Se Meu Inconsciente Falasse: Marcelo Laskani | Daniel Salles

Summary

Chef Marcelo Laskani (interviewed by Daniel Salles) discusses his career building and evolving restaurant brands in São Paulo. He focuses on process improvements, people management, customer experience, and learning to balance work with family life.

Restaurant origins, growth, and rebranding

• PI, an Italian restaurant, opened 11–12 years earlier and succeeded due to:
  • Affordable prices
  • A concise menu focused on handmade pasta
  • “Original touches” in the right measure
  • A contemporary ambiance
  • Efficient service
• The restaurant began in a small abandoned house, at a time when the area had very few restaurants.
• After an end of partnership with the Rascon group, he started a new chapter:
  • Piltrator in Vila Lobos Park
  • He also references rebranding/expansion plans under variants like “pi trat” / “Pio, Piar” (subtitle phrasing unclear), with the goal of building a group of restaurants.

How his restaurant approach evolved (“chef-driven” → more structured)

At the beginning, PI was very chef-driven, with frequent menu energy/changes tied to youthful intensity. Over time, he emphasizes:

• Improving processes
• Changing the menu more slowly
• Being more selective about what changes
• Aiming for greater “peace of mind” and solidity
• Thinking more like a businessperson (not only the chef)

Menu changes, profitability, and value

He explains the business logic behind menu decisions:

• Avoid changing the menu too often because it can harm:
  • COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)
• When using expensive ingredients, pricing must be balanced to avoid:
  • Poor profitability / CMV (subtitle implies cost-management concept)

He strongly prefers a menu that offers:

• Good value for money
• A mix of experiences/products that appeal across different income “classes”

Reducing inequality / mixing customer profiles

• A key early goal was to bring different audiences together.
• Example of “old things” kept for atmosphere:
  • A record player and vinyl collection
  • Customers could get up and play records
  • Eventually removed because it was being damaged too much
• The intent remains: a human, inclusive atmosphere and service.

People management as the core of longevity

He argues that restaurant success depends on:

• Continuous training
  • “train today, train tomorrow, train the day after” (training never ends)
• A career plan for employees to improve retention and reduce turnover

He contrasts leadership styles:

• Earlier: intense/centralized (high intensity, long hours, stressful kitchen atmosphere)
• Later: a more horizontal structure and calmer environment

He also says he treats employees like a family and aims to maintain:

• Calm, fair leadership to keep the team stable
• Faster-paced leadership in the past made the atmosphere heavier and less sustainable

Delegation, planning vacations, and reducing anxiety

• He learned organization through the Rascon corporate environment, including formal processes and email-heavy management.
• Today he plans:
  • Annual schedules and time off (e.g., vacation periods aligned with children’s schedules)
  • Menu timing and operational milestones
• On anxiety:
  • He links it to “worries you don’t need,” especially about things outside control
  • “Escape valve” when anxious: sports/exercise
  • Example: worrying about external events (he mentions the World Cup schedule) doesn’t help because it’s uncontrollable

Compensation decisions and fair processes

He describes a former impulse-based approach to salary/raises:

• If an employee found better terms elsewhere, the boss would negotiate quickly
• This created cascading unfairness and team conflict

Today the process is more structured:

• Semesterly analysis
• Evaluating employee performance/behavior
• Collective promotion with clear requirements

His argument: following a process prevents unfairness and larger team problems.

Personal motivation: why restaurants matter to him

What drives him:

• A full dining room
• Happy customers
• A well-formed team where “everything clicks”
• Employees who feel cared for

He also frames ambition as:

• Creating jobs for families
• Building a restaurant group for long-term impact

Learning to balance life and time

• He reflects on time moving too fast, especially watching his children grow.
• He emphasizes not letting work consume everything:
  • Taking breaths and actively spending time with his kids
• He credits fatherhood (and marrying his wife) as central to his life path.

Health perspective

In his life goals, he highlights a strong fear of losing health:

• He wants to be healthy to enjoy life and see children/grandchildren grow.

Success definition

For him, success means both:

• Business stability and family unity
  • A restaurant that doesn’t constantly fluctuate or close quickly
  • Longevity (he mentions 30 years as a benchmark)
  • A united, “full” home with family

Customer dissatisfaction tracking (Resposta sponsorship)

The podcast connects to customer experience/CRM practices (Resposta):

• He says they do:
  • Monthly analysis and monthly meetings
  • Review multiple tools/sources (Google mentioned) to identify what to improve
• He notes a behavioral skew:
  • Many dissatisfied customers may not leave visible feedback the way complainers do
  • Satisfied customers often don’t leave positive reviews, skewing sentiment data
• Response to complaints:
  • Managers invite customers back to deliver a better experience
• He suggests customers should also leave praise, not only complaints.

Notable locations, products, and speakers

• Speakers
  • Marcelo Laskani (chef)
  • Daniel Salles (interviewer)
• Brands/venues
  • PI (Italian restaurant, Baixo Pinheiros)
  • Piltrator (Vila Lobos Park)
  • Rebranding mentions “pi trat” / similar variants
• Companies/products
  • Resposta (customer research/CRM platform; “Experience 30” coupon via QR code)
• Other references
  • Rascon group
  • Google reviews
  • Vinyl/record player (record collection idea)