MAD

How to Take Over Your Parent's Restaurant in Five Easy Steps | Justin Pichetrungsi

Duration: 8:45 1173 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Justin Pichetrungsi shares his personal journey of taking over the family restaurant in Thailand after his father suffered a stroke, a transition that was never explicitly offered but rather felt as an inevitable necessity. Having worked independently for years as an artist and art director at Disney, Justin eventually returned to the kitchen to preserve his father's legacy and culinary skills, which he fears are fading due to his father's health condition. He describes the restaurant not just as a business but as an older sibling or parent that he feels responsible for protecting, noting that while many Americans strive for independence within one generation, his situation required him to step into the role of caretaker and successor out of love and duty rather than a formal handover. The process of assuming control was fraught with challenges, particularly regarding the trust of the long-standing staff who had worked for his father for decades. To bridge this gap and earn their respect, Justin adopted a humble approach by focusing on food quality, famously launching "Tai Taco Tuesday" to prove his competence despite having to relearn recipes that were previously measured in vague terms like "scoops." This period of adaptation also involved navigating the shifting identity of the restaurant itself, which evolved from a Mexican spot to a high-end omakase experience and eventually incorporated a massive wine collection, reflecting Justin's creative vision and willingness to experiment with different culinary cultures while maintaining the core essence of the family business. Ultimately, Justin attributes his success to viewing creativity as a fungible asset that can be transferred across industries, allowing him to bring fresh perspectives to a traditional establishment. He acknowledges the mortality of his aging parents, who are now in their mid-seventies, which accelerated his decision to take action before it was too late. By observing his parents work tirelessly through economic recessions and maintaining seven days a week operations with just two people, he realized that continuing on that path alone would be unsustainable. His story serves as an example of how blending outsider creativity with insider knowledge can revitalize a family legacy, turning a potentially difficult succession into a dynamic and evolving culinary experience.

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H. I'll walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on the past. Uh, I'm so fortunate to be here. Um, Anna Jack Tai is 43 years old. I'm 38 years old. My [laughter] How does that make sense? My restaurant's older than me. It's like having a house that's older than you or an older sibling, you know. Um, anyone, just by show of hands, anyone I know some, uh, have taken over their parents' business, bakery, restaurant. Huh? Anyone? Yes. Give it up for this person right here. [laughter] Woo. I I don't envy you, but I feel you. And uh I empathize uh with all you that have done that. I I you know, I often wonder why it doesn't happen in America more often. I actually I just think about that. I'm driving. I'm like, why don't people do this more often? And then I I look at myself and I'm like that's why you know like it's uh it's it's it's kind of challenging but perhaps we believe that we can become independent or independently wealthy within one generation. Um and so we kind of leave the past behind because we're like this is my life. I got this thing. I'm going to do it and forget what mom and dad did. Um I was kind of like that myself. Um it's the restaurant and this is this is me and dad. Dad had a stroke five years ago, six years ago now. Uh [sighs] and um he's a really really good cook. I mean I'll never cook on the walk as good as he can. It's just his movements and everything and all he wants to do is do that again and he can't. Um, you know, but it stays in my mind and my memory and hopefully my muscle memory, his muscle memory is kind of like mine. Hopefully or the other way around. Okay, so this is the talk. How to take over your parents' restaurant in five easy steps. Let's do it. It's so simple. It's only five steps. Oh, wait. Easy. Redacted. Okay. [laughter] No, my father achieved the American dream. Um I I'm proof that he achieved I'm the product of the American dream. He came here when he was a young man. And uh they never asked me if I wanted to take over the restaurant. Never. But I sat there and I watched them do it for all these years and um and something kind of sparked in me, you know, this unexplainable something, you know. Um but I had my own thing, right? I wanted it was the independence thing that I was talking about. Um, I became an artist. It's kind of born a painter. Um, you know, I became an art director, uh, conceptual artist for for Disney. You can look it up. Anyways, I was going to I was It's great, great place. Um, and I learned a lot there. Um, but when I came back to the restaurant, I had so much to learn. Dad had his stroke in May and the next day I basically left my job and I was cooking on the walk the next day trying to remember how would he do this? What's the you know I was looking at his recipe cards. I should have put it up. Um there was one it's for tamarind sauce and it says 25 scoops of sugar. What is a scoop? So, I called Dad. Dad, what the hell is a scoop? You know, we converted all the recipes. Don't worry, it's all in them grams now. Um, [snorts] and I had to earn the trust of the team. They'd been working for dad for like 20 years and they're um so talented, but they didn't really trust me. So, I thought that I would um try to earn their love the old school way, which is tacos. [laughter] I was like, "Okay, I I I got this, you know, look up all this books and stuff." And anyways, I made carnitas ki the pork and this broken oven. And then I cut some nice tortillas and and the guys were like, "Hey, this is pretty good. You know, maybe this maybe this dude knows what he's doing." Um, and that's kind of how uh Taco Tuesday was born. Tai Taco Tuesday. TTT. Oh, this is dad, by the way, when he was standing. I know he's making a crab in this picture. The celebrities on the wall. If anyone can name any one of these. Huh? Can anyone name any >> Oh, the f. Oh my god. Yeah, he's here twice, by the way. [laughter] I just love him. I love, you know. Um, yeah. So, I did Tai Taco Tuesday and then my mom goes, "What are we Mexican restaurant now?" I was like, "No, no, no, no, no." And then we did a 26 course omocas. Insane. Just out off of whim. we were doing this every month. And then she goes, "Omas, no, we're a Japanese restaurant." I'm like, "No, no, no, mom. Like, don't worry." You know? And she's like, "Okay, okay." And then now there's 600 SKs of wine in this tiny little place. And she goes, "Well, we're a wine bar now." I was like, "No, no. Uh, I guess we are. We I don't know." You know, so it's kind of this multiple personality disorder type place. You know, you can you can feel it. It's like it's like Picasso. It's like you're looking at two things in three different views. We change we changed the culture too. This kind of chef culture um at the same time. And a lot of people ask me uh how how did I do it? You know, how did it become such a sensation? Um, and actually one of the speakers in the back, she was like, "You have to tell me how you did it because I want my I want my son to take over for me." And I was like, [sighs] I I don't [laughter] know. Um, I because I watched them, you know, I watched them as a kid. I watched them through the recession, 2007, 2008. Then they opened on Mondays. There was seven days a week. It was just the two of them. And I I looked at them and they're older. You know, my parents are older. My dad's 75 now. I felt the mortality of them. I I felt like I had to do something. [snorts] And um and but you know what I believe? I believe that because I came from this different industry, so I kind of feel like an outsider and an insider at the same time. I feel that creativity is it's kind of like money. It's fungeible. You move it from one place to another place and you can just transfer that energy, you know, however you want if you're really smart about it.