Cape Times E-dition

Burgermeister offers plenty of food for thought

A TASTE FOR LIFE Allen Ambor Loot.co.za (R225) TAFELBERG | JULIAN RICHFIELD

ALLEN Ambor conceived and founded Spur Steak Ranches, in 1967. And with that he started an empire that grew to be more than 500 franchises including the Spur, Panarottis, John Dory's and RocoMamas brands.

His memoir, A Taste for Life, is the story of how the Spur legend was born. You may have thought the book is about the restaurant business and the pioneering days of franchising in this country.

You wouldn't have been wrong, but it is about more than that, the book is a personal and a business journey.

In the magnificently written opening chapter, One Night in the

Ambor tells of a series of events on a road trip and some lifeenhancing introspection: “Every journey has its point of origin, its twists and turns, its spur-of-themoment shifts of direction that lead you to undreamed of destinations.”

The story of the establishment of the original Spur in Newlands, Cape Town, and the entire businessbuilding narrative is fascinating stuff and Ambor's underpinning and uncompromising “things had to be done the right way approach” is a story with lessons all of us can learn from.

What Ambor achieved in his professional life is remarkable. This book is equally impressive and a tremendously worthwhile read.

As a personal aside, Ambor, in the book, mentions taking part in a major production of Hamlet in 1964. I, too, was in that production and recall feeling sorry for him at that time because he was working in a steakhouse to pay his way through university ...

“Alas, poor Allen.” That pity was unwarranted, he certainly went on to “earn his spurs”

(sorry!), didn't he?

BOOKS

en-za

2021-10-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

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