We recently connected with Alejandro Muguerza and have shared our conversation below.

Alejandro, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

My founding partner and myself decided to open a catering business in 1991. At that time the world was immersed in the mood of the first Gulf War. London was starting to look very grim and I had the chance by pure coincidence to attend a wedding of a member of the Cuban high society in Palm Beach. Upon arriving in Miami for that wedding, I soon realized that life in Miami was continuing happily unaffected by the war, the weather was lovely in the middle of January, and in general, Miami was booming and growing.

After attending the wedding, I thought to myself that what I was able to bring a distinctive alternative to what I saw and I immediately communicated that on my way back to London to my partner, Ian Perris. Neither of us in our youth had any qualms moving to Miami and quickly setting up our business.

Despite not having an open bank account or the papers even finalized for the company, I went to introduce myself and our new venture to the Spanish / U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Spanish Consulate in Miami. In the blink of an eye, they said that our new company should be the caterer for the event, wrote a high figure deposit check without even the benefit of a proposal and shook my hand. I was eager but scared to my bones because we didn’t have a kitchen commissary, staff, or even a bank account where to deposit the check.

Returning back home, we stopped in a local artisan bakery to have a coffee and a sandwich and we heard the owner say she was planning on closing. Suddenly a light bulb went off and I offered to share the facility together, endorsed the check to her business, and we used her commissary until we grew large enough to move on. We were extremely lucky to have received such a high profile event to celebrate the 500 year anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in 1492 (1992) as our first piece of business. This bit of luck gave us a the perfect vehicle to showcase our launch for 1000 people over the course of five days. We cooked from the bakery, my partner went scouting to the University of Miami for waiters, and our events company was in business one week after arriving. The calls started coming in a week for other important, well known people in Miami society and this gave us a good sense that Miami could be a good place to start our business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Basque. Spanish Basque. The Basque country is considered one of the capitals of world culinary traditions and innovations. There was little knowledge in the United States at that time of the magnificent simplicity and high technique of the Basque cuisine which has been acclaimed by all critics over the last 20 years. At the same time, since my very early youth, I was educated internationally and was used to see and attend social gatherings in different countries that were more formal and more curated in all the aspects of service, decor, and cuisine that those I saw when I arrived to the USA. It helped my that I had studied Art History in Florence and I have always been a curious and aesthetically driven person. I have always been famous for syncretizing and curating grand ideas into a simple but potent visual and sensorial message. Our brand benefited from this particular viewpoint and I think this set us apart from the beginning from the industry already established in South Florida. Well travelled clients and a cosmopolitan crowd have been very appreciative of our style and approach.

Within less than a year of operation, we were already catering a function for the first US President, George Bush senior. Since then, every sitting president and candidate of the US minus the last president has also tasted our cuisine along with many foreign dignitaries and heads of state.

We saw Miami grow from the first and only event for Art Basel Miami to where we cater 40 events that week to some of the highest profile clients, financial firms, and fashion houses. Our expansion into Europe has been a natural progression and we look forward to Miami continuing to mature.

I think what sets us apart from the rest is that we don’t follow trends. For us, each event is unique and has to reflect the client, the intention and purpose of the event, the time of the year and the location. Everything has to be perfectly edited and intertwined so the end result is a seamless cohesive, elegant or whimsical occasion that the people will always remember.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Meeting my first copartner as well as the next is for me an alignment of the stars. When I first met Ian Perris, he had already a very illustrious career win the service of the very top of world society. Ian had been in service for many years as butler and head of household of the country seat of the then Earl and Countess Spencer, father and stepmother of Lady Diana, at the time Princess of Wales. This position kept Ian in constant direct contact with royal protocol and that rarified and unsurpassable way of service.

He was rocketed from that position to run the households of the Lord Mayor of London at Mansion House, the American Ambassadors to the Court of St. James at the private residence at Winfield House in London, Lady James de Rothschild, Sir Nigel Campbell, and Prince Khaleb bin Abdul Assis, the household of his Royal Highness of the Saudi families. At the time we met, he was working with Mr. Apt, then the owner of Nestle Corporation and owner of Town and Country Caterers in London which directed all the Royal Ascot events and Buckingham palace garden parties. Ian attended a few of my private dinners I threw at my house and he was so impressed by the cuisine and presentation that he offered to me to start a business together combining the two sides of the story; the creative and culinary along with the quality of English service, which is often considered the most strict and elegant.

We were distinctive and successful, but we weren’t good at all with finances and it was a tough beginning. Events kept on rolling in but the money kept rolling out until our second year of operations in Miami, we met our third partner, who we consider also a founding partner. Jim Mozina was and engineer and skilled with numbers but also an aesthete with excellent taste, a perfectionist, and the best editor I can ever wish for. Through lots of social success and financial corrections, we were able with his help to bring the company to the point where we are now today.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Our main growth during all these years has always been promoted by a constant drive to deliver our events in a way that completely exceeds the clients expectations. Our most important source of growth has been social, corporate, and institutional word of mouth. For us, our best and sometimes only publicity is an event well curated and executed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lebasque.com
• Instagram: lebasquecatering
• Facebook: Le Basque Catering and Production

Image Credits
Le Basque