IT BEGAN WITH FEEDING PEOPLE
Before opening Mon Pitou, I spent nearly a decade as a flight attendant serving Diet Coke and pretzels in economy. Those years took me around the world, and between early alarms and back-to-back flights, I found plenty to be curious about: a lovely neighbourhood restaurant, a particularly comfortable hotel, something delicious I wanted to learn to make at home.
I also watched a considerable amount of Ina Garten.
While I was still flying, my partner, Triet, and I began selling our baked goods at local farmers markets. I’d gather ideas on my layovers, then come home to test, tweak and refine our recipes. We got to know our regulars, learned what they loved and slowly built that drove us to take the entrepreneurial leap.
In 2021, we opened Mon Pitou, our French café and specialty food store in Vancouver. It was one my most exciting projects because I took on the branding, interior design and creative direction, thinking about everything from what we’d serve to how people would feel when they walked through the door.
As we grew, I developed our private dinners, events, catering and wholesale offerings. Each gave me another way to bring food, design and hospitality together.
It’s also what helped shape the work I now do for my own clients.
WHAT’S THE OCCASION?
Naturally, I started inviting more people over at home, too.
What’s the Occasion? is my monthly dinner party series, built around the belief that having people you love around the table is reason enough to celebrate.
The name came from Triet, who would ask, “What’s the occasion?” whenever my best friend Taylor and I opened a bottle of wine on an ordinary evening.
We didn’t think we needed one.
Each dinner gives me a chance to bring a whole idea to life: the menu, flowers, table, music and all the preparations that let everyone relax once they arrive. I share the recipes and details along the way so you can borrow them for your own gatherings.
