Harlan Goldstein Doesn't Need Gordon Ramsay's Anger to Run a Kitchen

I was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York, in 1961. I was raised by a single mother and a sister.  My uncle got me a job in Le Montreux Palace hotel in Switzerland when I graduated from high school—and I didn’t know how to speak French. The training and working environment was very tough back then: screaming, hitting, all that bullshit. It’s changed now, because people wouldn’t put up with it. But when you’re young, determined and you really want to get ahead, you put up with a lot of shit.

I was a gourmet chef in New Orleans at 22. I chose to go to Chicago and work for a three-star Michelin chef for nothing compared to what I was getting.  That was the strategy for me: to work with a lot of good people, and learn my craft as much as I could. In 1990 I got the offer to go to Beijing to open the Shangri-La’s China World Hotel. I thought: “Let’s go to China, it’ll be interesting.” I went thinking I’d be there for one or two years and I’d go back to the US. Well, I never went back.

At the Shangri-La they asked if I’d like to run the restaurant at the Aberdeen Marina Club. I turned it from a sleepy one to a very successful one. I showed myself I could do business. I decided to leave a very stable job and take the risk of opening up a restaurant, because of Walter Kwok [of Sun Hung Kai Properties].I was at a dinner party cooking for him and I asked, “Why don’t you give me a place at IFC?” He said, “Come by tomorrow.” I went—and he gave me a place.

My one restaurant turned into seven within three and a half years. Hong Kong was on a roll. Unfortunately after five and a half years of working together [with a business partner], we didn’t see eye to eye. He trademarked my name, “Harlan.” Of course I went after him to get my name back, but after I saw the lawyer’s bill, I called him: “Keep my name as a gift, because I’ll come back as Harlan Goldstein.” I took a break, then opened several restaurants with a new partner. That lasted about six years and I sold the company to him. It was almost like a six-year marriage. After eight months of travel around the world I’ve joined ZS Hospitality Group as a joint venture partner, and I’ve taken over the whole building at 8 Lyndhurst Terrace.

I’ve been known for all the high-end stuff in the past—Michelin-starred chefs, big price tickets—but now you can get the same quality as in the past, with a very affordable experience. I’m not saying I’m going Cheap Charlie, but I’m sensitive to what the market is. You can’t rest on your laurels and say, “What I did six years ago is going to work.” It doesn’t. You’ve got to stay up with what’s going on in the world. I classify my restaurants as real food and real experiences. If you have trendy and gimmicky things, people try you once and never come back. It takes a lot to build a successful restaurant group.