This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Diego Sabino, the 39-year-old founder and CEO of The Only Caviar, a food brand that raises its sturgeons in Italy and merges luxury with sustainability. He’s also a father and is based in Miami. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
My earliest memories of food are related to cooking with my grandmother when I was around 7 years old.
I took small kitchen jobs as a 15-year-old and worked in a pub making sandwiches. That’s how I spent my summer. Rather than going out and chasing girls, I was making food.
Then, I moved to London and started working in the hotel and restaurant industries. It led me to be recruited by VistaJet, where I created a new dining experience for private jets.
I met actor Aaron Paul at Monterey Car Week. I gave him a 250-gram tin of caviar on ice and said, “‘Breaking Bad’ is a piece of art. I’m a huge fan of yours, and I don’t want to bother you at all, but thank you. This is from me to you.”
He ate the whole thing in 15 minutes and said, “Diego, this is the only caviar I ever want to eat again.” That’s where the name for The Only Caviar came from.
I run the luxury food brand and travel a lot for the company, but I have a routine at home.
Here’s what a day in my life is like.
My day starts by making food for my son. It’s non-negotiable.
I wake up around 6 a.m., and when I’m home, the first thing I do is cook. My son goes to school, and for me, it’s mandatory that he eats at least one fresh meal every day.
Yesterday, for example, I actually made him his meal for the next three days. I made sauce, so my wife only has to do the pasta. She already has everything ready to go. That’s a must for me.
I start work by catching up on emails around 8:30 a.m.
That way, I can schedule calls between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Sometimes, they’re for virtual tastings with clients. Other times, it’s to catch up with the team.
We have two employees right now. Together, we’ll go through our client list, discuss what we’re doing, and come up with new ideas.
Once a week, we also try to always have a brainstorming session to see what we can do differently and better than anybody else. It’s essential because we’re in one of the most competitive industries in the world. There are currently 1,200 caviar brands.
Mid-day is a time that I keep for myself and my mental health
Between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., I either go to the gym or play tennis. I’m a tennis addict.
When I can play a match, I’m there. When it’s time for the gym, though, sometimes I procrastinate. It’s the one thing I love to skip. There’s always something else to do, right?
We’re currently designing new packaging, and it’s a beautiful project. Sometimes, I’m like, “OK, let me actually work on this and not hit the gym.” It happens.
After exercising, I’ll take a shower and have a quick lunch. My favorite way to relax, though, is playing guitar. I’m a big music guy, and I love classic rock.
Meetings take up a lot of my time — but not on Fridays
Usually, I’m pretty busy in the afternoon with calls. I catch up a lot with our clients to see how sales are going and what we can improve.
I don’t take meetings on Friday, though. I just don’t. I’ll answer if somebody calls me, but I don’t schedule meetings unless it’s something really important that cannot be postponed.
Friday is a day when I want to wrap up my week inside my head and prepare for the next one.
I travel a lot
When I’m home, I do the most boring parts of my job — but I travel three weeks out of the month.
When I started this company, I thought about my years and years and years in the hospitality industry. Every time I asked people to come teach us about their product, they said no. Nobody ever showed up. It always frustrated me. So, I always show up and do the training.
We do events, too. At the Ritz-Carlton in Orange County, we started a program where, every quarter, we do Caviar with Diego. We pair the caviar with different champagnes. And we’re in a lot of nightclubs now, too.
I prioritize finishing tasks over sleep
I never choose not to finish something. That hurts my brain. If I’m doing something, even if my calendar says it’s 11:30 a.m. and time to go to the gym, I’m like, “No, I need to finish this.”
So I can be very difficult to work with. I don’t believe in perfection or the 100%, but I believe in the 95%. It needs to be done.
I am very lucky because I only need five hours of sleep. If I fall asleep before 10:30 p.m., I will wake up in the middle of the night, and I don’t know why.
I’ve never been a jealous person. When I see somebody who is successful, I know that to be successful, I need to work hard. I always have a lot of admiration and respect for those people, not jealousy.
But when people can sleep all night? That’s the one thing I’m jealous of.
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