Who should drive operational changes – the managers to the teams on the ground?

Driving operational change It's one of our restaurant's qualities,shaped like a rose, so to speak, that should drive operational changes:the managers or the teams, on the front line.

I'd say that in our restaurant, it's mainly the middle management.

I mean, it's not the regular waitress nor necessarily me, because in fact,I'm not always at the restaurant.

I work a lot outside of the restaurant.It's those who work in the restaurant who know what needs to be changed and who have ideas.

If it's not significant, they change it directly.If it's something more significant, they tell me.

Normally, I approve them as they're good ideas.It's mainly the maitre d's who drive the operational changes rather than me.

Could you give us some examples of changes that might be made such as changing the bread, the furniture or the presentation?

Sure.For example, I'm holding a napkin folded in the shape of a rose.

Previously, they were simply rolled and they didn't look nice.

This is much prettier, much more appealing.It was the maitre d's decision, she looked online for creative ways to fold napkins and had the staff try them out.

We had bread that was fine, but nothing special.The sous-chef was involved in this case.

He knew a better supplier.We tried it, approved it, and went with it.

That's the bread we use now.Recently, we changed the cutlery holders, they were too narrow.

We chose wider ones that look like a tree branch and work better.

They're more comfortable for the customers and for the staff,because it isn't easy to hold a fork, a knife or a spoon on something narrow.

These are small details, not major things.For example, at one point we changed the table lighting.

We have lights coming from above, but we also had some kind of design panels.

We took them apart, and the cables were sticking out.

The maitre d' placed little mirrors to hide them.We decided to set a plant on each table.

It was the maitre d' who found the supplier and took care of it.

We also place one candle on each table.All those ideas come from the people who are in the restaurant.

Then they tell me: "Hey, can we buy plants?" I ask how much it costs, and if it's fine, I say yes,because those are good ideas.

Have you also chosen together the furniture for the bar area?

We have a bar area that, for now, doesn't work very well in our restaurant, and we want it to be much more attractive for the street and adapted to serve cocktails and sharing plates, that is, food to share and enjoy all together.

So, we went to see an interior designer to ask how we could do it.

In the meetings were the head chef, my partner Romain Lascalides,the maitre d', Marine Badereau de Saint-Martin,who has very good taste and was very helpful, and myself.

We looked at how the dining room would be reorganized.

In particular, there was a very large bar that we are going to cut and move to the back of the room.

This will allow us to place tables, poufs,benches and create a cozier atmosphere.

We are also going to renovate the façade.The choice of materials,the discussions about where to put tiles,whether to use wallpaper and which kind,which tiles...

All that was decided by three people:the head chef, the maitre d' and myself.