Sotiris Limperopoulos: " If you pocess the ability to acess your food, you are free. I mean really free"
BPP: Tell us some things about Sotiris Lymperopoulos.
Sotiris Limperopoulos: I want to enjoy my life. I would like to look back one day and I want to be able to say that I lived my life well. People think they will live forever. I did only what I really loved in my life.
I remember once, I asked a wealthy, elderly man to allow me to use one of his buildings for a short period of time. He was very rich, very old and he had no children. I asked him to do it, without any previous financial transaction. My intention was to realize what really connect people with their property and with all the material goods they have acquired. Of course he refused ..
Always amazes me how could be possible for a rich man to ask me persistently how much an egg costs, when he is willing to spend an exorbitant amount of money, for his wife's manicure for example.
I do not feel connected to any of the material goods. I'm only connected with people. The smile of my wife, when I return back to our home is priceless for me.
Many of the successful people I met, are not happy. The Gypsy who knits the baskets I use to collect herbs, has a wide, warm smile and she is much happier than those people.
BPP: How did you decide to do this job?
Sotiris Limperopoulos: I wanted to start my own business but there were no money at all.
One day, the idea was born in my head and I followed it without a second thought.
The difference between the way I do my work from the way other collectors do their work, is simple: I do it according to the respective requirements relating my customer's wishes and needs and above of all, I do it legally.
Also, I try to understand clearly my client needs every time, what he is looking for and try to offer it to him. For example, each chef has a different perception of what the great flavor is. So, I eat with them, sometimes I suggest some materials I can find, sometimes they ask me to find things I never heard before. The relationship between my customers and me, is a bidirectional relationship. Above all, I offer them consequence.
BPP: Ferran Adrià will be thrilled if he met you.
Sotiris Limperopoulos: I'm not sure about this. But for me it was a greater experience to meet Evi Voutsina, a greek lady, who dedicated her life to real greek cusine and to our traditions. In a very scientific way.
BPP: How did your potential customers react when you presented to them your ambitious plans about food scouting?
Sotiris Limperopoulos: In the beggining, nobody showed an interest. Only the restaurant "Milos" has agreed to work with me. I told them that I had no other customers and thus, the cost would have been higher. They certainly insisted to go on with our cooperation. "Find the best" they told me and so happened. I learned a lot from them. Above all, I learned the way a restaurateur or a chef thinks.
BPP: What are your future plans?
Sotiris Limperopoulos: I want a fair face for my business. I want all the people who work with me or for me to be happy and I want to be sure that they have their reward for what they do for me. Also I want to do my work with the greatest possible respect to nature. I know many things about cultivations and I have some ideas of how I can work with it,
I'm going to sell my products to Organization of Earth.
BPP: Why will you do such a thing?
Sotiris Limperopoulos: Because I want to sell and because It has a lot of fun.
BPP: People complain constantly about the economic crisis. They say that it is a serious οbstacle that get them out of their plans. What do you think?
Sotiris Limperopoulos: Οn the contrary, now someone has a real opportunity to do his own business, because now everything is cheaper than ever. Real estate, machinery, cars. Otherwise it would cost a fortune. Now with 200 euroyou can fly to Paris. I've been in Paris twice lately.
BPP: Did you managed to sell your service there;
Sotiris Limperopoulos: I asked from 20 great french chef to meet me. One of them, told me that he liked my work, but he had to be faithful to french products.
BPP:Would you prefer Greek chef to think like him
Sotiris Limperopoulos: I would like Greek chef to think the same. Some of them already do it of course. It would be great if they decide to support clean, raw materias of our country. But there is always the problem of aesthetics. And to manage to create a beautiful image, it means you have to spend a lot of money. I expect from chefs to create with my wonderful raw material and to do it with the greater simplicity they can.
BPP: What is the most important thing you've learnt on this planet?
Sotiris Limperopoulos: When the war came in my country at the second world war, my rich grandmother from the side of my mother had no food to eat. On the other side, the family of my father who were really poor, manged to survive. Because they knew how to collect their own food. This is the most important lesson for me: if you pocess the ability to acess your food, you are free. I mean really free. Greeks are rich. No matter what others say about us or what greeks say about their "poverty". We can live like kings because we live in a blessed land. We really don't know what poverty is. I've have heard stories about poverty from my father.
The secret is to get rid of television. I don't want to have Tv's voice as my life's background.
Get a life, please!
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