|
Culinary Currents
August 2005
Chef Marion Gillchrist: Austin’s Intimate La Traviata
By Peter Langlois
Marion Gillchrist admits she has always been a pretty
lousy student, from her high school days at Stratford in Houston to a
one-year stint at The California Culinary Academy, where she didn’t
complete her degree. “I just couldn’t sit still in the classroom. It was
all so boring,” she told me. What isn’t boring is the path Marion took to
pursue and reach her dream of being a chef-owner.
Marion dove into jobs in Austin, Santa Fe, N.M. (Coyote
Café) and Dallas (Stephan Pyles Star Canyon), getting involved in the
opening of six restaurants along the way. She told me she learned so much
about starting up a business, both what to do and just as important what
not to do in order to be successful. “For me, learning took place not in a
classroom but rather in the kitchen and in the rest of the restaurant. I
found my passion in the 14-hour days and the six-day-a-week grind. It’s
all about being there (in the operation).”
In 2000, after working in Santa Fe on and off for
thirteen years, Marion felt ready to pursue the ultimate dream of owning a
restaurant in Austin. She sold her interest in the catering company she
co-owned in Santa Fe to her partner to use as a stake while she found the
right building and location in Austin. She had in mind a smallish
rectangle similar to the successful restaurants she had come to know in
New York City and San Francisco through her travels. Those are her two
cities to visit to enjoy the best restaurants and find ideas to bring to
her own table.
Once she found her site in Austin, financing became a
primary issue. She felt it would be too difficult to obtain an S.B.A.
loan, so she turned to those who believed in her, her parents and
relatives. With her brother and sister-in-law as partners, she opened what
is now a 54-seat restaurant with bar that features Carbonara, Fettuccini
with mushrooms and artichokes, and Duck Confit as house specialties. She
swears by imported Italian pasta. “I wouldn’t think about using about
anything but the real stuff.”
While Chef Marion feigns business acumen, she has been
able to pay off her parents and buy out her brother and sister-in-law in
five years, quite an accomplishment. Meanwhile, she says that while her
passion still lies in the creativity of the kitchen, the responsibility of
ownership takes up a great deal of her time.
She offered some advice to young people who get caught up
in the glamour of being a chef: “Work in the business before you go to
culinary school.” While television and so-called reality restaurant shows
portray a business of/for celebrities, it’s not like that at all,
according to Chef Marion: “It’s hard work, and you’ve got to come to grips
with that. Finding out during an internship that you picked the wrong
field is a financial disaster. Culinary schools are so expensive! Make
sure this is what you want. Spending your parents money only to find out
this isn’t for you can turn into a big guilt trip.”
Wow! That’s what I call sage advice. I wonder why so many
don’t get that it is a combination of work experience (preferably early
on) along with education that gives young people the best chance of
success? Toques off to Marion who found her passion and a way to live her
dream!
###
Peter Langlois is founder of
www.RestaurantU.com: Tools of the Trade for Business, for School, for
Free!,co-editor of
Weekly Restaurant Connections (e-Newsletter), Culinary Instructor,
The Art Institute of Houston-Culinary, and Management, Marketing
and e-business Facilitator at The University of
Phoenix (Houston). Langlois is also a Malcolm
Baldrige 2005 Ambassador. He has a Political Science degree
from Michigan State University (Modern International Chinese Relations)
and an M.B.A from the University of Houston (Marketing and Business
Strategies). If you enjoyed this feature, you’ll probably enjoy his free
newsletter available on
www.RestaurantU.com.
Contact information: 832.860.5595 or
peter@restaurantu.com
| 
