Yianni Papoutsis

Yianni Papoutsis (Greek: Γιάννη Παπουτσής) is the co-founder and former Creative Director of the Meat chain of restaurants.[1] He previously worked at the English National Ballet as a production technician. The business started as one of the first street food trucks in the UK, the Meat Wagon,[2] and after teaming with Scott Collins and opening a pop-up restaurant, they opened thirteen restaurants, including twelve in the UK and one in Singapore which closed.[3] He is now a consultant in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

Yianni Papoutsis
Born
UK
Culinary career
Cooking styleStreet food / Fast food

Biography

Papoutsis was born in England,[4] and during his childhood, he split his time between there and Greece. As a teenager he moved to Denmark to find work.[5] Papoutsis worked for the English National Ballet for fifteen years as a production technician.[6] His first experience of cooking burgers for the public was at US festival Burning Man.[7] In 2009, he opened a street food van serving gourmet hamburgers called MEATwagon as a hobby.[6][7] The first truck was vandalised and destroyed, and the second was stolen. This meant that Papoutsis was forced to cook outside on rented equipment in all weathers.[6]

He met Scott Collins in 2010 in a car park in Peckham, South London where the MEATwagon was running. Collins invited Papoutsis to pull up at one of his pubs,[7] and the two would eventually become business partners.[6] In 2011, they opened a pop-up restaurant, #MEATeasy above a pub in New Cross, London on 10 January after having conceived it with Collins on New Years Day.[6][7] It was only after opening this restaurant that he was able to leave his job at the English National Ballet.[6] He opened his first permanent location entitled MEATliquor near Oxford Street on 11 November 2011.[8] MEATmarket at Covent Garden,[6] and MEATmission in Hoxton shortly followed which was then followed by their radio station MEATtransMISSION.com. MEATliquor Brighton opened in September 2013.[7] and MEATliquor Leeds in September 2014. They went on to open MEATliquor Queensway, MEATliquor SW11, MEATliquorED, MEATliquor Croydon, MEATliquor Kings X, MEATliquor Brixton, MEATliquor N1 and MEATliquor Singapore.[3]

Papoutsis was invited to speak on a committee about fast food start-up companies at Downing Street and advised on policy proposals relating to the economic and social benefits afforded by the food and beverage industry.[7] He launched a cookbook with Collins in September 2014, co-written with DBC Pierre entitled The MEATliquor Chronicles.[9] Collins and Papoutsis' research trips to the United States for the cookbook were covered by GQ.[10] He has been described as "a pioneer of street food" by Bloomberg Businessweek.[11] He has collaborated with numerous Michelin starred chefs including Fergus Henderson,[12] Nieves Barragan,[13] Michael O'Hare and Sally Abe [14] and with Gresham Blake on men's suits and performance underwear.[1] He was named in the Evening Standard as one the 1000 Most Influential People in London in both 2012 & 2013,[15] in January 2015, by Debrett as one of Britain's 500 most influential people [16] and in 2016 he was included in Restaurant magazine's ‘Power List’ of the 100 most powerful people in the restaurant industry.[17]

References
  1. "Yianni Papoutsis | The Gresham Blake Lookbook". www.greshamblake.com.
  2. "The #MeatLiquor effect: did dirty dining all start in a Peckham car". Evening Standard. 28 August 2014.
  3. "MEATliquor — The original MEAT. Come hungry, leave wobbly". MEATliquor.
  4. Montgomery, Hugh (27 May 2012). "Yianni Papoutsis: 'A Las Vegas buffet is one of my favourite places to people-watch'". The Independent. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  5. Whittle, Natalie (18 November 2011). "FT Foodies: Yianni Papoutsis". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  6. Morgan, Eleanor (15 July 2012). "How to make money from street food". The Observer. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  7. Dean, Will (4 May 2013). "Bun fight: An eat-all-you-can tour of America with MEATliquor's Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis". The Independent. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  8. "Behind the scenes at Meat Liquor". Time Out. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  9. Stewart, Victoria (25 April 2013). "Eating at altitude with Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins". Evening Standard. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  10. Morris, Andy (2 July 2013). "Eating the best of the Big Apple with the men behind Meat Liquor". GQ. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  11. Vines, Richard (27 February 2012). "American Barbecue, Dead Hippie Burger Worth the Wait in London". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  12. "JavaScript is disabled in your browser". Thecaterer.com. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  13. "MEATliquor X Barrafina create a limited edition burger -". WJ London Lifestyle. 29 September 2015.
  14. "Meat Liquor has teamed up with The Harwood Arms to create a Michelin-star burger". Time Out London.
  15. "London's 1000 most influential people 2012: Scenesters, Foodies". Evening Standard. 8 November 2012.
  16. "Debrett names the most influential people in food & drink | Craft Guild of Chefs". craftguildofchefs.org.
  17. "The Power List: The 100 most powerful people in the restaurant industry". bighospitality.co.uk.
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