If Michael Jordan can run a restaurant and be a basketball player at the same time, why can?t a Bermuda insurance executive run his own eatery?

And that is just what Leon Bascome, chartered insurer and assistant vice president at Allied World Assurance Co. Ltd. has done.

The young entrepreneur, who has spent the last 13 years in the insurance world, bought out the Wok takeaway on Bermudiana Road and has transformed it into a more upmarket eatery.

Now called Pasta Pasta and Blue Dragon, it boasts not only oriental food as well as a selection of pasta, but also a pretty alfresco dining section with ceramic tables and chairs in wrought iron with blue flower motifs.

?I enjoy working with people,? said Mr. Bascome. ?People would think it would be challenging combining both worlds, but I have good managers and they report back to me and this enables me to do both things.?

Mr. Bascome took over the ownership of Pasta Pasta in St. George?s in 2000, and after this closed he bought the Wok in May. And he has taken with him the manager of Pasta Pasta of seven years, chef Deepack Chatterjee.

?I left it for a few months as it was to see how it ran and then we...I don?t like to use the word gutted... but we took everything out from the kitchen right to the front,? he said. ?I also asked customers what they wanted, and we tried to build that into the plan.?

In fact Mr. Bascome said he welcomes customers stopping him in the street and giving him suggestions about what to do with the space or the menu.

He has taken the menu more upmarket, and says he plans more changes to the oriental menu in 2004.

?I love the variety of people that come here now,? he said. ?They come from all walks of life and all ethnicities, which is really great.?

But the sun does not set on the Bascome empire, and Mr. Bascome said that he has been flooded with offers of capital to grow the business further.

?At the moment I would like to wait and see how this goes. We have done well, but there are still a few problems to iron out. At one point the amount of customers grew a great deal, and the speed of the service could not keep up.

?We are changing that now. But I want to keep the quality of the food, while growing the number of customers. It is a fine balance, and we are getting there.?

Mr. Bascome said that if he was to open another eatery, it would be in Hamilton, but there were limited spaces that could take a restaurant in the city.

?Rome was not built in a day,? he joked. ?But I may look at possibilities in the future.?