you, you're really eating all the nutrients, all the phytonutrients, all the vitamins that you need.

[01:03:40] And, and that's, that was a simple learning thing that I'm able to carry forward and, and I have tremendous added value because my adaptation period is, is, is instant because it's already instilled in me. 

[01:03:53] Bertrand Théaud: And, today, typically how is your, how do you arrange your day today? I mean now. Because as you're doing everything, is 24 hours a day enough? 

[01:04:07] Christian Mongendre: Yeah, fine.

[01:04:07] In full honesty, I, uh. I almost burned out with this one because I had to do everything and I, I started working on this way before it actually opened. So I've been working on this since May [2019]. 

[01:04:20] Bertrand Théaud: And also your time is valuable. So having you doing everything may not be the best thing to do.

[01:04:26] Christian Mongendre: Absolutely. So I had to learn that as well because before I was like really good at delegating. And then this one I've done and took on so much on my shoulder and maybe a little too much. And it went to the detriment of even what I say is that I need to manage myself first and then the business.

[01:04:42] And so I took on too much. And I was having trouble relaxing because I was always behind. There was always something behind, whether it's social media management or is it emails or is it, you know, I have this podcast to do with you and so...

[01:04:57] Bertrand Théaud: Thank you for your time. 

[01:04:58] Christian Mongendre: No, my pleasure. But it's a, it's a, there's always something and I found that I just needed to set my own boundaries and be able to...

[01:05:07] But again,  I, I realised that I was on a crash course way before it happened. And that's the athlete in me, it's like, okay, I can tell that, you know, I need to be careful and get into fasting. 

[01:05:16] So now I'm fasting again. So that makes me feel, gives me so much more energy. And also I'm just, I'm allowing myself to manage in a way that works for me.

[01:05:26] So I reply to emails in a way that works for me to WhatsApp, to social media. And I decide to just allow things to happen in line with what I believe I, I need to do for myself. And to be able to slow down. 

[01:05:40] Bertrand Théaud: So would you say you're better at setting priorities? This is how you managed to have a better control over your time.

[01:05:45] Christian Mongendre: Yeah. And now in the last few days, I'm taking time to meditate, to take time for myself, to not jump on the phone from the moment I wake up to see if there's anything that happened or anything I need to deal with. And now I'm taking myself as a priority. 

[01:05:58] And then the business, um, hopefully should be positively impacted by that. Because if I'm starting to run low and my patience is running low and so on, like it's gonna really affect my team. 

[01:06:12] And, um, and so now I took that over and, and, um, I'm taking the time for myself, which is really changing a lot. My well-being, my happiness, my ability to be present for everyone and so on.

[01:06:25] And it's always a funny thing because when you build a health conscious business, you, you can forget yourself in that. And that's like the first learning experience is like running a business is difficult, but when you do in a health space, there's all this expectation that you would be able to manage it yourself.

[01:06:39] But it is very difficult and it's very... F&B is a difficult space as well. 

[01:06:44] Bertrand Théaud: And now you are 100% of your professional time dedicated to this restaurant or you're still doing some consulting? 

[01:06:51] Christian Mongendre: No. Now consulting was really a means to an end. Uh, it was not really something I was passionate about. Again, because I've always been driven about doing my own thing or, or nothing at all.

[01:07:02] Cause, honestly, if I, if I don't do this, my dream is to get a piece of land and start building. And building with my own hands, and build an oven and a house, this or that and build a community and so on, like just be removed from society. If I'm going to be in society, is to create an expression of, of what I believe is something that would add value to people and, uh, add values to, to me.

[01:07:24] And I feel rewarded and my reward is not money. And my reward is the tangible change or feeling I can create in people. And after, usually when you create that, you can, you can also get rewarded and otherwise, but it's, it's, uh, it's really my driving force. 

[01:07:42] Good. Perfect.

[01:07:44] And so. Um, maybe your last question cause it's already one hour and 10 minutes. So hopefully the audience will still be with us at this stage. Listening to Christian and a lot of things that, you know, he shared with us. Uh, a question. Uh, one last question I will ask, I would like to ask you.

[01:08:03] Bertrand Théaud: Is there any book or documentary or, I mean, films that you would recommend us? I mean for people who are interested in everything you explained, to read after work? 

[01:08:16] Christian Mongendre: Um, I'll just go with the first thing that comes up. Um, the, the latest book that I really enjoyed was called "The surrender experiment."

[01:08:25] And, um, it's a very powerful book that kind of relates to what I'm talking about. It's like more that I'm trying to control my business, the more tough and, and unefficient I become. And more I let go and why I trust the process and I let things happen to me while still being engaged in them. I found it to be an extremely good read, uh, of, of the power of, of letting go and applied to business. 

[01:08:51] And see how incredibly resourceful, and how you can get things done in that way without all the added stress and impression of control that we, entrepreneurs, sometime want. 

[01:09:05] Bertrand Théaud: Thank you. Thank you. So thank you again for, thank you again for your time. Um. What I will do next is to visit Treehouse, uh, enjoying, you know, the menu there and the plant-based recipes.

[01:09:22] And uh, hopefully that will have the same impact on me as on you when you were younger doing high level rowing. And so my mental strengths will also improved. 

[01:09:30] By the way, do you still row or not? 

[01:09:32] Christian Mongendre: I don't, I don't row anymore, but I still exercise and, and do involve in a lot of different sports.

[01:09:40] Bertrand Théaud: Okay. 

[01:09:41] Thank you. Thank you, Christian. 

[01:09:43] Christian Mongendre: Thank you very much. 

[01:09:50] Bertrand Théaud: Bye bye.