A few months have passed since the re-opening and I can still see the challenges of getting going. This is a process in which we are trying to put together a staff with decent English and experience. Sadly, nowadays, those who s speak English and have experience are leaving Hungary. Our guest base has not yet developed. Many come from hotels and Hungarians try us, too, but it takes time to get to know us. Costes Downtown’s location is good. A lot of tourists hang out in the area and there are plenty of offices nearby. When defining the prices, one of the aspects was to be less expensive than the Costes on Ráday Utca but we don’t want to compete with prices because quality costs. Our goal is to reach out to a broader audience, so the experience is more casual and bistro-like.

Our aim is to attract people who otherwise would not go to a more high-end restaurant like the Costes on Ráday utca where people usually go on special occasions or anniversaries. From September, Miguel has been cooperating with us as a consultant chef, helping us develop meals and teaching us dishes, and also making sure the restaurant meets our standards, but now he lives in Portugal and only comes to Hungary every two weeks for 2‒3 days. The kitchen on Ráday utca will be led by Ester, the previous sous-chef. Costes Downtown’s kitchen will be coordinated in turn by Petra, who recently returned from America, and Tiago, who is from Portugal. We are striving to preserve the quality of the dishes and the ingredients.XP: Tell us a little about the Chef’s Table and Show Kitchen

CD: At Costes Downtown, we have a show kitchen with a unique Chef’s Table. At the Chef’s Table, a chef prepares a surprise menu, and besides allowing the guests to see the kitchen at work, this chef finishes off dishes that were already half-prepared. We also have a small wine cellar and those sitting at the Chef’s Table are given the opportunity to visit this cellar and taste a wine.

We provide breakfast because of the hotel, but if we have free tables, others can come in for breakfast as well. The Prestige Hotel Budapest has a conference room, to which we cater as well.

We are open every day of the week so we need a bigger staff. We have to provide sandwiches and cocktails in the lobby and the lounge and also take care of room service. This is a very complex task and we do not want to drop below our standards of quality. Every day we have two operating teams, one responsible for breakfast, room service, conferences and the lobby, while the other is responsible for lunch and dinner.

Let’s look back in time, to your first restaurant.

When had opened the Buena Vista, Liszt Ferenc tér was my main focus. Back then there were no terraces in Budapest. I wanted to create a place with a Mediterranean feel, places that already existed in other countries. We were the first to fight for permission to open a terrace in Budapest and in return, we had to take on a lot of responsibilities. We had charge of the security of the square, keeping it clean, and we even had to partly finance the costs of rebuilding the square. Nowadays terraces can be found everywhere, where a few tables are put outside. It would be hard to imagine the city without these, so it is difficult to believe that in 1998 this was not the case. Buena was a great place, operating both as a restaurant and as a café. During the season, we could provide tables for 400 people. Luckily business was good, but it troubled me that the place was too big and did not allow us to focus on the details. One day a buyer showed up offering a good price for Buena Vista and so I sold the restaurant.

After selling it, I was thinking of creating a smaller but better quality place, a fine dining restaurant which could become world-class in Hungary. I knew that this would only work if we did not compromise on the ingredients, on the professionalism, and on the technology. In Hungary most people need a business that provides their living and this eventually leads to a drop in quality. Luckily we did not have to live from this business, so we could focus on quality, and 18 months after opening this restaurant, the Ráday utca Costes, became the first Michelin-starred restaurant in the country. We placed 25th on Tripadvisor and ranked 14 on the list of best restaurants in Europe, in 2014.

This business model, however, does not allow for making profit; it doesn’t even cover its costs. At first we did not expect to make money with it, but eventually it began to bother me: regardless of professional recognition, after eight years the place still needs financial support. So we decided to establish a bigger place at a better location that would become a more profitable business. In Hungary that layer of society that can afford expensive quality is rather small, but it is increasing , and now more people can afford high-end gastronomy. This is a slow process. There are no big jumps here, since people’s need for quality is slowly if constantly increasing. Even though there are at least 100 good restaurants, there are only 5‒6 internationally recognized places. When we opened in 2008, two out of three of the best places ( Páva and Lou Lou) went bankrupt. Back then, it was not a profitable business to be in.

As there are at least 20 000 dining places in Hungary, 100 is not a significant number. By now, though, the situation might have matured to a level where a place that attracts a broader audience, one that is more casual, friendlier, and still provides great quality, can be successful business-wise, or at least we hope that this will be the case for Costes Downtown.

Talk to us about the Michelin Star(s)

We enjoy good relations with all the Michelin-starred places, because we collectively want to change people’s approach. While in the past, a good place was where the most food was put on our plates, nowadays this approach has begun to change, but it is still present. For a second star there are higher expectations. Ten years ago only those who were thinking in terms of elegance had a chance. Luckily today a more polished, simple environment is not a reason for exclusion, and waiters are not expected to wear fancy gloves. Nowadays, a chequered table cloth and a simple dish can achieve a star, and we don’t have to force the overly elegant fine dining line. A second star of course requires more complicated and exciting dishes and it is important that the restaurant explores its own style. The Ráday utca Costes might have a slight chance for a second star, but this is not likely to happen before the next Guide is released.

Eszter Palágyi, who took over the Ráday utca kitchen from Miguel, is very talented. She has also worked abroad in one and two-starred restaurants. In the past two years she has worked together with Miguel efficiently, so I am not worried about a decline in quality. Yet the chances of getting our second star any time soon are low because of a change in chef and the opening of a new place. Other places, where such events did not occur, have better chances than us perhaps.

Costes Downtown was built in a way that we avoided the obstacles we faced with Ráday utca. So if we can get the right team together, then Costes Downtown, in the long run, will have better chances of professional recognition, but we need a few more years for this. It is however promising that at the opening we were able to provide higher quality than in 2008 at the opening of the Ráday utca restaurant.

Let’s talk about Budapest Park, Sziget and all the other festivals. Do you have a personal favorite?

Budapest Park operates for five and a half months in the summer season and attempts to provide Sziget’s atmosphere in the city for those nights when concerts take place. Sziget is my favourite, because it was our first festival. It is like a first child. This was the toughest birth. And it has grown to be the biggest, so it will always remain number one. This year the 23rd Sziget took place. A lot of things have changed and my interests have broadened so nowadays we also hold gastronomic events, the Gourmet festival. I don’t do anything that I don’t emotionally get attached to. I only deal with things that are close to me, so it is hard to differentiate between WAMP, Sziget, and the others. WAMP has been around for six years when joined in. First I had a 51% share in it but now I am own 100%. Luckily it is improving. The need for contemporary design products is high, and we have managed to widen the range of exhibitors. Today, artists and designers from 5‒6 countries are constant exhibitors. Internationalisation not only takes place amongst them, but we have reached out to markets of neighbouring countries, too. We also hold design fairs in Vienna and Bratislava.

At Budapest Park, the Sziget Company was the first programme organiser. Back then we did not own part of it. The place ended its first year without profit. It actually made a loss. So they asked us to organise the following season’s programme. When we organized the whole thing, one of its owners decided to quit and cut financial support. He offered to sell us his share. In the end, we joined in with one my friends, two weeks before the opening. Since then the 3rd season has passed and luckily the place is improving in terms of concerts and audience size. Because of the loud music, such a place cannot be moved into inner parts of the city, but the place can easily be reached, for example with the No. 2 tram. However, people only go to Budapest Park for the concerts; they don’t just pop in from the streets like in other places of the downtown, so it is only open when there are special programmes taking place.

VOLT is Sziget’s little brother and is mainly intended for Hungarians. It always strives to present various, colourful genres of music, but its main orientation is still Rock, although David Guetta had a concert there this year. Originally he was intended for Sound, but he could only make it during VOLT. VOLT is mainly about music, but there are other events, too. When choosing programmes, we mainly look at the local youth trends, so 95% of the visitors are from Hungary. VOLT is visited my many people who were originally Sziget’s audience, but the festival in Sopron, regarding size and musical repertoire, is closer to them.

Sziget is an international, multicultural, artistic festival, taking place in Budapest. It is intentionally done in a way that makes it attractive and unique internationally. By now, Sziget is the number one touristic attraction in Hungary, bringing almost three times as many tourists as Formula One. Eight-five percent of those coming with a season ticket are from abroad. Daily tickets are favoured by Hungarians, so the ratio ends up as 50:50between foreigners and Hungarians at the festival.
Balaton Sound is a premium festival that provides high quality in terms of services, and mainly focuses on Electronic music on the lovely shores of the Balaton. This also attracts a lot of foreign visitors.

This year, all the festivals had petitions for Live Earth, before the Paris Climate talks, to warn the leaders of the world about the environment sustainability. Our aim was to achieve one billion signatures in order to establish a worldwide agreement, like in Kyoto, ten years ago. Leaders need to take responsibility and take effective steps towards solving climate issues like CO2 emission problems.

How do you see the future of Sziget, VOLT, and Sound?

The festivals have reached their limits. I don’t see big changes in the future. In the last 10‒15 years it has become a trend to organise festivals. There are a lot of them, while the number of performers who the audience want to see is limited. Everyone wants to get the same stars on their festival. This race is getting out of control because the price of the performers is constantly increasing; it’s a bidding system. Let’s say if we wanted to have the same programme next year, that would mean an extra 30‒40% in price, but the audience would not pay that much more. So we must find a solution. If the programme gets more expensive, we will not be able to financially support it because if the ticket prices go up, people will not buy them. We must do something in order to get the visitors not to focus so much on the performers, but on the experience that our festivals provide them with. For this, the individual services of the festivals must be improved, so that they are not just one of many. The visitors have to feel like they are experiencing something unique. In my opinion, we are heading in the right direction, for we have sold season passes without people knowing the actual programme list.

And a personal vision of the future?

I want to continue with this while I have the motivation to go to work in the morning and think about improving the next festival. Today, a lot of things interest me, so I deal with various areas. But for now the Sziget festival takes a bigger part of my time. I would like to spend as much time as possible with my family and travel around the world, and I have another 2‒3 project ideas but I don’t know yet when I will be able to spare time for them.