Crystal-clear "magic" of fathers and their children working together successfully often lies in their unique bonds and shared experiences that foster mutual respect, learning and growth.
Chef Hasan Yildiz and his son, Onur Yildiz, exemplify that magic locally. Together, they operate the Walnut Creek fusion cuisine restaurant, La Fontaine. Onur says he considers himself lucky to taste his father's culinary creations before anyone else.
"I'm spoiled and I'm even a picky eater," says Onur, a computer engineer by day and the restaurant's assistant manager by night. "I love working together. We get along really well, more like best friends."
Hasan opened the first La Fontaine in Mountain View during 2012 as a restaurant and catering business that reflected his unique approach to cuisine. Although Hasan enjoys many cooking styles, he decided to create a menu of dishes with French and Italian influences. In 2021, Hasan expanded and opened the second La Fontaine location in downtown Walnut Creek on North Broadway between Cypress and Duncan Street.
"Although working together wasn't necessarily planned, he helped at the restaurant when he was in college. I like that I can give Onur more work. It just made sense," says the chef.
Onur says one of the utmost strengths from working together is that they back each other up. "We both give our heart and soul to the restaurant, and because of that, treat our employees and guests as family, too. When Chef says he'll get something done, he puts in 110%, and he knows I will, too."
Hasan agrees that mutual trust is essential to their relationship. "When I step away from a night shift, I don't worry because my son's there. I know he'll handle everything, even the reports at the end of the evening."
Regarding different viewpoints or any potential conflicts related to huge decisions, Hasan shares that they stay calm and use an intentional "cooling off' period of a day or so, before returning to the situation to solve it.
"We also both truly listen to each other, even if we don't agree," Onur adds.
He says setting time boundaries as much as possible between restaurant and non-restaurant activities helps create a better work-life balance.
The relationship of Hasan and Onur is working so well, and their confidence is so solid in their ability to co-handle work and stress, they're contemplating opening a third La Fontaine restaurant, perhaps in Alamo.
Another local, dynamic duo who joyfully and productively work together as father and daughter is Boris and Yelena Vayn. Yelena has been a Bay Area Realtor since 2023, with Boris recently earning his real estate license to join her team part-time for specific support functions, such as hosting open houses.
"I dreamed about real estate for years, especially as more software tools for it became available. I began to study for the real estate licensing test, but had to keep leaving it on the back burner due to IT projects," recalls Boris while reflecting on his 25-year career in information technology.
Upon seeing her father's stack of real estate books for about seven years, Yelena says she 'booknapped' them and completed the program. "Then I ended up signing him up to take the test," she quips.
Yelena says the two worked out how to handle different tasks of projects or geographies, while knowing instinctively when to ask each other's advice. "What better person to work with then someone you trust, are comfortable with and can rely on? I often seek my father's experience and perspectives, too."
While Boris says he believes parents and children learn from each other, he's happy to support Yelena because she's "the flagship of our team."
While these two professionals share knowledge, expertise and motivation, they admit they don't want work-related conflicts to potentially impact their personal relationships, or vice versa, so they've committed to always be thoughtful about more delicate matters.
Boris adds, "I'm proud of my daughter’s accomplishments and admire her attention to details, perseverance and commitment to clients. We empower each other so we both can work independently, or together, contributing to the team's success. We always keep in mind our ultimate goal is our clients' satisfaction, that we need to provide the best customer service and honor our fiduciary duty of being faithful servants to clients as real estate agents."
Boris suggests proper planning, setting boundaries, distributing daily workloads and rest is the solution. "One of my friends practices and recommends having a 'dolce far niente," or the sweetness of doing nothing day, sometimes to savor simple pleasures of life."
Yelena and Boris confirm they stay in frequent communications with each other, sometimes through a dozen phone calls a day. She says, "We both like helping people."
He assures, "We both enjoy our common passion for real estate."
"We get along really well, more like best friends. One strength from working together is we back each other up."
"Now that I'm his mentor, the table's been turned and our roles are somewhat switched. But we're still like best friends. As long as there's mutual respect, everything's good."