Frenchie: Greg Marchand, Growing up in an Orphanage and building a wildly Successful Restaurant Empire across Paris and London

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4:48And so we started putting that on the menu in London. And you know when you open a restaurant and then you just kind of like work on a menu, work on, you know, menu development, and you never know what's going to happen. But I wouldn't have put one penny on a bacon scone becoming this thing in London. That's crazy, you know? Yeah, because that was like, because you opened the restaurant in 2016, that was like one of the first it felt like you were kind of the person pioneering there's now lots of little um versions of that have sprouted up but yeah we had that and then we had the um the lamb saddle which was gorgeous yeah that was like umptious it's fully yeah really delicious i think i had the leeks had quite a few drinks but i'd left so yeah we have a great cocktail program and we have a great wine program as well so it's uh it's easy to get tipsy you know you can get carried away um but then here we go this is what's nice about it but where i want to start and um look i i do like to ask hard questions because lots of our listeners are either founders starting restaurants or they're starting brands and they're just starting out and they i think hearing your story in your journey will really help them you know keep on keeping on yeah keep pushing through um and i read on your website and it said and he lost his parents when he was young gregory spends childhood and orphanage in nance yeah now to western france yeah yeah it was here he first led in his trade helping the nuns cook the likes of a scallop nom and my son french is so so bad mate um for the other children and i just think it's seeing all the success you've got now the restaurants across both the both two countries it's insane i'd love to go back to that to the orphanage and like can you add some color what did that feel like growing up so yeah i mean my my um my dad you know died in a car accident i was six my mom she was 11 from illness and And, well, you know, I mean, it's young.

6:58No, I have two kids. I have a son who's 14 and a daughter 11. And, you know, I was, when my son, like, got 12, I was like, oh, God. Then really, like, the age I had, you know, it was kind of a, you know, strange, you know, thing, strange moment in my life to see my son the same age as I was when I lost my parents and trying to imagine him, you know. or trying to imagine me putting him in a orphanage row. So that was kind of a little crazy time. But I mean, it's not only a twist, you know. Yeah, yeah. You know, I was lucky enough to have people around me that really loved me. But it was tough, you know.

7:48It's like a summer camp, you know, but forever, I mean, for all, until, you know, you get out. So, during I was in a child's house, you know, obviously, I had, when you turned, you know, like 15, 16, at school, you do like a discovery stage in training time, like for one week in a professional environment. So I chose, you know, a restaurant, a kitchen because a friend of a friend. And then I spent one week there. And then obviously we were not encouraged to pursue expensive and very long studies. So it was more like a hands-on kind of, you know, plumber or electrician or, you know, constrictor worker or, you know, chef.

8:45So, yeah, I decided to go into cooking at that time. I was 16 years old. So I started cooking school at that time. But at that time, it was more like survival. Survival. It wasn't passion. The passion came much later. And I pushed that. I wasn't the best student at school. I had all the things to sort out in my life. At 17, I had my own apartment. you know, at 17, before you're 18, and then they kind of kick you out, they put you in an apartment, and then they give you a little budget, so they basically teach you how to, you know, deal with a budget, how to make your shopping, how to live on your own, you know, so they don't, like, throw you, like, at 18, and then you're, like, totally lost.

9:39So, you know, I mean, so at 17, I was already kind of like, you know, totally, you know, free and doing what I want. So I think it teaches you a lot about life at this age. So, yeah, it was quite wild. But I was lucky enough to have, as I said, people that really helped me keep my feet on the ground and not going crazy and, you know, doing, you know, making mistakes or making bad decisions. So, you know, it was from 16 to 20. I did four years of cooking school. You know, as I said, survival. Then I started, and then that's why I moved and I left France because I didn't really have much in France, to be honest.

10:34So I thought, well, let's see the world. And then that's when my journey, my cooking journey started, following my suitcase for the next 10 years. And that's how I ended up, of all places, in Peebles in Scotland. Because, again, a friend of a friend of a friend knew someone that knew someone in a Peebles Hydro hotel in Scotland. and then I ended up there and then that's where the whole journey began and you know yeah so that was kind of my journey from you know 12 to um 12 to 20 yeah it's fascinating there's two words you said that really like struck a chord with me wild and survival and I think if you're going through that at that young age surviving anyone surviving any kind of business there's two things you really need it's going to be wild and it's going to be survival it's you kind of need that's two really interesting words i think to to get to do anything you've got to be prepared to like survive the wild if that makes sense so it's it's funny because i come to a time in my uh in my life today um that where where i i'm actually this anger, this survival was a real help.

12:02It was a real help to build what I built. It was a motivation. It was, as you said, survival. It was like point A to point B. I'm going to get to point B no matter what.

12:20and what was a real, you know, force, a real strength. I feel the more I grew older, the more it becomes a burden almost, you know, because you cannot fight all your lives. You know, I'm 45 in a few months and I feel that today, you know, this thing you know this this underlying you know fear and underlying you know pain you know yeah yeah it's kind of like i need to overcome it you know there's a there's a quote i love by an author called robert green and it's like the the the greater your shadow the more drive and more beautiful things you create so i don't know if you like the beatles yeah yeah so paul mccartney and uh and john they both lost their mums at 15 and it's like so sad and they met each other about 16 and they they say well i think a lot of the beatles success and they're crazy creations because they had this pain you almost need some sort of pain to give you this drive to create these dishes um so this is a question i asked paul who paul ainsworth who unfortunately lost to his his dad but like if you were to go for for dinner or take cook something for your parents tonight what would you what would you cook them is the first question and if you're okay asking and then the second question is like what would you say to them what would you ask them uh just to finish on on on on what we're talking about because because i think i think it's very important as i said you cannot fight all your life and and and no i feel like i i just need to fucking relax, you know?

14:09I just need to, like, enjoy, you know, like, not always having this little, like, warning sign in the back of my head. And so, well, you know, I guess this is going to cost me a lot of money in psych analysis, but actually, you tell me how much I owe you after this little course. I'm just kidding, but, you know, I'm in the middle of this, you know, really, I need to learn how to take a step back and just actually enjoy life for what it is. I guess it's a midlife crisis kind of thing, probably. But if I cooked for my parents, I don't know. I would probably do like, I mean, talking about the season today, I would probably do like a beautiful little like poulet with vin jaune morrel, asparagus, spring garlic with a beautiful bottle of vin jaune and you know, kind of like a very aged wine oxidized as well that would probably showcase a little bit everyone's feeling and I don't know I don't know what I would tell them because I mean you know my dad I was 6 I mean I don't remember much 6 you know I just you mainly remember your memories are mainly made from what people actually you know told you so and then yeah I remember 12 I mean this is

16:01I don't know I would you know I think I think they would be proud I'm sure they would be proud I I would thank them for giving me you know during this short period of time a great upbringing good values you know being a single mom it's not easy to raise to raise a kid you know i don't have any sister i don't have any brother didn't really have yeah so yeah it was probably very hard for my for my mom but what i remember of her is she was very protective and she was very loving so i would probably say thank you to them for giving me the tools to be where i am today as well yeah you said you said two two words values and tools i was just to go into that a bit more what are the values that your mom taught you that you um allow to filter into the the french empire like what are some of those values yeah the what this is this is actually the a very important part of frenchy um the dna of french the value actually as we grew as a company as we got more collaborators more staff, more people working with us I kind of, at one point I remember I was in London and I wanted to change the design of the menu right, simple thing and then we called the design agency and then we start talking about them who we were and they come back with a design of the menu with like the french flag because it was frenchy and i was oh my fucking god yeah what did they understood i mean we must have done a very bad job explaining them who we were and then from then i said okay this is wrong this is not right we need to do a brand book.

18:11So that's what we did. We took an agency, we took a brand book that allowed us to write what our DNA, what our value, authenticity, benevolence, the family is very important. We often call the Frenchie family, the whole community around Frenchie. best and present um authenticity i said um and and um as you call it um something real you know yeah something just authentic i think is the right one i think i like authentic in a benevolent kind of way. And I think doing what I've been doing is probably why do you succeed at something? What is hospitality? It's basically making people happy through the different tools that you have.

19:23So food is a huge one but the service, the lights, the music, the environment. so and why do you want to make people happy you know it's to be loved so i think i couldn't have found a better job to express myself and hospitality from where i'm from that's what i think love dance and it's like that to be loved and i think sorry this is going too deep no but isn't it everyone's yeah yeah yeah everyone wants to be you know the reason i do this podcast you know to be honest is i want people to like me and respect me and by giving value i know you in when you cook food you and and the service and the setting it's giving benevolence giving happiness but what i want to do is give inspiration it's the same coming from the same place that feeling of like i just want to i think every is part of human nature i think it is it is one of one part of human nature is to be loved just to be loved bohemi our beloved sponsor are helping build the fastest growing challenger food and drink brands look if you're a small brand just starting out and need your first indie stockist your first hundred stockist to wholesale boemi are the platform to categorically speed that up but if you're a big brand wanting to get bigger boemi are also insane they make field sales marble smooth silky slick they're just epic ollie's ollie's been on this podcast twice actually they saw a 29 uplift in sales when using boemi to check major malt listings availability insane 29 uplift by downloading an app insane lucky saying my boy aaron duff is coming to podcast in a couple of weeks weeks he uses it to manage the team of 30 people and they've lucky to have unlocked 500 draft listings by using bowie me look you've got to get involved with this stuff it's absolutely insane and it will categorically change your life it's just the sickest platform i use it all the time at ireland there's a thing on your website it says whatever you want and I think there's a picture I think it's in one of your I don't think it's in London It's a restaurant in Paris It's got a whatever you want on the wall Yeah, it's an artwork from Thomas Lelieu a French artist I think it resumed whatever I want but whatever you want whatever we all want Yeah, why is that on your wall though?

21:44It's such a good it's a good phrase and it's like well it's it can it it can mean you know a lot of different things but but often when when when staff they're like annoyed by someone's by a guest or whatever i show them like whatever yeah whatever you want whatever they want you know it's like yeah you're here you can get whatever you want and and is that like uh when you say whatever you want is that in terms of you can get anything you want in life or is it like specifically that's very very open it's funny because I I really love this it's my architect Emily Bonaventure we design actually all our restaurants we're on a new project actually and she's designing it so all our restaurants have been designed by Emily Bonaventure and she's the one that introduced me to this artist and to this because she knows me very well to this specific piece of whatever you want.

22:45And I, yeah, because it's, yeah, I think it showcases me, but not only, it showcases as well what we want to give. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I love that. Because Paul Ainsworth's got one. I went to his restaurant down in Padstow. Yeah. And they sat me, and I could see into the kitchen. And on the wall, it said, make it happen. Underneath, make it happen together. And I said, why have you got that on your wall. And he was like, just because no matter what, we just make it happen. And it's like, and it doesn't have to say anything more to it, but it's your version of whatever you want. Like, just make it happen for whatever you want.

23:25There's something delicious in that, I think. In, you know, Kitchen in London, I mean, it's hidden from the customer, but we have a little saying saying, take the best, fuck the rest. Oh, is that what you've got? Yeah. So take the best, fuck the rest. That's amazing. And why is that up there? Why is that on the wall? Because we like it. We like it. But often in kitchen, you always have little sayings. You know, staff toilet, we have a coach from Danny Meyer, whom I work for in New York, saying a good restaurant doesn't distinguish himself by how many mistakes they make. but how they resolve them.

24:11And I think this is a good... So we have a, you know, it's kind of like little inspirational little quotes and saying. I think these little things are really important. They're the bits that add the magic to the... If the staff are seeing that or the chefs are seeing that, it keeps the magic going in the restaurant. I think the greatest restaurants are kind of the combination of art and magic. Yeah. The food is the art, the service, the setting, the ambiance, if you want to say it like that, is the magic. The other thing I read on Instagram... Just sorry, I come back to this because

24:55we've been looking, doing this brand book, we've been looking for the why, you know, I don't know if you're familiar with the why. What? There's a great book of Simon Sinek. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start with why. And a why, so, you know, we were working on a value, obviously, and then on a why. And a why is creating emotions for genuine hospitality. So, you know, it doesn't talk about food, but it doesn't talk about service. It talks about genuine hospitality. So here we go. we have the authenticity, but it's creating emotion. Because when people go out in a restaurant, they want a dining experience.

25:42They want emotion. When do you go out to the restaurant, obviously? I mean, you know, it's not just to feed yourself. It's to have emotions through food, through, you know, maybe the discussion you're going to have with your friend, with... So, yeah, that's kind of a why, creating emotion. Creating emotion. because that's what i read on your on your instagram is said um sometimes one can lose sight of the why and last night i've been able to catch it back i ain't gonna let it go and i love that because i think no matter what business you go into in life your why can change i don't think you know i think i'll if people i love that book i listen to some of it a lot but i think one thing that they need to kind of maybe build is the why can change.

26:29So the why when you started Frenchie, I don't know how many years ago, it's probably different now. You've got slightly older kids. Do you know what I mean? I think the why can change. So when you said you've been able to catch it back and I ain't going to let it go, what did that feel like in here? So let me put that back in context. This was an industry dinner that I wanted to organize with people I really like, people from the industry. I mean, obviously, the list was not exhaustive, but I wanted to bring people back. I mean, you know that during COVID, unfortunately, I was in London. So for almost three years, I was like, more than three, I was cut from London.

27:17And then I came back after COVID and it was not the same. I felt I lose sight of why I was there, you know, difficulties, we had a lot of change of staff. And I was not having fun anymore. I was like, God, how can I do to bring back, you know, a little bit of spark into why I'm here in the first place. And so I talked with my dad, I was like, I need to see all the people I was seeing before, you know, We go shooting with Boysdale, you know, a run-out organized with his restaurant, the Boysdale, a shooting day every day with all the chefs. It's one of my best events of the year. I love this event.

28:06And then we have a lot of other events, but for more than two years, there was nothing of that happening. And I was like, God, this is dull. And I would come to the restaurant just dealing with recruitment issues and with, you know, financial worries and with, I was like, this is not fun anymore. So that's why I did this big dinner. And then, you know, it's like when you do biking, you know, and you have the dynamo, you know, to lead the light, you know. Well, to lead the light, you need to start biking. By biking as in cycling. Cycling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the dynamo, I don't know how you call it in English, the things that make the lights when you when when you cycle and then this little thing and then light okay yeah yeah i'm with you yeah yeah so you know to make the light you need to start cycling yeah i started cycling so i took the rule by the own and i started you know invite some people and i did a big you know dinner and and and there was all these people and we just ended up like you know drinking whiskey and like chatting and laughing and i was like okay and then after that i got started to get invited again to all these things and all of a sudden i was like okay that's london i was just before covid that's london i love and and that was it and this is this is the context of of of my uh post on instagram on this post on instagram it's so so who did you invite like who who who are your your who are the people who give you life and uh emotion.

29:43I cannot name them all, but I mean, they're all on my, on my photo on, on Instagram posts, but I, I don't want to, and as I said, the list is, was not exhaustive, but yeah, it's people from the industry, it's other chefs, it's some journalists, it's friends. I mean, you know, it's just, just the people like people I like, you know, people, yeah, before we go around and have a few drinks have fun yeah yeah keep it simple yeah um want to talk about uh jamie oliver and 15 or time at 15 and i read online that um uh well frenchy the nickname bestowed by jamie oliver yeah he's such a force of nature and everything he's done for food in the uk i'd love to know can you take us back to the first day you met him where was that and what did that feel like the first time i think it was in uh in 15 when i came in i mean he has this great energy uh what you see is what you get um is is is a very funny guy and you know being a chef is is is a good laugh and uh you know talking i think talking about values you know i i think i think jimmy has a lot of you know good values and you know that's probably what you know brought him where he is today uh but yeah he's i mean my time you know at 15 he was it was quite amazing he's actually a very inspiring guy you know by his energy his his leadership qualities um yeah that was that was great and i was the only french in the kitchen so that's how I ended up called Frenchie I think to be very honest with you I think he couldn't remember the name of everyone so you know everyone kind of had a nickname so you know me because I was French it was easier to remember than my name I mean obviously he was surrounded by a lot of people and then Frenchie and then everyone started calling me Frenchie and then I moved to New York and then everyone carried on calling me Frenchie to the point where people didn't even know my real name so when I came back to Paris in 2008 and i opened my restaurant um you know i'm still like ah fuck it let's call it frenchie amazing name and i want to talk about the leadership lessons because um what are some of the the principles if you could boil down um jamie's leadership lessons into one or two principles that you um you that has inspired you as a leader leading the brigade firstly and then now the the group at frenchy it's it's hard to say i i think when you believe very strongly in something you bring people with you you know you can you you bring people with you by your energy, by your honesty and this is when people you

33:06can share your dream with them and then they would come and then they'd be like yeah, god, I want to be part of this and I think this is probably what happened with great leaders and I was lucky enough to work for a few of them. I work for Danny Meyer. I work as well for Nick Jones and, you know, Jamie. So I had a chance to see a little bit like these people with big character and with, you know, bringing, you know, the people with them, you know, because there's nothing you can do if you don't, you know, bring people uh with you and and and you know we need to share the same belief we need to you know otherwise it just doesn't work i love that and it's like it's almost you know how we're talking about emotion is what brings people to restaurants you want people to feel emotion it's almost the same with when you're leading a team you need people to have that vision and tie them in emotionally that's it and i think it's interesting it's like outward facing we're like you know hospitality facing emotion but actually getting everyone behind to follow you is is a vision that links with emotion exactly i think yeah so emotions so i like just think think about things and then so and that's as nick jones and then jamie and and is it danny mayer danny mayer yeah and is there any like specific um like how you've taken the the greg effect as like the some of the tacit kind of lessons in um not necessarily leading but showing people how to demand like consistent excellence because i think consistency is a really interesting word because the only way you get great emotional feeling is by consistency.

35:09So how do you make sure your team are consistent in terms of excellence without you necessarily always being there? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I think there's a few things. As you grow, you need to let it go a little bit. I'm kind of the DNA keeper today. I'm the DNA keeper. That's what I do. You know, I, but as you grow, you need to be able to grow with people and give them responsibilities, give them room as well for creation, but keep keeping them in your own boundaries. That's why I talk about DNA, you know, so you have a line, you can follow a line, you can go a bit up, a bit down, but then you have the limit, you know, and you don't want to get out of this.

36:05And actually, I think today, to keep creative, after I opened Frenchie in the night, that's like 14 years, to keep creative, you need to feed on something. Today, my biggest job is to feed the machine. How do you fit and keep fitting until, you know, to carry on opening new restaurants, coming up with new ideas, with new concepts, you know, where you need to fit from your environment. and all my people, all the people that work with me, my collaborators, they all fit me as well as much as I fit them because, you know, I'm lucky enough to have people coming from all over the world. Well, you know, especially in Paris, you know, it's a bit more difficult in the UK.

37:03but and those people feed you know my creative as well and you need to let them do this you know so I kind of you know I kind of look for projects you know we have funding partner of an organic permaculture farm just outside of Paris 40 minutes outside of Paris, where we get all our vegetables in Paris from. So, that's inspired me. But that inspired my guys as well, because we go on a farm, you know, every Wednesday we go, we see the farmer, we see what's growing, and then we come back, and we're like, okay, well, we can do this, we can do that, and then, you know, two days later, they send me a little Google invite for testing and then I sit down and then they make me try and I'm like, oh, great.

38:04So it's a very collaborative,

38:09it's a great collaboration with all my partners, I mean, all my collaborators. It's almost like, you know, like the nucleus. You know, the nucleus is where the DNA is. It's almost like you've got to keep burning that and that's probably through like emotion. And then you said, you said, I feed the machine and the team feed me. So it goes back and forward. But it takes the leader or the trailblazer, like a Jamie or you or Nick Jones or Paul Ainsworth to keep feeding that. Yeah, yeah. And that's really interesting. And you can feed like going to the museum. You can go to... I mean, because obviously at one point you need to get out of the kitchen.

38:55If you stay in the kitchen, you know, like 16 hours a day, you know, I mean, you cannot build, you know, many restaurants. You can keep one going. So, you know, when you get out of the kitchen, you know, all of a sudden you feel very lonely. Because you're like, oh my God, what am I going to do with all these days, you know, where there's a lot of hours in a day, you know. You're not, your day is not like fixed anymore by the service, the mise en place. And then, you know, sort of a sudden you're like, oh, it's a bit actually overwhelming, you know. And you need to find other ways to fit the machine exactly.

39:37Because that's what I was going to ask you is, how did Greg have to change from opening his first restaurant, opening your first restaurant? So now, when you've got five in France, one here, a big brand, like, how did you have to change? You said you got lonely and you said you... There's a keep feeding machine in different ways. Go into that, please. So, yeah, this is very interesting because, I mean, I started cooking, I was 16, you know. I was not geared to manage 100 people and to lead 100 people. And so what happened is that, I think this is something, when I see something is not going right, you know, I usually look at myself like, what can I do about it?

40:30And then try to find solutions. And I started to lose a little bit. When I opened London, I was lost. I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to manage it. I was doing micromanagement. It wasn't working for me. It wasn't working for my team. I was driving everyone crazy. I was driving myself crazy. So I was like, stop, you cannot carry on like that. You're just going to burn out. And so I took a coach, a leadership coach here in the UK that helped me overcome all this, all this, you know, and that taught me, you know, how to be a, you know, a better leader, I guess. You were saying at the beginning about right at the beginning when you're just like, just, I just need to relax.

41:27I'm 40, almost 40 years. But I think, no, it's another step. Yeah. I had the step of getting out of the kitchen and maybe the next step for me will be, and it's a bit early now, but getting out of the operation side of things. I think it's steps in life where you, you know, it's, I guess it's growing pains, you know, it's growing crisis. As much as you can have that in a company, you can you know obviously you feel that as well for yourself so i i guess the uh yeah you you you just come to in front of uh you know on the top of a mountain and then you realize you're actually at the bottom on another one and then yeah yeah yeah i think this is maybe how you yeah how you you know grow in life it's almost about always there was a guy interviewed um who did you know tyrell's you know the british brand the crisps no yeah tyrell's yeah he really interviewed the founder oh yeah that's amazing yeah yeah big big big business and william said um when you're in the use the analogy of horse racing even that horses don't do that but he said that um when you're in the winner's enclosure you realize that all the fun was in the race and it's like so when you get to your five restaurants where you get your mission star you're like ah now and as what you've said and i love what you said get to the top of the mountain and then you're like oh fuck there's another mountain yes it was that mountain it's i think there's something in ways just being in the process and enjoying the process but then i also think at some point you have to you can't be kicking the kitchen you have to you have to step back and you have to let go and as you said it's the stages in which you do that I think it's fascinating.

43:18But you know, going back to this, when you, when earlier, what did I say?

43:31That what brought me why I was is maybe today is like, is like sleep, you know, stopping me from like enjoying and relaxing. You know, and And I lost my thought. But I think it's like when I was a kid, you know, I almost reached a goal that was maybe never really... I never told to myself, I'm going to have many restaurants. I just told to myself, you know, I'm going to try to do something with my life. And then, no, you know, you look at it and it's like almost if you reach an imaginary goal that you set for yourself and you're like, okay, that's it, great. So what's happening now? You know what?

44:25You're like, oh, fuck. Is that it? Really? Yeah. That's kind of like, okay. All the fun was in the race. Yeah. Exactly. I don't know the time is to learn how to enjoy this. Yeah. So how are you working on that weakness? how are you you know not necessarily being kind how are you enjoying it because you know i see you walk into that into the restaurant this morning i'm having a coffee and i what i loved and it just i think the best leaders are the ones that do things when no one's looking that restaurant was shut you come in you say hello to the cleaner you give her a hug you say hello you give them a coffee like that to me is leadership when when people don't know people don't you know people can be a leader when fucking everyone's looking at you do you know what i mean but like you walk and smiling are you enjoying it?