Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/844299
16 THE Diacono brothers don't do half-meas- ures. Their businesses, advertising, body art, but most of all, their cuisine, point to a de- sire for perfection in everything they do. "Don't bother, unless you're going to do it exceptionally well" summarizes their ethos. But now they say Malta is not receptive to this approach and they are looking to ex- pand away from our shores should worry us. Meet the founders of New York Best (NYB) and Fat Louie's: Tommy Diacono, 32, part-chef, part-force of nature – a hu- man tsunami of ideas, utterly uninhibited and radiating business acumen – while his younger brother Nicholas, 28, equally fear- less and knowledgeable, is calmer and more hands-on. Both are a riot to chat with, tre- mendously entertaining. "Tommy's very energetic, creative and a bit insane and I'm very down to earth, straight- forward and get things done. Together you get the idea guy and the machine," Nicholas explains as he announces plans to move the NYB brand abroad. "The reason that we're moving is because we gave up. We gave up operating in this market. You do things that take extra effort and involve an extra cost, above industry standards, to provide something special and people just don't get it. "For example a full butter brioche bun and meat delivered fresh and cooked from raw to order, pre salted, three times a week. Cooked from raw to order and you're complaining to me about the size, because it's expensive? It's a losing situation, there's no winning. I get complaints where quality is not even on the agenda, it's not mentioned – it's just size and price. I can't compete with that, I'm sorry, fuck off. My brisket is two slices. I had three complaints about it. Sir, you have 300g of smoked meat, 12-hour smoked meat. It's from England. What do you want – half a kilo of brisket? Was it good? – 'Only two slices.'" Nicholas puts his face in his hands. "Our chips, they're cooked three times. They go through a huge process to get the fluffy interior and crunchy exterior. It's not easy. It's also double the weight of the skinny ones. You get six 20x20 fries – a potato and a half. 'It's small' – because there are six fries – they count them. It's like the weight per fry doesn't matter. It's very upsetting. It's all about the quantity, here. It's nuts." Tommy Diacono says his prices are seen as expensive locally because he doesn't cheat on his taxes. "Everything is correct, mathematically calculated to contribution per minute, per onion, so I know what my prices are. Most of the guys I compete with don't pay VAT... I know for a fact that [one competitor] loses money on every portion of fries he sells. It's mathematically impos- sible to sell a fistful of that brand of chips – I know what brand he uses – for €1.50." Plans to move the brand abroad are at an advanced stage, says Nicholas. "It's very, very close." The brothers will still have a business interest in Malta, though, having recently won the franchise to open Wok to Walk in Malta in Spinola, two years after meeting its owner. NYB was Tommy's idea, who noticed a gap in burgers in Malta. "At that time there weren't really any good options. He con- vinced me to do it and we did it," Nicholas says. Catering is very much part of the Diacono DNA. "Father had a restaurant when I was a kid, he got rid of it when I was born because it was too much work," Nicholas says of Sar- dinella, "The work was insane." Restaurants Giuseppi's and Rubino are all Diacono fam- ily affairs. "My grandma was a cooking leg- end," says Nicholas of Rita Diacono, whose recipes were extensively featured on Malta- Today. Nicholas can usually be found at NYB's sister restaurant, Fat Louie's, in Paceville. "Fat Louie's is a mix of everything that we love. It's like old school French mixed with Texan... it's nose to tail eating, farm to fork, sustainable." To say that Nicholas knows his cuts of meat would be a miserable understatement. "The butcher's cut steak range – €15 for a cooked 300g steak, it's unheard of. It's basi- cally cuts that the butcher takes home be- cause he can't sell. Like the Denver, which is the chuck blade, or chuck roll which is exactly like rib-eye..." "We stress the respect for the animals that we eat. We don't understand how they don't get that. I guess the lack of protein – If you don't eat bone marrow, you can't think," he joked, before delivering a surprise scientific left-hook. "After all meat is what made us what we are in terms of brain development. The consumption of meat and bone marrow changed our brain structure." Surprisingly, there is a scientific basis for this. Some scientists believe that early homi- nids' use of stone tools allowed them to get at a food that no other creature could obtain – bone marrow, which contains fatty acids, vital for brain growth and development – leading to an increase in brain size and com- plexity. Jaw, meet floor. Unfortunately, Tommy complains, cater- ing in Malta tends to be seen as a "plan C" amongst young people. Pay is not an issue, he says. "If you're good, we'll pay you, you're an outlet manager in 2-3 months. My outlet managers make a good salary. If you want to stay hassle-free, punching fries, what the fuck do you want to get paid? Do my stock- take and I'll pay you more. Simple." Nicholas's face clouds over. "It's a huge human resources nightmare, catering in this country. It's nuts. The turnover is in- sane. We spend so much on training... a lot of them don't give a shit, just the bare mini- mum. They're just here to make money and so their parents don't shout at them. There's no passion, nothing. Very few people. We get some who come, take the piss, do the absolute minimum not to get fired – this af- fects your standards." His uncompromising suggestion for in- stilling a positive work ethic in the next generation of the workforce will win him no popularity contests though. "Remove the university stipend, or give it only if you work in catering. It's nonsense. You live at home – no one moves out at university age, it's unheard of. So why are you giving them money to buy books, why can't they earn the money? I don't understand – it doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. It's like teach- ing people how not to grow up, that's how I see it. "Most of my staff are foreigners, because [Maltese kids] have their stipend, they don't have to spend money. Mummy washes for them, mummy cooks for them, they can maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 JULY 2017 Interview Tommy and Nicholas Diacono, founders of New York Best and Fat Louie's, talk business, politics and architecture with MT. Ceramic lions get a mention too. Interview by MATTHEW AGIUS The brothers behind New York Best want to leave the island. Here's why We're surrounded with the Mediterranean Sea and we're eating farmed, Northern fish. What? Go to Sicily and try to find salmon, it doesn't exist