THE HUMANE EXPERIENCE of BECOMING a RESTAURANTEUR

Meet David McMillan, he doesn't need an introduction - if you've been to Montreal (or live here) than you're very aware of his newsworthy restaurants, Joe Beef, which appeared as the first Canadian eatery to make the list on the World's 50's Best Restaurants alongside his other ventures Liverpool House and Vin Papillon and his new ventures Vin Mon Lapin and Mckiernan's. There's no secret recipe here, McMillan and his partners Fred Morin and Allison Cunningham have proven that hard work, customer loyalty and quality food always takes the cake. I was pleasantly surprised by McMillan's humility and dedication to his roots. He's Canadian born and proud of his heritage, although he has integrated french culture into his culinary masterpieces.

Did you always know you wanted to become a restauranteur?

Yes I think so. I used to skip school, stay home and watch cooking shows. I knew I wanted to work standing up with a knife, I didn’t want to be in an office, I didn’t want to wear a suit, I wanted to say f*ck when I wanted to - I wanted to be free. I went to ITHQ - it was mediocre, the teachers were all burnouts who hadn't really done anything in their own careers. I was never impressed with any teacher I met in cooking school. After school I decided to work in some french restaurant in Montreal where I met a lot of mentors. Daniel Schandelmayer - he was an important chef for me - he pushed me to go to work in Europe and that proved to make all the difference between me and other people.

Where did you go?

France, Burgundy.

Why did you think that experience was crucial to your career?

Work ethic. If we work in the North American system [generally] we're pretty lazy, you know the 40 hour work week is not many hours and [when] we work 60 hours we think that's insane. Were as in the French work ethic doing kitchen at that time was 7 am until 1 am, six days a week. You had to be shaved, on time, in the kitchen. It's hard for a few months to work that way as an American kid - we're pretty soft, fluffy and pudgy so when you