I've always been drawn to people who are both a character and someone of great character. The kind of person who isn't afraid to stand out, speak their mind, entertain, and engage, not from a place of ego or authority, but from a place that bratiates humanity. My guest this week is one of those rare individuals, Marcel Bregstein. We're recording this episode at the Toronto Hunt. It's a golf course perched above
Lake Ontario in the East End Of Toronto. It's where Marcel works as the assistant general manager, where he's more affectionately known as our empassario. My first impression, a throwback to the crooner era. Movie star looks, an ability to work any room, sultry voice that could command a microphone, or softly guide a wine tasting. What I've come to learn over time, because Marcel doesn't readily tell his story, preferring instead to be part of yours, is that behind that charisma
is a journey worth sharing. Marcel grew up in a wealthy family based in Costa Rica, and then he came to Canada to study. But when he was there, his family lost it all. But from those ashes, he built a life on his own terms. One rooted in deep connections to humanity, to mother nature, and to a spirit of service that quietly asked, what can I do for you? We're in the show business. We're not in the hospitality business. I create experiences. I create moments.
I create memories. I work really hard to ensure that that's what you take with you. I only hope I do justice to who Marcel is because if I could bottle what he brings into a room and share it with the world, I would. What radiates when he's around is energy, insight, smiles, and laughter. Hi. It's Tony Chapman. Thank you for listening to Chatter That Matters presented
by RBC. If you can, please subscribe to the podcast. And ratings and reviews, well, they're always welcome and they're always appreciated. So let's head to the Toronto Hunt, spend some time, and share a glass of wine with the marvelous Marcel Brekstein. Marcel, thank you for sharing your story with us in front of this audience and on Chatter That Matters. Thank you so much. I mean, I I wanna thank you first for taking the time to speak to me. So many great
people that here that should be sitting here. So it's a real honor. Let's rewind the tape. Your dad, Paul, and your mom, Marie, he came from The Netherlands. He ended up in Central America and became quite a tycoon, I guess, in coffee and wine. Yeah. My dad, left The Netherlands, and he moved, to New York and became a banker, a very successful banker. And, on the side, and this is his story, he learned
how to cop coffee. And I guess that's where my taste buds may come from because he became one of the five best in the world while in New York, and it was a hobby of his. But he thought, hey. I'm gonna make this a business, and he moved to Central America, brought the first convertible car to Central America, and, went from country to country, ended up in Nicaragua, almost signed a deal with the first dictator,
Somoza. And then he thought, maybe I should check out this country that everybody's talking about before I sign anything, and that was Costa Rica next door. And he fell in love, and he settled there, and that's where he met my mom. And your upbringing at the beginning, you weren't serving tables. You had a lot of people. I mean, you were a very wealthy family. Give me a sense of what you learned from that experience that you translate into the experiences that you give us every day.
Unfortunately, my parents divorced when I was a little kid, but my father was a connoisseur and I lived that life. And even when he, they divorced, I still live the life of excellence. And I understood, as as most Dutch people, that have a little money, they love their finest things in life, the greatest wines. We grew up. We used to have our maid. It was pretty, surreal that, you know, she she would have to the lights would go off and she would bake, parade the Bake Alaska, which was fantastic
because we had a family dinner every night. One story that you told me one night that I thought we were sharing was that, you know, we had a quite a special wine collection. You thought one day as a kid you could wander in and select a bottle of wine. When I was a teenager, he, we were trying to make amends, and and I went and lived with him for, a couple years. He went out with some of his friends, and, of course, that evening, I had three friends over. We went in his cellar, and we grabbed the
oldest bottle he had. And it was a 1947 Chateau Lafite. Now this is the eighties, so that was pretty old then. I mean and and I'm thinking, he's not gonna miss that. So we tracked this, and, yes, I am so lucky. I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. I drank one of the best wines in the world as my favorite wine, but it was horrible. I was a teenager, and this tasted horrible. So we didn't even finish the bottle. Next morning, my dad had an office in the house, and he worked
sometimes at five in the morning until eight and then went to work. And I'm ready to go to school, and he calls me in his office. It's a dark office. You know, it's it's dark wood, not much light. He asked me to sit down in the leather chair in front of his beautiful desk. He grabs from the from the floor the bottle of wine that I didn't dispose and banks it on his really expensive table, and I'm thinking, I'm gonna die. This is a Dutch man with a temper.
So I started crying, of course, because I'm thinking this is gonna be it. He didn't raise his voice. He actually started teaching me, and he knew that this was a torture. He started telling me about the wine. And believe it or not, I still remember talking about the Gironde River and the left bank. And as he went on and on and tell me why this wine was so good and one of the best wines in the world and why this wine would feed a family in Costa
Rica for three months at that time. I was really now crying so hard because I knew the end when he stopped talking, the bottle was gonna end up in my head, and that was it. But he didn't, and that's where my passion of wine started. Of course, he did actually put a lock in his cellar, so I didn't have access again. And then you moved to Canada. What motivated you to sort of leave Costa Rica? I mean, was it the love of our winters, or what brought you up to Toronto?
I had the opportunity to go and study in Europe because we have relatives. My father being Dutch, we had family in Switzerland and in Holland. And and, on this cruise, from high school, graduation, I met this lovely Canadian girl. I ended up, coming to Canada for her. So that was Rhonda. Two beautiful daughters Mhmm. Because of that relationship. And one month after your first daughter was born, your dad died. So there's a lot going on at that time
of your life. I think it's important we understand a little bit of that. So I'm getting the support of my dad. I'm being supported by my dad. He's playing for school. And, yes, my girlfriend now is pregnant. You know, and she was very nice. I mean, I remember Rhonda saying, I understand you're really young. If you wanna go back, to Costa Rica, and I said, no. You know, I grew up kind of without a dad, and I'm not gonna do that to my child. I said, I'm gonna stick by and take responsibility.
So he dies. I get a job as a bus boy in a restaurant because the money wasn't coming, you know, and, the wheel is being fought by the family in Costa Rica. And my mom, she didn't have the money. It was my dad, so she was trying to send me a few cents. So I was at busboy for a day, and the next day, I show up to this great restaurant, Chateau de Cadillac in Oshawa, a French restaurant in Oshawa. And they had table side service. A waiter didn't show, and they said, listen. Put a
black jacket on. You're gonna do flambeuse on the side of the table. And I'm going, what? What is a flambert? I almost burned the place down. I'm telling you. It was so so funny that a guy that was a buzzword one day, and the next day, I am trying to make Caesar salad table side. Finally, I learned the job, and I fell in love with it. And that was the beginning of the love a month after my dad passed, and I'm working at this restaurant. I was about to make a Caesar salad.
I get a call, and it was my daughter being born, Tanya. So I rushed to the hospital from Oshawa to Scarborough Grace. We're gonna get into this sort of world of hospitality and wine, but I I think it's important. I talked about journeys earlier. There's a bit of a sidebar. You became a an you know, the empassario was actually an entrepreneur for a while. You had a cleaning business. You had some investment property in Costa Rica.
What motivated you to go after building your own thing? Was that just kinda part of your dad's DNA pouring through you, or did you just feel that entrepreneurship and sales and everything else that sort of came with your vernacular was something you wanted to do? I had a taste of money. I grew up with some money. It was never mind. It was my dad. So I always thought, hey. You know, I'm gonna get there, and I can do it. I mean, he did it, my dad. So I I, yeah, I started,
unicorn cleaning services. We were successful to to a time. I probably was not the greatest businessman, and that's why that didn't work well. But then I started an investment company to Costa Rica, and I worked closely with the consulate and the embassy of Costa Rica. They would send me the clients, and, that was in the early nineties, and the economy wasn't the best at the time. So for probably economical reasons, at the end of the
day, I shut my office. I had a beautiful office, right downtown, and, I thought to pursue a a full time job that was going to bring me in steady cash. I heard a very funny story from Marcel tonight that when you first moved up to Toronto, you didn't come up with, people that took care of you in Costa Rica. You're on your own, and you really weren't very good at basic household
things. It was horrible. I tell you, it was horrible. I I wasn't my fault, but I would have a shower and my clothes would be laid out on the bed. I didn't know how to make breakfast. I I tried to make beans, and, it was a disaster because I didn't know you need to leave the beans overnight in water to soften them. You order a pizza, and I put the pizza in the oven. And when I would see the flames, I didn't know you had to take it out of the box. So
it was it wasn't that I wasn't very smart. It wasn't that I wasn't really house trained. But my ex wife trained me really fast. I had to learn fast, you know, because she said I'm not your mate. You gotta learn how to do things. So one of the things we're seeing a lot in specialty TV now is is sort of the the world and life on the ocean. That was really your first big move in hospitality, wasn't it, with the cruise ships? Yeah. I was, blessed and I'm really
lucky because at the age 25, I was just a really young man. I had a good resume. I had the university, and I had the studies at George Brown College. So, Royal Caribbean cruise line gave me an opportunity, a really unique opportunity, to be a dining room manager, which is a really big job. We had 2,000 passengers, was one of the most beautiful ships actually of the fleet at that time. First day, you know, I really don't have a clue what's happening or what I'm doing, really. I was really
sitting there thinking, how am I gonna do this? There's a 70 staff here that I gotta manage. I had to grow up as fast as I could and show that I had, you know, the knowledge. What I got out of this was everything. The only reason I am this good in this industry is because I learned when you work in a cruise line, you understand what excellence is. And when you understand what the best of the best is to be in the hospitality, there's no no
second best there. You gotta be superb at everything you do. Imagine, this is a floating city that from purchasing all the way to storing to making menus every day, changing all the it was mind boggling. I learned everything that I could learn there, and I'll I tell everybody everything else was secondary to complement what I learned there in this industry. And, you know, we didn't spend enough time on your mom because your dad I can see the
entrepreneurial and the taste and stuff. But inside you, how does your mom roar through? Well, my mom was one of the funniest, most entertaining. She became a sophisticated woman. Woman. She came from a really poor family. As a matter of fact, when her father died, unfortunately, there were 13 kids, and he, at one time, had money. He was a gambler, had lost everything. So
he's now a mother with 13 kids. So my mother did actually grow up, part of her life in an orphanage because the mother couldn't couldn't feed her. And then she went from that to marrying my dad. She was a waitress in a restaurant, coincidental, we're in this business. And she was a beautiful woman. He was a really nice 30 year old older man, wealthy. They fell in love, and they they got married. I learned the happiness part of me from my mom. She loved
entertaining. She was an amazing singer. A lot of good things. As a matter of fact, today is a really hard day for me because it is Mother's Day in Costa Rica. It's August 15, and, you know, she's been gone a few years. The Royal York comes knocking at your door. And at the time, I have to believe that is the hotel in Canada. I mean, that one time, that was the tallest building in the in, I think, in The Dominican. Right? What attracted you to the Royal
York? What made you wanna come back and and not have the adventure at sea? It was hard to leave the the ship because of the money. Mhmm. The best money I ever made. You know, I went to every table and I befriended everybody. I learned everybody's name and what they were doing, and and I got a lot of cash from that because people thought I really cared, which I did. But you know what? I was so proud to be hired at the greatest
hotel in Canada, perhaps. I mean, with the with the greatest history, it was an honor to work there, but at the same time, when I was inside there, it was not to the expectations. And I guess because my expectations had always in my mind had been so big, and I had been in the cruise line, and I had been brought up to eat the best and to to drink the best, and it was okay. You know? It was not as great as I thought. You know? It was a great opportunity for, you know, for
me. I learned a lot at the Royal York. I run I manage, the arcade level, so I had pipers, buffering on the run, York's Kitchen. So it was a lot of a lot of fun running the outlets and and being being one of the bosses there. Did you miss not getting to know the passengers? I gotta believe that even the week somebody was on a ship, there was relationships that were built. And especially the crew. The crew became your family too. I mean, and the the connections
there were amazing. Because a month in a ship was, like, you know, half a year in real life because you're so close, and then you lose them to go back to the countries. I did stay in touch. It was hard in those days. But in terms of the ships, yeah, I got to meet a lot of interesting, passengers. Absolutely. We were talking earlier tonight at the table about the Hunt Club when you arrived, and it wasn't quite this kind of setup, was it? No. It wasn't. You know, it
was so simple here, and I came here. And I'm a this is an interesting story because I was working in a really fine restaurant, and I was helping them run the restaurant, manage the restaurant. Unfortunately, the owners did not get along, and there was constant fighting. So one lunch, I said, forget it. I'm leaving. And I picked up the paper, and I see a job here. I walked in the front door, and I spoke to the general manager, and and, he goes, I don't have a job for
you in management, but do you wanna be a server? And so I went home, told my ex wife, I said, listen. I lost my job or I left the job, and now I have a new job. She goes, what are you doing? So I'm working here at this club. So I worked here for, like, a month as a server, and this was not my thing. So the Royal York gave
me the opportunity to work, there a month later. So I left here, and that was when John Davis, a few months into my job at the Royal York, he contacted me as he said, Marcel, I think you should come back and be the food and beverage manager here. And after negotiations back and forth, I ended up, coming here. My first impression was not good. We had a few plastic tables with plastic chairs. We had a wine list of Le Paris and Cressman, the liter bottles that were not the best wines in the
world. There was a a bartender in the back clipping his nails in the bar. And I keep looking everywhere, and I'm thinking, what's happening here? I stood there, and I remember looking out at the plastic tables over there. I said, this is the best theater in the world, but the production was really like high school. There wasn't much, and those were the expectations of the time. Now the menu and the patio was very simple. So, the dining room menu was lovely. So what I did, strategically, I
said, okay. Why don't we bring a table out of the dining room and make it the fine dining table outside? So everyone on the patio, the six tables out there, would be jealous of the people sitting here at this table because they were the lamb would come out or the lobster would come out, and they're going, how do we get that? Eventually, we made a lot of changes. I mean, to get a cappuccino machine, it was doing grass. To get nice glasses, I had to do
projections. And slowly, the team, the board, the, the committees supported, you know, all these changes that happened. And and today, you know, I'm so proud because all these years and all the struggles and all the hurdles, we became one of the 35 best clubs in the world. We come back, Marcel and I talk about his rise to the top of the world of wine, an important lesson he learned from Canada's richest family, and so much more that helped make him the man he is today.
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to reach an RBC newcomer adviser. It's Tony Chapman welcoming you to Canada and the RBC newcomer advantage. Today, my special guest is Marcel Breckstein, live from the legendary Toronto Hunt Club. You've got a full time job. You've got lots going on in your life, but you become one of the great wine people in the world. I just saw Drops of God and they talk about, you know, and you wonder that, is that possible? And then, yeah, talking to Elaine, was having dinner with you too,
she said, Marcel's got a nose like that. How did that come about? Like, how do you find time? We haven't even got into your acrobats and your singing and all the other stuff you do. Like, how did how did wine become such a just take over your soul? Well, I guess from that 1947 bottle of Chatea Lafitte, that's where it all started. Believe it or not, I'm actually not a big drinker. My wife is the drinker in the family.
We did our sommelier, International Sommeliers guild certification together at Humber, Elena and I, and the passion really continued from there. The passion became so, so much, and this is from our professor, Alain Liberte. He said, Marcel, and we all can do it. You can actually educate your taste buds, your sense of smell. You will be able to understand where wine is from, where wine was made, with the soils of the wine. And I never believed that until I started experiencing myself.
And and it's all about understanding and smelling and saving those senses in your storage part of your brain. Nobody teaches us Drops of God is a typical example. He taught his daughter how to taste and how to smell. If you can do that to any child, they all grow up to be that girl that can smell and
taste everything. We should do that not because of wine, but we should do and really somehow have a program that children should learn how to, how to really educate their sense of taste and smell because they'll enjoy life so much more. In my case, when I started educating myself and pressing save every time I would smell a cantaloupe or or or or pineapple or or even smelling tar on the road or smelling anything that that then you
just stop and think, okay. I'm gonna save this, and I'm gonna keep it in my memory bank. My wife is my witness. I sit in front of a wine, and I can tell you without knowing where it's from where it's from. I'm telling them, okay. This wine is not only from from, France, but it it is from the Rhone Valley, and it is actually from Saint Joseph and, the slopes. Actually, I know the vineyard, and people start going,
okay. You're making up stories. And I'm going, no. You can actually smell this wine once you've actually educated your sense of smell. And if you've tasted that wine in that region, you'll be able to do what I do. And I tell them, I said, the wife is Mary, and they have two Great Danes. And then people think, yeah. You're making up store. And then they Google it because I've been there, and I met the people, and I've tasted the wine. I I'm
able to recollect the wine. You won one of the I think there's only four Canadians that have been knighted for this. Tell me about this award because I I it had to be one of the crowning achievements of a quite an achieving life. I, was invited and and Elaine to, the Chateau De Bligny, the property of the Jean Remy the Rapinoe family. They're the fifth largest, house in Champaign, and they invited me to receive something. And I got acknowledged, and my wife also
was gonna receive something, but we did not know what it was. So we spent a couple of days in Reims with, Jean Remy and his family. They are well respected and wonderful people. The third day, we drive to this beautiful castle, the about two hours away, one one of their properties. Actually, they're not only bought the castle, but when you buy a castle, you have to buy the town. So they bought the town also.
So so they're showing us their town, and, they bring us to, our beautiful room at the top of their castle and tell us at 06:00 you have to be here for the reception. That was like a real James Bond moment. There's sophisticated people from Finland, from Italy, from all over the world in the most beautiful gowns, and and I'm going like, what am I doing here? What am I getting here? And Elaine is looking beautiful too. She's got a beautiful gown, and I'm thinking, like, this is
not my world. You could tell that there are some really, really top gun people in there. Halfway through the, reception, they announced that mister Tattinger arrived, so now we gotta go to the cellar. In the cellar, they have a theater build with a stage, and I'm still asking John Remy, our friend, what's happening? Here's Marcel. When they call your name, you just go up and say,
but what's happening? So I I watched mister Tattinger call me up, and and he just said, for your contributions to champagne, we like to honor you and give you the order the Cottoli champagne. And I'm really honored because I'm one of the four people in the world, and my wife is included there too, that have received this award. It's not only an award because I know when I wear the regalia there, people actually bow at me. It was, one
of those moments that I will never forget. At the end of the dinner, I was asked by Jean Remy's younger brother to come to the next room. He, had 15 sabers that he collected from around the castle, and he wanted me to saber a bottle in front of the royal people of Champagne. And I'm thinking, no. I can't do this. This is their thing, and this is now the little Costa Rican guy from Scarborough savoring for the royals of
champagne, which it was a really cool moment. I had the honor of meeting Lorde and Lady Thompson here, when I started, my boss goes, Marcel, that's lady and lord Thompson. He called me to the table, and he looked at my name tag, and he goes, Marcel, I could see you how nice you talked to the staff, and I can see how good you are to them. I'm gonna tell you, a little bit of why I'm successful. I treat people the way I like to be treated, but but I make the effort
of treating them better. And so I went to the back and I asked the chef, I said, can you help me out? Can you bring come to the pantry and and help me identify, identify who this man is? So so we were in the pantry and said, yeah. He goes, he he is the richest Canadian. He's one of the richest in the world. He taught me if you're good to people, people are gonna be good to you, and they're gonna be actually work harder for you too and make you
more successful. One day, we chatted about Costa Rica, and this is who he was. He wanted to know about you, about me. That's what I try and do here. If I am a little bit good in this industry, it's because I learned that. Be amazing to me. Make things that are going to be memorable. We're in the show business. We're not in the hospitality business. I create experiences. I create moments. I create memories. I work really hard to
ensure that that's what you take with you. And when mister Thompson and I talked about Costa Rica, A Week later, he said, I found this book in my library, and Marilyn and I look throughout the book, and you're right. What a beautiful country. And I can see that you miss Costa Rica. Every time that you miss Costa Rica, just open the book, and you can transport yourself there. As I'm grabbing this book, I'm running to the pantry because I'm like, now I'm almost in tears. I was in
tears that day because I thought, oh my goodness. It didn't matter what he had, but just who he was To think of me, and one of the reasons I decided to be the best in this business is because I wanted to be the best like he was to people and the best that we could give to you. Arcel, in my opening, I talked about your movie star, Luxe, and being this crooner and wine episero. I wasn't far off. Tell me a little bit about this television show. I think it's called Encorked. It is very
surreal. This show came about because I was approached by a member, who introduced me to Christine Cushion, who's a great restaurateur, a great chef, really. And and we did an event here right after I think the member's brother who's a big producer, he goes, Marcel, it it would be brilliant to do a show. And so with Christine and I, he goes, no. With you, Marcel. With you. And I'm thinking, okay. He had a lot of wine, so maybe he's not thinking clearly.
So I meet Scott McNeil, and he shows up with this booklet with pictures of, me, George Clooney, and some of the greatest actors, that guy there, Brad Pitt. So to see myself there is a very surreal. I mean, everything that has happened from the filming, my show is to ensure that that the experience that people have is great. But one thing that I always wanted to do was to bring the stories of me sitting with these great winemakers around the
world. My wife and I sitting at the table with three generations of winemakers, and they're sharing their stories. They're sharing their hardships with me, and we're having the food cooked by grandma. She's cooking her grandma's recipe. And I'm thinking, no Michelin star restaurant can compare to this. And this experience, the world should see it. One of the great things about doing these shows live is you get to see
the audience and their reactions. And three people wanted to share a Marcel Bregstein story. His beautiful wife, Elaine, John Leonard, arguably one of Canada's greatest musicians, and Jamie Kennedy, a few would argue, is one of Canada's greatest chefs. Let's hear what they have to say and then my three takeaways. Twenty five years together, below my life, my bestie, my ride or die. I like to share a story of us with the winemaker and owner, Michel Sapoce. Some of you may
know the name. He's a renowned winemaker around the world. Quite a character. He invites Marcel on a four day cruise of all his properties. We start in, Martigay just outside of Marseille. Day one, Marcel and I are saying hi to everybody. Nobody's talking to us. Everybody's answering us in French. We thought this is the worst cruise ever. Nobody wants to speak to us and who knew? Nobody wanted to
speak to Marcel. Day two, in the afternoon, Michelle Cipoche gets on the mic and says, ladies and gentlemen, we're doing a wine tasting. Of course, I'm super excited. And I said, Marcel, you're gonna win. The wine tasting happened. We had a great time. We all freshened up for dinner. Michelle's announcing who's winning Michelle starts to announce number six so and so from France. I glaze out I leave Marcel comes to me goes I won I won I said oh my God I knew it After that, everybody on the
boat wanted to be our best friends. Marcel was like a movie star on this boat. Oh my god. I can't believe. How did you guess all these wines? You're amazing. Where are you from? What do you do? What do you do? What's happening? Thank you. When I think of Marcel, who I've known for many years, there's two things that come to mind. The first is an element of surprise. You're never quite sure what how the evening will evolve. And the second thing I know is the highest quality for the event.
You know, an an entrepreneur's, trajectory is anything but a straight line. I'm no exception. I've had tremendous successes and ebbs and flows in my in my time as a restaurateur. This year marks my fiftieth anniversary as a professional cook. Marcel and I met, I don't know, maybe a decade ago. At the time, I was I was going through some struggles in the restaurant biz. In the ensuing years, Marcel has always picked up the phone to talk to me and to offer me opportunity. I've had a wonderful
experience working with with you, Marcel. And your generosity in inviting me into your milieu here at the club and elsewhere, doing community work like with the Michael Garren hospital, for example, been both rewarding to me and very much appreciated by me during the lean times. I
always end my shows with my three takeaways. It's amazing how the word journey wove its way through this entire event, but just your dad's journey and even the fact that he'd have an event every night in the home around a family dinner is so interesting that that has come back through you. I was very touched with about your mom and my god, you are your mom. I mean, you sing, you dance, you're so engaging, so
charismatic. I just imagine what it must have been like to come from such a poor family, orphanage, waitress to suddenly into society and wondering if she ever felt she belonged. She found a way to belong. And then the lessons that you just talked about learning from Lord Thompson, from the cruise ship and stuff, there's lessons in life for all of us that this is a stage. We are all on this stage and to make the most of it. Thank you.
Once again, a special thanks to RBC for supporting Chata that matters. It's Tony Chapman. Thanks for listening, and let's chat soon.