‘WE GOT A CALL SAYING THE FAMILY BUSINESS HAD BEEN ATTACKED. MY LIFE IN LONDON STARTED THEN’
Six kilos of caviar, 20 kilos of rice, and a tuxedo: that’s what Edward Sahakian was carrying when he arrived in London from Iran with his family in 1978. Four decades later, Sahakian is a cultural icon of London’s luxury scene.
The world is sometimes an unjust place. The triumphs that people experience day by day so often go unrecognised, whereas the barrel-scraping exercise of reality television can make you a multi-millionaire with a vast multimedia platform. This year has, however, shown that the world can occasionally provide a sense of justice, and that righteousness can prevail. It happened in, of all places, Cuba, at the Festival del Habanos, when the coveted Premio Habanos Hombre del Año, or Havana Man of the Year award, was won by Sahakian, of Davidoff of London.
Edward’s success, popularity and the respect in which he is held by his peers is surpassed only by his kindness and generosity. I met him through Nick Foulkes, the recipient of this award in 2007. Nick does not dole out undeserving praise, so in Sahakian I
