Yianni Papoutsis
| Yianni Papoutsis | |
|---|---|
| Born | UK |
|
Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | Street food / Fast food |
|
Current restaurant(s)
| |
|
Previous restaurant(s)
| |
Yianni Papoutsis (Greek: Γιάννη Παπουτσής) is the owner of the Meat chain of restaurants. He previously worked at the English National Ballet as a production technician. He started the business as a street food truck, and after teaming with Scott Collins and opening a pop-up restaurant, he now runs three restaurants across London.
Biography
Papoutsis was born in England,[1] and during his childhood, he split his time between there and the United Kingdom. As a teenager he moved to Denmark to find work.[2] Papoutsis worked for the English National Ballet for fifteen years as a production technician.[3] His first experience of cooking burgers for the public was as a volunteer at Burning Man.[4] In 2009, he opened a street food van serving gourmet hamburgers called MEATwagon as a hobby.[3][4] The first truck was vandalised and destroyed, and the second was stolen. This meant that Papoutsis was forced to cook outside on rented equipment in all weathers.[3]
He met Scott Collins in 2010 in a car park in Peckham, South London where the MEATwagon was running. Collins invited Papoutsis to pull up at one of his pubs,[4] and the two would eventually become business partners.[3] In 2011, they opened a pop-up restaurant, #MEATeasy above a pub in New Cross, London on 10 January after having conceived it with Collins on New Years Day.[3][4] It was only after opening this restaurant that he was able to leave his job at the English National Ballet.[3] He opened his first permanent location entitled MEATliquor near Oxford Street on 11 November 2011.[5] MEATmarket at Covent Garden,[3] and MEATmission in Hoxton shortly followed which was then followed by their radio station MEATtransMISSION.com. MEATliquor Brighton opened in September 2013.[4] and MEATliquor Leeds in September 2014.
Papoutsis has since been invited to speak on a committee about fast food start-up companies at Downing Street.[4] He has launched a cookbook with Collins in September 2014, co-written with DBC Pierre entitled The MEATliquor Chronicles.[6] Collins and Papoutsis' research trips to the United States for the cookbook were covered by GQ.[7] He has been described as "a pioneer of street food" by Bloomberg Businessweek.[8] He was named in the Evening Standard as one the 1000 Most Influential People in London in both 2012 & 2013
References
- ↑ Montgomery, Hugh (27 May 2012). "Yianni Papoutsis: 'A Las Vegas buffet is one of my favourite places to people-watch'". The Independent. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Whittle, Natalie (18 November 2011). "FT Foodies: Yianni Papoutsis". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Morgan, Eleanor (15 July 2012). "How to make money from street food". The Observer. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Dean, Will (4 May 2013). "Bun fight: An eat-all-you-can tour of America with MEATliquor's Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis". The Independent. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "Behind the scenes at Meat Liquor". Time Out. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Stewart, Victoria (25 April 2013). "Eating at altitude with Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins". Evening Standard. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Morris, Andy (2 July 2013). "Eating the best of the Big Apple with the men behind Meat Liquor". GQ. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Vines, Richard (27 February 2012). "American Barbecue, Dead Hippie Burger Worth the Wait in London". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 15 July 2013.