Where's the Beef?

With London now in capable hands, it was with optimism, determination, and hope, I peeled off to take the reins on recreating success in Paris, France.

Moving to France wasn’t easy with having to find a place to live, getting my son set up in school, getting a driver’s license, navigating the bureaucracy of getting my work permit, and learning French. Even with the support of a relocation company, moving to a new country versus visiting for a short time are two completely different experiences.

Learning French was a long process. I began by going to Berlitz language school while living in Toronto to prepare for the move. Going once a week for a few hours was good to take the newness away but not having the ability to practice in the real world (Ontario is predominately English speaking) slowed progress. After having boots on the ground in France I began learning in earnest. The approach I chose was to do three weeks of full immersion language learning spaced out over a few months. During the process there were times that I was over the moon excited with the progress I was making and there were times my brain just couldn’t process anymore and locked up. There’s some validity to the notion that it’s harder to learn new languages and you get older. Still, I pushed on and was able to fully function in French. It is a beautiful language and being around native French speakers, I was able to learn tone, pitch, and inflection while applying what I learned was incredibly satisfying. I approach visiting new countries and places as a traveler instead of a tourist. A traveler’s curiosity opens their eyes to the nuance of culture and traditions allowing them to get the most out of their time and experience while making connections with locals that tourists won’t get. Be a traveler. All this helped me get through day-to-day life and now it was time to put this new skill into building the business.

Going back to the three pillars of importance for running a successful restaurant (great food, great people, great space) I began concurrently working through the process.?

You’ve got to start somewhere so we began with finding a great space since that part of the process was going to take the longest. Our first location needed to be in a highly visible area with a mix of locals and tourists so we could touch as many people as possible. With the help of Bernard Dubois , we secured a location on Boulevard Montmarte in Paris’s 9th Arrondissement. This is a busy part of the city not far from the imposing Opera Garnier, the impressive shopping of Galleries Lafayette and Printemps, and a reasonable walk to the Louvre through Les Passages. I’d been part of some cool restaurants over the years but with this one I often needed to pinch myself to make sure it was real.

The location needed a full gut and buildout and we planned on it taking a year to complete. We took bids from multiple contractors to compare what we were being told about the scope of work, navigating the permitting, and timing for completion. To further reduce risk and see what experiences others had gone through in opening locations, I leveraged my relationship with the group of industry professionals at Leaders Club France that I was invited to join by Daniel Majonchi . Feeling comfortable with the information at hand, we signed a contract. While that part was underway, I began looking for ingredients.

Chipotle’s Food with Integrity protocols insisted that we only used ingredients from animals raised in open air, without added growth hormones, and without unnecessary antibiotics.

My impression before arriving in France was that this would be a breeze. After all, this is France and they’re world renowned for having amazing food. So, we began by reaching out to the Ministry of Agriculture to see if they could point us in the right direction. I explained that I’m an American opening a restaurant serving burritos and wanting to use the very best ingredients in France. “What?! We can’t help you.” We tried again, and again, and again. The Ministry eventually recommended we contact José Bové’s group, Via Campesina. M. Bové is an anti-military activist, an agricultural unionist, and an alter-globalization activist who is famously known for bulldozing a McDonald’s in Millau, France to bring light to the hormone treated beef they planned on using. We reached out to see if they could help and received the same runaround. Five calls later they said that we need to go to Lyon and seek out Jean Denaux at a food supplier convention. M Denaux is a fifth-generation farmer and supplier based in Sens, which is in an area known for raising Charolais cattle. OK!

We arrived at the food show and am walking around looking for a sign, the JD sign representing M Denaux’s brand, and found it and him and he was expecting me… Apparently the inquiries in getting the best beef, chicken, and pork available in France for Chipotle had piqued interest amongst the community. We had a great conversation, and I was keen to get a deal going. He said, “Not so fast, we haven’t gotten to know each other yet.” This was a big A-HA moment for me. Business wise, I came from a transactional culture; you’ve got it, I need it, let’s make a deal. For the French, relationships are what drives business. M Denaux extended an invitation to do farm visits with him to learn about how and where the cattle are raised. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we’re on a high-speed train blasting into the French countryside.

In preparation for the visit, I had the US supply chain team send me the book on what was allowed and what wasn’t for ingredients to meet our Food with Integrity standards. This thing was an inch thick full of allowable parts per million of an insane amount of chemicals and acceptable grains and grasses to nourish the animals.?

Upon arriving at the first farm, I dutifully pulled out the book and began asking simple things like what do the cattle eat and what do they drink. The farmer looked at me and pointed to the field of grass and the stream at the edge of the field. This is the way our forefathers farmed, without chemicals. I put the book back in my bag after quickly realizing it will not be necessary. The farmer showed me around the farm and how he and his team raise their animals. Grass fed, grass finished, never given growth hormones, and only getting antibiotics if they get sick. Which was very rare. I learned that with a variety of grasses growing in the fields from which to choose, the cattle will select what they need. No monocrop grazing going on here and there were some very happy, healthy animals. The farmer asked what I planned to do with the cuts of meat, and I explained that it would be seasoned with spices and braised for hours for the barbacoa and sliced onsite for the steak. He was thrilled that I was taking a personal interest in connecting with the farmers and that their hard work would be cared for in creating delicious food.

With a solid, respectful relationship built with M Denaux, he introduced me to someone who does the same thing he does but with pigs. Another trip to the countryside to visit both family farms and industrial farms. Family farms are as pleasant as you can imagine. Industrial farms are – intense. We chose the family farm route. We built a relationship which came with an introduction to a cooperative of chicken farmers in Nantes, France and away we went to visit them.

All in all, it took nine months to secure the beef, chicken, and pork suppliers and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. One thing I learned was that during World War II, many farmers were displaced, and farms destroyed. Part of The Marshall Plan of reconstruction was to get food to the people, and it was necessary, at that time, to industrialize the raising of animals. Over time, more farmers took their farms back and went back to the old ways of farming. There is still plenty of industrial farming and it takes commitment to find those out there doing it the traditional way.

Although we were sourcing for just one restaurant at the time, I was building relationships with suppliers that we would be able to work with for a long time while we grew the numbers of restaurants in France. Since chicken is the most popular menu item, and Chipotle only used dark meat at the time, the chicken supplier was concerned that they wouldn’t have enough demand for the white meat left over and that they would not waste anything. I hadn’t considered that. I went to my network to help find a solution and was introduced to someone with a grab and go sandwich chain. At the time, they were importing their chicken from Brazil. Brazil! Some of the best chicken on the planet is right outside your back door and you’re getting yours from Brazil?! Cost was his reason. French chicken was just too expensive. He had the same issue in the beginning where he was only using white meat and there wasn’t enough demand for the dark meat. Collaboratively, we looked at the economics and he made the switch to using French chicken – Poulet Fermier Label Rouge d’Ancenis. It was a win-win. Now we were both using the good stuff. The best.

My key takeaways from this are to build relationships, be curious, and take a serious approach to understanding where your food comes from. The nutrition is better for you, the environment is sustainable, and the animals only have one bad day.