By Dr.Iain Corness
Bruno Forrer, hotelier, restaurateur and gentleman,
departed quietly from our midst last week after suffering another heart
attack. He had been unwell for several months, but would still make the
effort to tour the tables at Bruno’s, the restaurant he had founded with
his life-long friend the late Louis Fassbind.
The end
of an era. The two greats of the hotel and hospitality industry in Thailand.
Alois X. Fassbind and Bruno Forrer, leave behind a legacy that will never be
forgotten.
HRH
Princess Galyani Vadhana and her entourage visited Bruno’s Restaurant and
Wine Bar for lunch recently. She was welcomed by the partners Bruno Forrer
and Fredi Schaub, who had prepared a "royal" luncheon for her
visit. HRH Princess Galyani is pictured with Bruno (L) and Fredi (R) plus
the executive staff from the restaurant.
Bruno was gracious, charming and hospitable. However, he
was not "to the manor born". He came from a small Swiss farming
community in the countryside above Lake Constance. His father was not a
gentleman farmer, easily able to pass on the rules of etiquette to his son,
but the village farming life did not interest the young Bruno Forrer. In an
interview five years ago, he recounted, "It was so boring, I just
wanted to escape."
Escape for Bruno was into the hospitality industry, but
telling his father he wanted to be a hotelier brought an initial negative
response from Forrer Senior. "No way! You should first become a chef.
This is respectable," continuing with, "If you don’t want to do
this first, then don’t even consider it."
Bruno accepted his father’s advice that a profession,
together with hard work, would be necessary for success. He underwent the
apprenticeships that hoteliers have to endure - long hours and indifferent
remuneration, but in the end there were the rewards that only the
interaction with the guests can bring, for someone who has the hospitality
industry as an integral part of their own psyche.
Andrew
Wood reads from the Book of Revelations during the services.
Bruno’s
loyal staff carry the coffin containing the remains of their benevolent
patron on the final journey to his resting place.
Fredi
Schaub bids farewell to his loving friend, mentor and spiritual guide,
pledging to carry on in the finest traditions founded and established by
Louis and Bruno.
Bruno was also a collector of antiques, beginning early
on while working at the Dorchester in London. During our interview in 1998
he admitted, "I have a passion for collecting. It is like being an
addict - I have to have something, even though I have no place to put
it!" The long hours and a personal frugal lifestyle helped pay for his
treasures, but these in turn provoked jealousy from a fellow hotel worker
and a call from the British Inland Revenue Department! The annual,
"Please explain how you can afford these?" and subsequent
detailing of his art collection became the catalyst for his move to Thailand
when his old friend Louis Fassbind suggested he join him at the Oriental in
Bangkok.
From the Oriental he moved to Pattaya and to the Royal
Cliff Beach Resort, where he became a household name during his 21 years as
the resident manager there. However, the long hours eventually prompted a
major change for Bruno. "I wanted something easier than hotels where
you start at 6 in the morning and to bed at 10 p.m.," so he left and
opened Bruno’s Restaurant in 1996.
The restaurant was initially a partnership with Louis
Fassbind, later taking in Fredi Schaub, one of the Royal Cliff chefs, as
another partner, and finally relinquishing his share to Fredi last year as
his health began to fade. However, he continued to be a presence at the
restaurant named after him. He had no intention of retiring in the formally
accepted sense. In 1998 he said, "I will go on as long as I live.
Eventually I will maybe come in for just one or two hours in the evening. I
always want to be coming back so I can see my friends."
His friends should not mourn at their loss, for Bruno
lives on in his restaurant. His antiques are still there, his celadon
collection and his wine cellar. His spirit definitely lives on in a very
real and tangible way. It will be a place to remember Bruno’s wit,
epitomized by the words he wrote in the invitation to the 5th anniversary
dinner, "There is an erection of eight booths going up next to Bruno’s.
We would like to point out that these are not culinary outlets and not
associated with Bruno’s whatsoever. We only hope the ladies occupying
these booths will behave in a ladylike fashion, otherwise I will be obliged
to send my partner Fredi over to sort things out - he has more experience in
this field than I have."
We will all have different memories of Bruno Forrer, a
man who shrugged off suggestions that he had reached the top, by saying,
"I would never call myself the best - that would be a most
unprofessional thing to say." Bruno Forrer was, above all, a gentleman.
A gentleman who will be missed, but who will not be forgotten.
Goodbye Bruno.
by Peter Cummins
I had a great affinity to Bruno Forrer who passed away
late last week. Although I regret that I did not know him as well as I would
have wished, each and every time I met him, either at Bruno’s or at other
occasions, it was, indeed, like meeting a life-long friend. There were no
preliminaries; just straight into his friendship, his stories based on a
great life experience and his always-amusing dialogue.
We shared basically similar beginnings - albeit from the
opposite ends of the world. Bruno, the youngest of a clan inhabiting the
confines of a small Swiss mountain village, could not wait to escape. I was
the youngest of my own clan, inhabiting a rural area of Tasmania and I, too,
could not wait to escape the world that was strangling me.
Bruno, however, took his Dad’s advice before he ‘flew
the coop’ and went into a profession where he has absolutely excelled.
Whereas, I took no-one’s advice, but just ‘flew the coop’ and took my
chances in the big world outside.
Bruno, above all, was a great humanist. He was a
marvellous raconteur, telling tales of human foibles - including his own -
with a never-ending source of anecdotes. Everything he said was heavily
laced with a humour bordering, at times, on the sceptical.
When dining at his superb hostelry, one would see Bruno
sidle up to each and every table, speaking to his guests in whatever
language and greeting all as though they were the most important people in
his life - which, indeed, they were! In the reclining years of his life,
confined to a wheelchair, he would propel himself to each and every table,
with the same intent. I overheard him say, just recently, "It is good
to come by on my wheelchair, for no-one can hear me approach. Then I can
know if they are saying something nasty about Fredi, the staff or me - or,
even worse, about Bruno’s food, wine and management," he told me,
with a wonderful twinkle in his eyes.
As has been stated elsewhere in the tributes to Bruno in
this week’s Pattaya Mail, Bruno shared much of his professional life with
another Pattaya Icon, Louis Fassbind who died suddenly five years ago. On
one occasion, Bruno was walking around Mr Fassbind’s penthouse after his
untimely death and there was a large portrait of the former occupant on the
wall. "Even now, he is watching me," Bruno complained. "The
eyes follow me everywhere".
Now, they are together again - this time for eternity.
Bruno was laid to rest at the St. Nikolaus cemetery in his beloved Pattaya
last Sunday, in the grave next to his mentor Louis Fassbind, following a
requiem at the church.
In typical style, the huge crowd who had come to say Auf
Wiedersehen to the wonderful man, adjourned to Bruno’s for a wake.
He contributed so much to an often-beleaguered human
race. This warm, sympathetic, good-natured and always buoyant human being -
a true internationalist - has left us. But, he has left us a legacy of
excellence, though: the ability to enjoy the good things of life like food,
wine, good music and companionship - values which will live on for ever.
Thank you Bruno.
Au revoir.
