Erik Berne on an awesome year at Inspira
We sat down with Erik Berne, star chef at Restaurant Inspira (according to a spectacular interview with Sydsvenskan last spring), to have his perspective on what has been and what will be.
Medicon Village (MV): What made you take the job?
Erik Berne (EB): It sure was a trigger to have the opportunity to run your own restaurant, after eleven years as Food & Beverage Manager at Grand in Lund. To be onboard from day one and get the chance to form the ”product”. It really was a challenge, but a more rewarding and fun one than I ever imagined. You expect a lunch restaurant serving 500 guests a day to be a simple cook-warm-repeat experience. Instead, I’ve made new learnings almost every day, having fun with happy, grateful and awesome guests.
MV: … and the biggest challenge so far?
EB: I would say handling large events with a new team not used to the venue. In my line of business, routines are everything. You don’t have a safety net when you’re about to give service to hundreds of hungry guests in place to have a great time. Without routines you feel insecure, creating stress and bad temper. I think we’ve handled the first year very much ok, much thanks to the venue being a brilliant one, with a great kitchen and a lot of space adaptable to different needs. Another interesting issue to deal with was to find colleagues who can grow together into a great team. 13 months into this journey, I’m really happy with the people I work with and hope they feel the same.
MV: How about Inspira today?
EB: We’re doing just fine with about 450 lunch servings a regular weekday, and a conference business constantly growing. One might think that a weaker economy would have negative impact on bookings now and for the Autumn, but we haven’t seen any of that yet. Whether it’s us doing a good job, the venue being a magnificent one or our guests not being that affected by macro factors surpasses my understanding. I just go with the flow together with my team, trying to do my best and to enjoy the ride day by day.
MV: … and tomorrow?
EB: Growth is great, but I prefer slow and steady growth with control. 500 guests for lunch on average, with peaks at like 700 due to conferences, sounds like something to strive for. With that level we can deliver quality with no doubt. Both regarding what our local suppliers of food can deliver in a sustainable way, but also what we as a team can handle without having to expand, which isn’t always beneficial to team spirit.
MV: Any plans for improvements to raise the bar?
EB: This business is all about improving to exceed expectations. The day you stop trying to be better than the day before, that day it’s over. In focus right now is to have our four serving stations replaced with new ones, offering better heating and water handling. The guests might not take notice, but it’ll improve our level of quality regarding keeping food warm. In order to improve on ambience, we have mounted curtains in the café, to deal with strong sun and acoustics. There are also new lamps, shelves and paintings on their way.
MV: Isn’t catering worth considering?
EB: We’re already on it. We do deliver food in daytime within the village and to other locations, and we have assignments at a wedding and a birthday party this summer, but our main concern is and will be serving high quality lunch to 500 guest every weekday. Part of thinking in terms of quality is to minimize food waste. We’ve recently invested in two machines to package lunch food into take away dinner portions, in order for our guests to bring the Inspira touch home for family members to enjoy, easily and affordable.
MV: A wish for the future?
EB: Future to me is what’s up in a month or so. If I should fall into wishing, I would hope for 300 guests on our next Science After Work on 11 May! We had about 160 on average last year, which was really great, but I want more. I’ve decided that weather will be lovely, with delicious barbeque and cold beer on the terrace. So, I expect the usual suspects to show up, bringing colleagues and friends to really make that event the one you don’t want to miss this Spring.
MV: One last thing for the curious researchers visiting you, eager to know more about your business?
EB: Consider that we wash 9,000 forks a month. Add knives and spoons, and you have more than 20,000 pieces of cutlery used every month. That’s our business in numbers!
More on Inspira at https://www.mediconvillage.se/inspira-medicon-villages-meeting-place-for-both-relaxed-socializing-and-business/.