Mario Carbone – Why Michelin Is Bullsh*t, Critics Don't Matter & The Secret Behind Carbone's Success
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What sparked Mario Carbone’s journey into the restaurant world?
Well ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the multi-award winning go-to food pod, and I'm with the multi-award winning genius here. Um we should say this is brought to us by Blink, the greatest POS system in the world. I hope Mario's gonna get it in all his restaurants. They're gonna get out to America eventually.
Are they? I've I I I don't even know. Trust me. Okay, great. We'll talk about that
later. We look
forward to it.
Um but we are joined by one of the most influential chefs restaurants of the last decade, Mario Cobone, the genius behind the major food group, who are responsible for like fifty great restaurants, bars, hotels. They're everywhere and they're genius at everything they do. Um he previously worked at some of the greatest restaurants in the US and even in Italy before launching his uh first restaurant in two thousand and nine. We're gonna get into all of this, but Mario, welcome to London. You've just arrived. I've got you a bloody Mary from Café Francois. Fantastic, cheers. Cheers, thank you so much for coming. You've just come in on the red eye, right? Yeah, I need this. Oh good and spicy. Yeah, it's good on it.
Nice. There was shaving horseradish. You know like like love actually, that jewelry that sort of jewellery scene. I was like that. It was a beautiful thing to watch. Delicious. Um so thank you to Kevin Francois. Um so thank you to Captain Francois. Um you're in on the red eye. How good does it feel to be in London?
It feels great. It's a bit warm, but it's always great to be here. Trying to pack as many things as I can get done in a few days. So I'm excited to be here. So you're here,
you were telling me off air for the launch of the Sinatra musical.
Yeah, tonight is um tonight is opening night of uh Frank Sinatra's musical. So exciting. That's uh being done in part by his family and estate. Um and uh yeah, it's starting here on the West End before it gets to Broadway. Beautiful.
Um I know you're a big fan of London, a big cigar man. Are
you gonna have time to enjoy a couple of cigars here? Oh absolutely, absolutely. I'm gonna go visit my friends over at Souter. That's the place to be. Uh on Mount Street. Those are those are my friends. Oh um so it's it's a good it's good excuse. There is actually no better excuse to kill an hour than that. Oh mate, it's the best thing to do, isn't it? Yeah.
Um we're just meters away from the famous borough market. I don't know if you've ever been to Baron Market before.
I have been through it. It can be you gotta choose wisely what day you go there. Yeah, it's it
c it can get horrific. A couple of missions places as well. But I want to ask you, when you're in London, just to kick us off, where do you like to eat apart from your incredible Russian obviously?
I've I've built up a list of places and I think it's the constant sort of uh conundrum of traveling is do you go back to a place that you love or do you keep trying new places um you know when you're here. Yeah. But but do you know you have some of these meals that you remember, like I had you know, I remember my first meal at Dorian and thinking this must be the best restaurant in London. Like it's just it was just an exceptional meal and I I keep wanting to go back but it I also want That's gonna be good. Um so I'm very excited to eat her food there and see that. Um What was it about
Duran which blew your mind?
I like the chances that they're taking. I think they're not they're not necessarily just cooking to try to make sure that the restaurant is full. Yeah. That he's cooking cooking. And and really, really with great execution.
Well he's just announced he's leaving. So are you gonna work together? Um Can you give us an exclusive on the go to food? He's not leaving to work with us. Oh I wish he was. I wish he was. I I also read that you like the Devonshire the Fat Badger kind of vibe. I mean, obviously, and we're gonna get into it, you bought amazing American theatric amazing food, but like a new way to dine, and I know there are other places to Dover and places like that which are also successfully doing it in London.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked Mario Carbone’s journey into the restaurant world?
0:04–6:03
2
How does Carbone design the signature “snack move” that greets guests?
6:03–14:16
3
Why does Mario say Michelin stars and critics are overrated?
14:16–22:34
4
What are Mario’s thoughts on the future of fine‑dining and tasting menus?
22:34–29:45
5
Why does Carbone consider alcohol essential to a restaurant’s profitability?
29:45–39:06
6
How does Carbone scale his concept across multiple cities while keeping consistency?
39:06–46:29
7
What can we expect from Mario’s upcoming London restaurant?
46:29–53:54
8
Which New York spots does Mario recommend for an ultimate foodie weekend?
53:54–1:00:06
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