Growing up in Milan, Giancarlo Princigalli began his promising career in the hospitality industry at the tender age of 14 working part time in the kitchen of a local restaurant. Now at 38 years old Giancarlo has worked with some of the industry’s top chefs in some of the most well-known restaurants in the world including Gordon Ramsay at Gordon Ramsay’s Holdings and at Petrus with Marcus Wareing. He is currently the Restaurant Director for Alyn Williams at the Westbury where he has resided for the last six years.
When we caught up with Giancarlo we found out why becoming 30 was a career turning point, why even the most difficult of customers can sometimes turn out to be your most loyal and how he sees his relationship with Alyn more like husband and wife rather than co-workers.
Why did you move to London and what made you want to be part of the hospitality industry?
I went to catering college back in Italy. When I was a little further along I had the chance to come to London to work at the Savoy because one of my school mates was working there at the time. Out of chance I just gave in my CV and before I knew it, after I finished the maitre d’ course, I began working at the Savoy. That was 16 years ago now.
What made you want to become a restaurant manager?
When I decided I wanted to work in hospitality I knew I didn’t want to be a commis waiter forever. Whatever job you choose to do you want to be the best you can. Once you conquer the next step you want to move on to something else, you want to keep pushing yourself to see what you can achieve.
Can you give us an overview of your job role.
My role isn’t limited to one particular area, it’s pretty much looking after everything, from the reservation office to PR and marketing alongside our PR company to training the staff and looking after the budgets. It’s giving good service on a day-to-day basis. It’s a pretty hands on role.
We read if you didn’t become a restaurant manager by the age of 30 you would have changed careers, so what would you be doing instead?
I don’t know, you always set targets for yourself to achieve certain things - turning 30 for me was a bit of a turning point in terms of what I wanted to achieve. I probably would have done something in the industry, maybe something at the catering college.
You have obviously worked with a lot of top chefs and at big name establishments, did those experiences help you get to where you are today and what was your time like at these places?
They teach you discipline, focus, an eye for detail and condition. Every chef I worked with from Marcus Wareing to Gordon Ramsay, all the staff were eager to succeed in their careers. When I look back at my colleagues they have all gone on to open their own restaurant or become the general manager or restaurant manager for another restaurant. I would not be where I am now if I had not worked with these people. I had an amazing time and I would not change it for anything else. It was not the easiest time but I think what you get out of it in the long run you can’t put a price tag on. A lot of people, especially chefs, put in all the hard work when they are young because they have the energy and the stamina and reap the rewards later on down the line.
So it was always an industry you knew you would go into then?
It was something I always liked, originally I was planning more towards the kitchen but I don’t see myself as a chef, I’m more of a people person, I like being on the floor and speaking to people. Luckily enough the catering college in Italy gives you an overview of the different areas in the industry so you can choose what you want to do so I decided on front of house.
You have been working with Alyn Williams at the The Westbury for a few years now, what is Alyn like to work with?
Alyn is like family, we have been working together for about 10 years now because he was the head chef for Marcus at Petrus and I was the restaurant manager back in 2006.
We both left Marcus pretty much one month after each other. After leaving Marcus I was looking for a job and Alyn offered to go work with him, so it was a no brainer.
It was a great opportunity to work with someone I knew, we’re like husband and wife! It’s good to be able to talk to each other because sometime chefs will have strong opinions or influence on what you are doing front of house whereas at the Westbury it’s pretty much 50/50. We all pass on our opinion from the front of house up to the back of house so it’s very much on an equal level.
How do you work together on menus and wines?
It’s a team effort, when we change the menu everybody gets involved. The wines are very subjective so what will work for one person won’t necessarily work for everybody so if between the six of us four of us suggest something we will look into it. I think Alyn’s point of view and mine are quite similar.
Info bar
‘Kitchen Nightmares’
Sometimes you have guests with allergies, we had a couple of guests come in with an allergy card and there were about 35 items on the piece of paper they couldn’t eat! If you know in advance you can deal with it but to do it on the spot sometimes it can be
