Fabrice le Chef: Open for business

A couple of days ago I showed you how much work and sheer muscle-power was needed to renovate and open a food shop in Daglan (“Fabrice le Chef: Behind the scenes of a start-up,” March 27).

Today was the shop’s opening and work was going on virtually until the last minute. In fact, Chef’s wife Samantha told me that she was in the shop until just before midnight last night, doing the final touch-ups.

So now that the shop is open, let’s have a look, starting with the entrance.

The shop’s entrance.

Just to the left of the front door was this sign, letting villagers know that the shop — which had been closed as the renovation work took place — was ready to go.

“Re-opening on Friday, March 29.”

According to Samantha, the shop’s selection of cheeses and meats were particularly popular with French villagers. Here’s the cheese section in the large display case that Fabrice and Samantha, with a little help from their friends, installed.

A nice array of French cheeses.

Although Fabrice is not technically a butcher, meaning that he can’t work with carcasses as a licenced butcher does, he is able to buy fresh meat directly from an abattoir and then trim it to order. Here’s the selection of meats on offer:

A wide variety of meats, ready to be cut and trimmed to order.

But I think the real stars of the show are the prepared foods that Fabrice makes himself — ranging from traditional, local dishes to more international foods (my wife Jan bought a container of salmon curry for our lunch tomorrow). All are reasonably priced and well-packaged. Here’s a look:

Chef Fabrice’s prepared and packaged foods, ready to be heated and served.

To show you how nicely packaged the foods are, here’s a close-up of just one dish — rillette (a type of meat spread, like a paté) which Fabrice made from two kinds of salmon and flavoured with lemon. (Our neighbour Pierre told us today that he’s already tried the rillette, and thought it was excellent.)

A package of salmon rillette with lemon.

The shop has a few extras as well. Here’s a shelving unit, for instance, that’s holding some jars of the foie gras patés that Fabrice makes, as well as some kitchen utensils for sale.

Shelving unit with patés and various kitchen tools.

And here’s a shelving unit stocked with a selection of wines and beers.

A selection of beers and wines.

When I dropped in to visit late this afternoon, both Fabrice and Samantha were all smiles because business had been very good, and the villagers’ reaction seemed positive. Here they are:

At your service: Chef and his wife Samantha.

As for Jan and me, we think the shop will be a great addition to Daglan. And we’re definitely looking forward to the salmon curry tomorrow.

Advertisement