A well-known Devon restaurateur has brought a new street food venture to Exeter as he aims to bounce back from the pain of losing his long-established business.
Edmond Davari operated number of award-winning restaurants in Plymouth and Exeter over the past 25 years but was forced to liquidate his company last August, when his remaining five restaurants closed with the loss of around 100 jobs.
Since then, the former owner of Al Farid, Havana and Cohiba in Exeter has been busy developing a street food concept featuring Cuban food, which made its debut in the city this weekend at the regular street food market in the Guildhall Shopping Centre.
"The pain of what I went through for the last two or three years is still very fresh, so I'm not intending to get back into the restaurant business any time soon," said Edmond.
"But needs must so I decided I should get off my butt and do something to pay the mortgage. So I started this street food concept, which is very much in vogue at the moment.
"I have been to Cuba a number of times and Fidel Castro is my hero. I'm really interested in Cuban music and culture and I've been waiting for the right time to launch this concept."
In recent months Edmond has taken his World Food Cafe stall to various events, including the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink. Now he plans to trade at the Exeter Street Food Market every week.
"I believe in what they are doing there – it's a really good operation," he said. "There's about eight operators and they're all very high quality.
"It's just nice to be back in Exeter and see old friends from my restaurants."
Edmond now has 12 part-time staff working at various events in Devon and Cornwall.
He is already planning to take the business further afield, possibly to Bristol.
"What I'm doing now is good and I'm happy with it," he said. "The one good thing is when I started building my empire I was getting very detached from customers because I was in the office dealing with all the admin, whereas now I'm on the floor and I'm seeing the results of what I do.
"What I went through in the last three years really destroyed my soul and everything I had, so it's good to get back to being appreciated. When you get into that position you feel a total failure, but it's true that when you are down, you learn a lot more than when you are up."
The launch of Edmond's Cuban street food operation in Exeter coincides with the launch of the movie Chef, which tells the story of a chef who goes back to his roots by setting up a successful Cuban street food operation after quitting his job at a restaurant in Los Angeles.
Edmond said the film – starring director Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara and Scarlett Johansson – had surprising parallels with his own story.
In August last year, Edmond closed three of his four Plymouth restaurants – Asia Chic, Rocco y Lola and Zucca – shortly after a fourth, Souk, was sold.
At the time, he said: "I have fought for the last two years, I have done everything I can do keep the businesses going for the sake of my staff.
"I have entered into many financial agreements, re-mortgaged my house, and tried to keep the businesses going for the last two years but it's come to a point now where I have been left with no choice but to let it go.
"It is 30 years' work gone out of the door and I am distraught."
Edmond said he had been inundated with messages of support following the demise of his business.
In November, he won the Editor's Choice award at the Plymouth Herald Business Awards in recognition of his contribution to cuisine in the city over many years.
