[mathilda]

Hi

I come from a family of Chef's - my Grandmother was a chef in Paris for many years and then bought and ran a Fish and Chip restaurant in the South of England, my Father and Step Mother ran pubs in Cambridgeshire and became very successful for the restaurant side of their business.  Having learnt from them and grown up in the food environment I am passionate about food but home chef style nothing too fancy.  

I have run a pub kitchen catering for 45 people, catered for outside functions for 100 people and lastly I ran a fish and chip restaurant catering for 27 people.

I am now in the process of opening a restaurant in a busy town in France for 80 people - opening at the beginning of May.

I am really glad to have found this forum and can see it will be extremely helpful to me and I hope that I can input and help others as well.

Nice to meet you all  

Nicki

 

[nicko]

Bonjour! Very nice to meet you and with all your families experience I bet you have some pretty incredible stories to share. What type of restaurant will you be opening? I can't help but think how intimidating it would be to open a restaurant in France. As they are very particular about the food. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

Are you taking over an existing space or starting from the ground up? Hope you share more about this adventure it will be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[mathilda]

Bonjour

The restaurant was a creperie but it was very run down and needed work unfortunately way more work than we initially realised hence we are still trying to get it open.

It is very scarey and very exciting at the same time - my previous restaurant was in a quieter town and smaller in size - this is based in the centre of a very vibrant town and the french are so excited about it opening.  They keep asking when it is going to open and cannot wait to try the food.  Sadly I think French cuisine is not what it used to be and the French are ready for a change - which will hopefully be good for us

I think this forum is fantastic for advice and support and would be on it 24/7 if I had the time

I will post information on our progess etc and maybe some photos if that is permitted? of the restaurant when we are ready to open.

Thank you again for your warm welcome

Nicki 

 

[thesoupbuddhist]

Nicki- hang tough !!! Anything worth doing is going to be a whole heap of work. In the end you'll be psyched you stuck w/ it. True, French cuisine is not what it used to be but some French classics never fall out of style. Best of luck, though given your background, I don't think you'll need the luck. Remember, simplicity is elegance. Can't wait to see photos. When is your opening date ?