Company | In Avignon, “Chez Lisette” is desperately looking for staff
Their “home”, they wanted it in this intramural sector, “it was the Place des Châtaignes or… the Place des Châtaignes”. He, his grandmother lived in the rue des Ciseaux d’or and his uncle in the Saint-Anne staircase. She had worked for a time “Chez Lulu” (today “Friends’ kitchen”), 6 place des Châtaignes. So when they heard that the Trouillas bakery (the oldest in Avignon, run by the same family since 1931) was for sale, Guillaume and Ingrid Khalifa didn’t hesitated for a second. And in March 2021, they raised, in their name, the curtain of this place so authentic, bakery-restaurant with old-fashioned charm, prized by a whole cohort of faithful. Regulars that the young couple quickly put in his pocket. Every morning, they are there for a little black or breakfast, on the terrace.
At 43 and 31, Guillaume and Ingrid have reference notes in their professional “menu”. Both graduated from the Avignon hotel school with a BTS. He, in the kitchen, made his ranges in Paris at “La Truffière” and at Ducasse and, back down in the South, at the Auberge de Cassagne. Ingrid started working at the Carlton in Cannes, “I started cooking when I met my partner at the “Bain Marie” in 2011. I am versatile thanks to him”she confides with a broad smile.
More than a year after its opening, “Chez Lisette” is at a turning point. Or rather in search of… personal. Currently, the team includes, in addition to Ingrid and Guillaume (multitasking, including baking), a cook, a baker, three waiters, a dishwasher and a cashier. “We’re there at 3:30 – 4 a.m., and we never close before 9 p.m.“, explains Guillaume. It’s not easy to be in the oven and at the mill.
With the Festival looming, the equation is all the more thorny. “In July, we shoot at 21 people.” The search mainly targets a cook, a pastry chef, a room manager. “On a need for people to assist us, adds Ingrid. The young people who come to work are full of goodwill. It suits us that we are their first experience so that they can then build themselves elsewhere, but we have to teach them the basics, to drive them. On the hands, the problem is strong heads, capable people who know how to lead.”
The pace in July is more than sustained on various fronts. The bakery is running at full speed, the fougasses, the brassadeaux and the auricles (the indulgence of Olivier Py, the patron of the Festival) are in great demand. Just like the catering service (by actors on set in the courtyard and nearby guest rooms). In the restaurant, an average of 150 covers are served.
The icing on the cake, the Belgian team of the Théâtre des Doms decided to call on the good services of the couple and assigned them the responsibility of their bar-catering for this month of July. “And there too, we are looking for a cook!“