An Interview With Martita Mestey
Don’t get insulted if one person didn’t like a dish, there are billions of people out there and each one has had a different life experience and flavor profile that speaks to them; you can’t please them all.
As part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Scott Yeng, owner of The Holding Company.
As the owner of The Holding Company, Scott Yeng oversees daily operations, manages inventories and cooks sauces and marinades daily for the Ocean Beach, Calif. restaurant. A Cambodian-born immigrant, Yeng brings almost three decades of restaurant industry experience to his role.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restaurateur?
Growing up in Ocean Beach in the early 90s and 2000s, there wasn’t many Asian families. In fact, throughout grade school, there were perhaps only two or three other Asian kids in my entire school. So, this always let to the other kids being very curious and often finding what I ate at home or had for lunch quite weird. But time after time again, when I shared my lunch or had friends over after school, the comments were always the same, “This is freaking amazing!” This is definitely one of the biggest reasons why I choose to become a restaurateur, it gives me the ability to share a snippet of my culture with the people I’ve grown up with. Food is the international love language in my opinion, though we may not be able to speak the same language, we all share the desire to entice our taste buds and explore the different possibilities of favor combinations.
Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?
Going back to my previous answer, I focus on all sorts of Asian cuisines. This was a way for me growing up as a minority, to break down stereotype and discrimination, while also introducing my friends to a whole new world they never experienced. I remember one time when I was in fourth grade on a class field trip, my mother packed me a Bun Bao. This is a classic white Bao bun filled with ground pork, mushroom, onions, chives, and eggs. From the outside it looked like a whole onion. So, when it was lunch time, all the kids thought I was so weird to be eating an onion for lunch! Of course, when I shared it with my classmates, it was such a huge hit that every class field trip, my mother would always pack a few extra so I could share with the kids. It sure beats the usual PB&J other kids had for lunch.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a restaurateur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
When we first opened our first restaurant, the kitchen and the dining room was separate by a small 6-foot wall. My brother and I were both the cooks, waiter, busser, hostess, you name it. One time a table ordered a dish that got sent back. So I took the dish back to my brother and explained that the table was didn’t like the dish because of *insert reason*. Well, my brother and I ended up getting into an argument over who messed up the dish — I said it was him, he said it was me — and we were yelling and throwing hot woks across the kitchen at each other. After that, I went back to the table, calm and collected with a wok burn on my arm, and softly said “I’m terribly sorry for the mistake, but we will remake the order right away.” The customer who had this shocked looked on his face was speechless and just nodded. In the heat of the moment, we forgot that the only thing separating the customer from the kitchen was this tiny thin wall, so they heard everything that was going on back there. It was funny to think back on it and how I came out and just pretended that everything is fine, and we were all professional while nursing a third degree burn on my arm. This was before Gordon Ramsay made chaos in the kitchen entertaining mind you. The lesson here? The customer satisfaction is always the goal, and it doesn’t matter if it takes a third degree burn to deliver the best meal possible!
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?
Hard times in the restaurant industry is never ending. When we started, and still to this day, finding reliable, passionate employees will always be one of the hardest task of any restaurateur. However, I am proud to say that we have retained almost every single staff that we started with when we first opened the restaurant. The formula is simple: treat your team like family. Many owners will tell you this, but seldom practice it. As owners, we are not just the guy who sign their pay checks. We are their mentors, their brother in arm, their counselor, their therapist, and often times, their last resort. If we show that we will always stand by them and fight on the battle fields with them, be there in their time of need, and pay them a fair wage; keeping those valued staff will not be a problem.
In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?
In this day and age of social media, a lot of emphasis has been placed on making that picture perfect dish that could proudly be shared on Instagram. But to me, food at its core, is a comfort thing. A dish that can bring back fond memories, and act as a time machine to bring us back to a time that brought us great joy, in my opinion trumps any picture-perfect plate.
Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?
The perfect meal for me is a balance of protein, vegetable, and carbohydrates. It should have a balance of sweet, salty, and savory while not having one overpower another. A meal that can be shared with friends and loved ones gets an added bonus in my book.
Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?
My inspiration for creating comes from the desire to put a smile on the face of the person who is eating it. I live for the that first bite and seeing the reaction of the customers eyes get wide open, neck kicked back, and as the eyes slowly gets smaller; the smile and delight comes to the customer’s face. When I can create a dish that does this to my mother, that’s when I know I’m on to something, after all, she’s the one who taught me everything.
What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?
Never stress out about the things you have no control over. In this business, things will never go according to plan, and there will always be curveballs. But have a team that you trust, and delegate certain responsibilities to them. In the end you are only one person and there are only 24 hours in a day. You can’t do it all by yourself, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.
- Don’t make plans outside of work, they will almost always get canceled.
- Don’t get insulted if one person didn’t like a dish, there are billions of people out there and each one has had a different life experience and flavor profile that speaks to them; you can’t please them all.
- You don’t own the restaurant; the restaurant owns you.
- Other staff members also have good ideas too, listen to them!
- The customer is NOT always right, regardless of popular beliefs.
What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?
Dinner: Sizzling Filet Mignon Beef
Brunch: Ube Pancake
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Like my childhood, often times bullying, stereotypes, discrimination all stems from lack of knowledge and experience. We may not all look alike, sound or speak alike; but we all love one thing and that’s GOOD FOOD! Rather disagree and fight in the streets, I challenge those who have a disagreement to share a good meal and discuss their issue. My parents always said, there is no disagreement that can’t be solved over a hot meal. We are conditioned to let things go when our belly is full and our taste buds are satisfied.
Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!
Scott Yeng Of The Holding Company: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.