Karine FOURDRINIER

Chef de service : 1 restaurant Karine Fourdrinier was thrown into the restaurant world by chance, and has since become an expert floor manager and sommelier.

Presentation

"When I was about to start my first shift in the restaurant my husband and I had just opened, and I simply asked him what I should do, he said 'figure it out', but in slightly more flowery terms," says Karine Fourdrinier. I smile about it today, but at the time, I didn't think much of it."

Meeting her future husband in Marrakech

When Karine Fourdrinier and her husband Thibaut Fourdrinier opened La Salle à Manger at the end of 2010, the winner of the Accueil Hauts-de-France 2024 trophy had no experience of waiting tables. It was a few years earlier, while living in Marrakech as an interior designer for wealthy individuals, that she met her future husband, a chef at a luxury hotel, La Palmeraie. Two years later, the young couple left Morocco to settle in Saint-Tropez, where Thibaut regularly worked 18 or 20-hour days. I already had two children from a previous marriage," explains Karine Fourdrinier. We wanted to take a breather and set up our own business, but I wasn't keen on the idea of living up north. The power of clichés, no doubt. I set my conditions, because I absolutely wanted to live in the Lille area.

On-the-job training

When the couple took over the Salle à Manger, then located just a few dozen metres from its current location, they knew that the early days would be difficult. "The previous owner had an excellent, well-deserved reputation. I was just starting out in the dining room and chose to spontaneously admit to customers that I knew nothing about the business. It was even a regular customer who gave me his recipe for the americano, which I still serve today.

Over the years, training regularly and gradually refining her palate, Karine Fourdrinier has become both an experienced sommelier, capable of guiding customers in the right direction, and a professional, warm-hearted room manager. And she no longer needs to ask her chef husband for advice.