Yianni Papoutsis ( el, Γιάννη Παπουτσής) is the co-founder and former Creative Director of the Meat chain of restaurants. He previously worked at the

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish ...

as a production technician. The business started as one of the first

street food Street food is ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or at other public places, such as markets or fairs. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumption ...

trucks in the UK, the Meat Wagon, and after teaming with

Scott Collins Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saska ...

and opening a

pop-up restaurant A pop-up restaurant is a temporary restaurant. These restaurants often operate from a private home, former factory, existing restaurants or similar space, and during festivals. Various other names have been used to describe the concept of settin ...

, they opened thirteen restaurants, including twelve in the UK and one in Singapore which closed. He is now a consultant in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

Biography

Papoutsis was born in England, and during his childhood, he split his time between there and Greece. As a teenager he moved to Denmark to find work. Papoutsis worked for the

for fifteen years as a production technician. His first experience of cooking burgers for the public was at US festival

Burning Man Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...

. In 2009, he opened a

van serving gourmet

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

s called MEATwagon as a hobby. 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. He met

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, and the two would eventually become business partners. In 2011, they opened a

, #MEATeasy above a pub in

New Cross, London New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwi ...

on 10 January after having conceived it with Collins on New Years Day. It was only after opening this restaurant that he was able to leave his job at the English National Ballet. He opened his first permanent location entitled MEATliquor near

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...

on 11 November 2011. MEATmarket at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, and MEATmission in

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. I ...

shortly followed which was then followed by their radio station MEATtransMISSION.com. MEATliquor Brighton opened in September 2013. 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. Papoutsis was invited to speak on a committee about fast food start-up companies at

Downing Street Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, it is long, and a few minutes' walk ...

and advised on policy proposals relating to the economic and social benefits afforded by the food and beverage industry. He launched a cookbook with Collins in September 2014, co-written with DBC Pierre entitled ''The MEATliquor Chronicles''. Collins and Papoutsis' research trips to the United States for the cookbook were covered by '' GQ''. He has been described as "a pioneer of street food" by ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. He has collaborated with numerous Michelin starred chefs including Fergus Henderson, Nieves Barragan, Michael O'Hare and Sally Abe and with Gresham Blake on men's suits and performance underwear. He was named in the Evening Standard as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in London in both 2012 & 2013, in January 2015, by Debrett as one of Britain's 500 most influential people and in 2016 he was included in Restaurant magazine's 'Power List' of the 100 most powerful people in the restaurant industry.

References

External links

MeatLiquor official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papoutsis, Yianni Living people Greek chefs Street food British chefs Year of birth missing (living people)