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Speaker 1: Well, let's talk food now, and let's talk excellence in food.

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Speaker 1: Because there are around one two hundred restaurants that describe

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Speaker 1: themselves as steak restaurants all over the globe. They get

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Speaker 1: evaluated every single year and only one hundred and one

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Speaker 1: make the cut. They are a small group of restaurants

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Speaker 1: that actually get on it. And for twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 1: once again a Johannesburg restaurant called The Blockmen, which has

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Speaker 1: returned to the list having been there before. So what

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Speaker 1: makes a great steak restaurant? What pleases the judges? Let's

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Speaker 1: talk to the own owned founder of the Blockman, the

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Speaker 1: head chef, Basil Hollas Menos, is joining us now. Chef Basil, welcome,

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Speaker 1: It's great to have you with us on the show.

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Speaker 1: This is a and I was saying this before in

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Speaker 1: you know, letting people know that they should be with

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Speaker 1: us at ten to five so they can hear what

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Speaker 1: you had to say. But I was saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: in this nation that where there's kind of a breaking

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Speaker 1: around virtually every single fire, how do you use a

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Speaker 1: stake restaurant convey to people. Yeah, we know, you can

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Speaker 1: do your stuff when you're in your own back garden.

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Speaker 1: But we're going to give you something different. What is

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Speaker 1: that something different?

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, high how we is the thing

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Speaker 2: is is that, as you said it very rightly, we

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Speaker 2: are in nation that at every South African's heart is

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Speaker 2: a brie. You know, it's a place, it's a place

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Speaker 2: where everybody comes to celebrate, you know, there comes to

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Speaker 2: spend time with friends and family. And I think what

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Speaker 2: we've done is we've just we've we've tried to keep

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Speaker 2: that ethos and bring it into our restaurants, especially obviously

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Speaker 2: the blockmen where we obviously grow everything off chocolate and fire.

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Speaker 2: And the way we make it a little bit different

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Speaker 2: is that we are offering you know, we don't just

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Speaker 2: have one line of meat We've got We've got a

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Speaker 2: ton of different lines of meat from premium cuts all

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Speaker 2: the way through to our local which in my opinion

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Speaker 2: is some of the best meat in the world. The

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Speaker 2: South African beef that we have.

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Speaker 1: Tell us the importance. Let's let's go right back in

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Speaker 1: the process, the procurement, the meat that you actually buy.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are you to be found on certain days

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Speaker 1: of the week heading out to somebody's farm to look

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Speaker 1: at their cattle?

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Speaker 2: I mean that doesn't have that doesn't happen like as

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Speaker 2: often as I would like in the restaurant. But a

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Speaker 2: lot of the supplies will come and a lot of

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Speaker 2: a lot of new supplies come through. They'll show us

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Speaker 2: the product, and obviously we have you know, we have

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Speaker 2: almost a procurement method in the way we do things.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we go from looking at you know,

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Speaker 2: the beef and what cattle it was bred down from

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Speaker 2: to the marbling and the color of the beef and

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Speaker 2: most importantly the consistency. So that's it. I mean, that's

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Speaker 2: the way we do it. You know, we're also pretty

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Speaker 2: we're also pretty heavy on on certain line items like

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Speaker 2: how the beef is fed and what it is fed on,

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Speaker 2: which is a big thing. And then if if some

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Speaker 2: of the cattle are you know, antibiotic and hormone free,

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Speaker 2: we do have rangers for that, so there's a little

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Speaker 2: bit for everybody. Then I think it does play a

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Speaker 2: big role in the consistency by checking that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the competition. I mean, firstly, do you

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Speaker 1: know when the judges are in your restaurant and secondly,

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Speaker 1: what are they looking for?

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I wish I knew, you know,

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Speaker 2: it'd be, it'd be it would be a great thing

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Speaker 2: if we knew when they were going to come in. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we won. Obviously we won last year, which was you know,

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Speaker 2: which was an incredible achievement, and we were incredibly lucky

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Speaker 2: to be on that list. So from last year to now,

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Speaker 2: we've been working really hard and obviously trying to make

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Speaker 2: the new one, and it was it was a very

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Speaker 2: big surprise that we got on again and we're so

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Speaker 2: so thrilled to be able to be on that list.

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Speaker 1: What are they judging you on? I mean a restaurant

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Speaker 1: obviously is the food, but a restaurant is always so

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Speaker 1: much more. Do they have a waiting on the actual meal,

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Speaker 1: on the ambiance, on the other things that, you know,

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Speaker 1: the sides that you might offer in addition to the grill.

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Speaker 2: Yes. I think what they try and do is they

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Speaker 2: try and obviously look at it holistically, so they'll look

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Speaker 2: at the wine offering, the so miliears that come to

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Speaker 2: the table, the waiters and the service and the presentation,

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Speaker 2: the cleanliness, design of the restaurant, and again it's all

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Speaker 2: down to the quality of the food that you're serving them.

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Speaker 2: So I think holistically they will take they'll they'll rate

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Speaker 2: you on that.

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Speaker 1: I occasionally eating steak restaurants and and there's quite a

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Speaker 1: bit said about the aging of the steak. Tell us

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Speaker 1: about it. I mean there's dry aged and wet age.

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Speaker 1: There's probably sub categories of the above. As you can hear.

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Speaker 1: I know very little about it, so give us an

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Speaker 1: idiot's guide.

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Speaker 2: Yes, well, it's very simple. Obviously, the one wet age

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Speaker 2: will be in a vacuum bag, which and then sorry,

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Speaker 2: and then the other one will be the dry aging,

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Speaker 2: which will be in a dry age facility where it's

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Speaker 2: open to the elements or open to the air in

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Speaker 2: the dry age. It's a little bit more scientific than

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Speaker 2: that pretty much, but in the lame in terms of

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Speaker 2: what happens is the way we operate is for the

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Speaker 2: dry age stuff. If it's stuff like a Jersey cow,

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Speaker 2: they're sorted a bit later on in life, so their

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Speaker 2: meat is tougher, so you have to dry age them

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Speaker 2: for a little bit longer. And the idea behind dry

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Speaker 2: aging obviously you'll lose the thirty percent or up to

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Speaker 2: thirty percent throughout the time of you cutting it and

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Speaker 2: then serving it, and it has less blood, so it's

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Speaker 2: actually a brilliant a brilliant cut for people that don't

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Speaker 2: like a lot of blood in their meat.

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Speaker 1: You come from a family of restaurants, you and your dad, THEO,

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Speaker 1: and people will know the places you've created. Colin Arki

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Speaker 1: a premier Greek restaurant Modena, which is and now now

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Speaker 1: you're doing steaks. I mean, is it hard to kind

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Speaker 1: of be good at all of it? Or is there

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Speaker 1: thread through running a great restaurant that in many ways

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Speaker 1: is common, even if the particular cuisine is different.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think everything listen, it's it's it's it's a

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Speaker 2: difficult industry to be in because everything changes all the time.

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Speaker 2: But the main thing is is that you're it's how

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Speaker 2: you build your team. And we're very lucky and be

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Speaker 2: blessed with our team. Our team is great from from

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Speaker 2: everybody down to the general managers, to ops team, to

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Speaker 2: the guys on this scullery, and they all they all

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Speaker 2: understand the ethos and we try and train them on

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Speaker 2: our ethos so they obviously fall in line and and

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Speaker 2: we work together as a team, which makes us be

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Speaker 2: able to give you such a good product.

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Speaker 1: Do you like steak yourself?

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Speaker 2: I know you can't see me, but I'm a very

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Speaker 2: typical meet eat you know, okay, if yeah, if it's

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Speaker 2: if it's deep by meeting it for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean just a very quick question. I mean,

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Speaker 1: do you do you need to like a dish to

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Speaker 1: be able to make it and sell it or is

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Speaker 1: there a disconnect where you say, listen, I'm not particularly

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Speaker 1: keen on that particular pasta dish, but I know it's

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Speaker 1: a hit and I know when it's been well made.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can't. You can't. You can't obviously

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Speaker 2: cook for what you like yourself, have to cook for

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Speaker 2: for what is popular out there, and I think it's

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Speaker 2: how you treat the ingredients. So nobody really likes broccoli,

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Speaker 2: but you know if you do, if you do it nicely,

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Speaker 2: you know it's it's a dish, it will be nice

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Speaker 2: if you get what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I like broccoli. I have to say, but thank

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Speaker 1: you and congratulations. Please pass on now, are well done

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Speaker 1: to to your whole team, because, as you say, Chef Basil,

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Speaker 1: this is a team. If it is great, I think

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Speaker 1: we all do well when our various entities, small businesses

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Speaker 1: like restaurants, they're not such small businesses are major corporations

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Speaker 1: when they make it onto world lists that are judged

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Speaker 1: against exacting standards. I think that little bit of tie

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Speaker 1: water rising raises the tide for all of us. So

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Speaker 1: that is the blockmen. They are on the list of

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Speaker 1: one hundred and one World's Best Steak Restaurants with chatting

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Speaker 1: there to Chef Chef Basil Holyas Menos seven oh two

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Speaker 1: drive two minutes to five