11/10/2026
Bonissím memories…
February 2018 after Anne had worked for Karen for 6 years we reluctantly bought the business. Who knew we would have such fun, and who could have imagined we’d have a pandemic to fight through! There is definitely a book to be written about our journey, but here are a few highlights…
The first large catering job organised by an infamous American writer, who didn’t turn up at her 2 week writing course, then kept missing deadlines for payment so we had to hold the food hostage on most days until money came through. But thankfully the very organised and adorable Nancy Zaretsky was there to look after the 12 American women, and helped us laugh through the whole unbelievable event 🤣
Meeting a few famous celebrities was always fun, the very charming Gordon Ramsay who came to the shop, looked at all the delicious food and said that cheesecake looks good who made that, Anne said my partner Janice made it, oh I’ve just met Janice says Gordon. Anne thought how the hell has she got in on the act before me 🤣 Well, after a very long sweaty walk with Meg, Janice arrived home to Gordon standing outside the house. As Janice does she strikes up a conversation, Gordon says how did you end up here, oh that’s a long story says Janice, well give me the short version says Gordon, and a chat about Scotland and dogs followed. Actually a very lovely guy.
Then meeting one of Janice’s favourite TV cooks Rachel Allen. We had been on holiday so had missed the fact that Rachel was in town, but we did see her in Azulete with family. Anne told Janice absolutely do not interrupt her. The following evening at Fructuosa music evening we were sitting near 2 women and got talking and realised that they were family of Rachel. Janice said how disappointed she was not to meet Rachel. Sadly they were leaving early the following day, but the women said we’ll see what we can do. Next morning in walks Rachel, spent some time talking muffins etc and signed her bake book. What a genuinely beautiful and warm woman, made Janice’s year!
Lots of other lovely celebrities eg Sophie Raworth, Debbie Sledge, Christina Trevanion, Nick Knowles, and probably more that Janice didn’t recognise 🤣
Then came along our lovely neighbours Daniel & Catherine, we can’t tell you the fabulous times we have had because of them, that really is another chapter for the book! We’re talking Covid haircuts and a mad German chef🤣. And by far the best evening in Gaucin with the small intimate concert with Debbie Sledge, absolutely fabulous.
And then the s**t hit the fan for all of us, but we didn’t give up, we gave it everything we could to keep the business going. Our weekly meal deals, along with the wonderful Elizabeth Zeder online concerts went down a storm. And thanks to some friends donating money we were able to cook hundreds of meals for people within the village who had lost income and were struggling. That doesn’t seem so long ago and thankfully does not take away from the other amazing times we have had.
We still can’t believe that just 2 of us made 3000 canapés over 2 days for Urs & Rafaela’s Art Gaucin events, you can tell we were managers in a previous life! We also catered for many Birthday, Anniversary and wedding parties. All that and only one fairly big fiasco by Janice, but that’s a secret maybe to be revealed in the book 🤣
There’s lots more for the book 📖 but here’s some photos…
