[Chef's Table] An Audience with Shanghai's Malt Minister

Read his resume. Konstantin Popov has no business being in F&B. Ten years into a career in finance, he hit the eject button. Armed with little more than a thirst for good Scotch and a lethal command of spreadsheets, he started buying barrels, building brands, and turning a murky market into a playbook. Then, he opened Ministry of Malt a.k.a. MOM Steakhouse Whisky post-Covid – no restaurant background, just conviction and a showcase for the spirits he loves. We sat down with Konstantin for a few drams to talk risk, rigor, and why curiosity beats credentials every time. If you're tempted by a hard left turn in your career, here's what it looks like.

CNS: Tell us your origin story.

My time before F&B was a little bit weird. I'm from Russia – right in the middle of Siberia. I moved to China. I spent 10 years working in finance. Mostly doing stock trading, fintech, bridges to exchanges, and other things related to online trading. And at some point, I just got tired. And I was like, "Damn! This is so boring!"

CNS: Making all that money was boring, huh?

It actually was! It's not like The Wolf of Wall Street at all! The market changed a lot at that time. The margins got way lower. The competition got way fiercer. The regulations got stricter. I just got tired at some point, and a good friend of mine and I were thinking that we should do something fun. We wanted to be in a business where we don't work, but we make really good money.

CNS: So, naturally, you landed on "restaurant"?

No, no, no, no! So, we were checking out different businesses, and then at some point, we thought, "Maybe we should start investing in whisky and doing whisky as a business. Our idea was to start buying whisky in barrels, and we just wait. They get more expensive, and then we sell them. We make a lot of money. No need to work."

So, at one point, we had a certain portfolio of barrels, and we decided to make our first brand and bottle one barrel, and it was successful. We had no idea what we were doing. We were basically learning by doing. And we actually managed to build a very successful whisky business, so we have a lot of our own whisky brands.

We also supply other brands with whisky barrels, so whisky aging is my main business, not the restaurant business.

CNS: What's this, by the way?

Speyside 21YO is a great whisky as well, but not a part of a series, just a one-time single cask release. We cannot disclose the name of the distillery, but the design of the label gives an idea to a knowledgeable whisky drinker.

CNS: And this one?

Oh, this is part of our Spirit Medicine, a fun series we do. We wanted to copy Prohibition Era-style whisky labels, where they also had a doctor's prescription on a bottle. That's one of our most successful product lines.

We also won the Icons of Whisky award last year, and one of the bottles we sent to the competition was Spirit Medicine.

CNS: So, why the restaurant, then?

Well, I figured I'm already in the alcohol business. So, I asked myself, "What's the next step?" I wanted to have maybe a bar or a place where I can showcase my product. So, when lockdown happened, I had a lot of things to think about. It was a very weird period of my life. When we got released finally, I was like, "Wow! The world is so big! Sunshine! Birds! Cats!" You know the feeling.

Then, a friend of mine, Anna, used to have a smaller place here at M15 called the Lazy Bar. She pitched me the idea of opening something bigger together, and I immediately said yes. We started right away, and we opened in November 2022. Funny timing, you know? It was literally the last three weeks of COVID restrictions. Still, it wasn't easy. We had to deal with all these QR codes, all these restrictions during our first few months of operation. And then everyone got sick. But then, life went back to normal, and we've been open ever since.

CNS: So, you knew nothing about running a restaurant?

None. Zero knowledge. But when I started the whisky business, I also had zero knowledge about the whisky business.

CNS: Did you know anything about finance when you went into finance?

No! Actually, I got hired by a fintech company when I was 21. I had zero experience.

CNS: What was the most useful skill in finance that you brought to F&B?

Using Excel. That is transferable to any business!

CNS: What was the biggest challenge to going into the whisky business?

Just understanding how the market works. It's not too transparent. There is a lot to learn, especially in China, and nobody wants to teach you anything. So, you have to figure things out on your own.

CNS: So, basically, you're purchasing the spirit from famous distilleries, aging it, bottling it, and putting your own label on it?

Exactly.

Which distilleries?

Name it. We've probably got it. Bowmore, Glenfarclas, Laphroaig, Caol Isla, Bunnahabhain. We have a massive collection of barrels. The majority of distilleries, we have access to them.

CNS: Are you aging the product here?

No. You cannot do that here. Everything happens in Scotland. It's a super-regulated industry. You have to be there. You have to store your barrels in special bonded warehouses.

CNS: Tell us about the concept behind the menu.

It's a combination of many, many things. We really focus on meat, and we have a good selection of beef on the menu. Besides that, we have Turkish pide. It's like pizza; my partner is from Azerbaijan, so we wanted to include some elements from her local cuisine, so we made it close to katchapuri, and it's actually a super popular dish. We put Russian borscht on the menu, too.

CNS: You're Russian. Why whisky? Why not vodka?

Vodka is too simple, and I don't like drinking things in shots. Whisky has flavor and complexity. Lots of different distilleries. Lots of stories behind those distilleries.

CNS: Do you ever think about distilling your own?

I don't think I want to distill, because what I like about my business is the variety. I can access lots of distilleries, take their spirits, and then I can put them in my barrels, and I can put my unique spin on them. You can do all kinds of stuff. I know guys who put whisky in herring barrels.

CNS: How did that turn out?

Officially, they were the most disgusting whisky in the world. But I think they sold out of it. You know, just because of the hype.

CNS: Have you ever done any failed experiments?

Oh yeah! Absolutely! Nothing is crazier than fish barrels. But when we started, we didn't have much knowledge. We were mostly on the consumption side. We were very experienced consumers, but you know, when you actually try making it yourself, it's a different thing. You know, just because you watch Formula One doesn't mean you can drive a racecar.

So, lots of learning, lots of experimenting. But it's super cool and super interesting. There are so many different layers of complexity. We're still in the beginning of our journey. There are still so many things to learn.

MOM Steakhouse Whisky 大麦部威士忌牛排馆

Opening hours: 11am-10pm

Tel: Add this WeChat to make a reservation: 158-2174-4928

Address: Unit A, 1/F, Bldg 1, 50 Moganshan Rd