THE FOCUS people
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have always associated the MC Café with John Thomson, the Scottish Group Corporate Director of Food & Beverage at MC Hotels, a man who has brought great food and unbeatable service to the MC Hotels Group’s many iconic restaurants and clubs. A paragon of style and taste, John has always been present at the Marbella Club and Puento Romano Hotels’ swishest events and is responsible for helping to bring some of the world’s top talents, including Tom Jones, Sting, Simply Red and Michael Bolton, to our shores. These days, however, he is just as likely to be in Riga as he is in Tallin or Belgravia, London; for John is a defining force in the MC Hotels Group’s rapid programme of expansion. Currently, the Group owns seven hotels and by 2016, that number will rise to 10, with the opening of five-star hot spots like the new Ibiza Bay Resort, poised to raise the bar when it comes to luxury vacationing in the island of House. El Lodge, the gorgeous wooden-decked luxury hotel in the heart of the Sierra Nevada ski resort, is also on the verge of a re-launch. On the day of our interview at the MC Café, which John schedules at 2pm, he greets me with his characteristic charm and elegance. We sit at a windowside table for two and before we begin, he darts his gaze across the restaurant, making a couple of small but vital changes, which ensure that diners enjoy maximum comfort. Always observing, changing, improving… John is permanently ‘on’ and as anyone in the five-star hotel industry would tell you, his is a 24/7 job. As luck would have it, he describes his greatest strength as being “a people person”. Although he obtained degrees in Business and Marketing at a Scottish University, as a youth, John spent most of his summers in London, fascinated by the buzzing London Gastronomic scene and eager to prove his worth at Theme Restaurant group, where he
put his organisational and marketing skills to good use. So impressed were his employers that John didn’t have to hand out a single CV upon graduation; he had already been offered a job by his London employers and he jumped at the chance to hone his management skills within their flagship restaurants and hotel. From there, he progressed to work with three-Michelin-starred Chef, Marco Pierre White, taking the post of Operation Director and overseeing such iconic restaurants as the oneMichelin starred Mirrabelle in Mayfair, The Criterian in Piccadilly and The Belvedere in Holland Park. He also set up the MPW restaurant chain for Granada Group. In 2002, John was appointed by the Marbella Club, which he has called ‘homebase’ ever since. Sitting at the MC Café brings back many memories: “I can recall placing the first set of furniture in this restaurant,” he smiles, “and starting up Suite, MC Beach, and Namazake both here in Marbella and also in Marrakech, working alongside the Shamoon family (the owners of the MC Hotels Group). They are forwardthinking and creative and that makes my job a pleasure.” Apart from owning Hotels, The Group also manage two hotels: the luxurious Raithwaite Estate in Yorkshire and No. 11 Cadogan Gardens in Knightsbridge. One restaurant managed by John and the team and currently making big waves in London is Uni, frequented recently by Prime Minister, David Cameron. “Uni serves a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine, also known as Nikkei,” John informs me. The romantic cornerside restaurant is traditional on the outside but filled with colour and artistry on the inside, every inch the inviting and cutting edge restaurant. John proudly tells me that it was named in the Daily Telegraph List of Top 10 New restaurants in London of 2014. So succesful is Uni, says John, that “we are bringing our Uni restaurant brand of Nikkei cuisine to Hotel Puente
Romano and it will be located in the Hotel’s Plaza Village.” John also gushes about Restaurant Hermitage at the St Petersbourg Hotel in Tallinn, which serves traditional homemade Russian dishes such as a hearty beef stroganoff, airy Belinis with smoked salmon, and warm Siberian dumplings. One of the most difficult parts of a Food and Beverage Manager’s job, I imagine, is striking the right chord with diners from many different parts of the world. “We definitely study our demographics before opening a restaurant,” he says. As John and I converse, we tuck into a wonderful lunch comprising the daily special at the MC Café: a light tempura maki for our starter and soul-soothing, spicy Moroccan keftas for our main. The Head Chef, José Lara, is no less than a culinary genius, having honed his craft with the Jumeirah Group in Dubai. His dishes are new, different yet always characterised by familiar flavours and textures. “It’s all about the team,” says John, “Without them we would be nothing.” Our lunch is sweet but short; he has just flown in to Marbella and one and a half days later, is due back in London. The City never sleeps, but neither, it seems, does John, who has his mind in many places at once and whose trusty iPad serves as a handy agenda and office on-the-go. He tells me of exciting plans up ahead: “At Easter (April 4), we will be bringing DJ Luciano (in collaboration with Bigstage Productions) to the Puente Romano’s Salón Andalucía and in the Summer, there are plans for Tiesto to play at what used to be Regines.” Having seen what the MC Hotels Group has achieved in so little time, it is clear that John and the team will most probably realise every goal they set for themselves, no matter how ambitious. Success is, after all, the inevitable result of hard work, talent and dedication. i www.mchotels.net
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