http://classifiedpost.scmp.com/jsarticledetail.php?arttype=MYOB&articleid=3000017051&communitycode=Andrea Li
Update on 28 Apr 2007
Few would believe the owner and founder of one of the city's most coveted catering businesses has no professional culinary training under her belt.
If anything, Lori Granito has shown that the best cooking can be done on taste, basic techniques and a heart for hospitality.
Ms Granito, a native of New Orleans with a retail background who arrived in Hong Kong 15 years ago when her chef husband took up a job at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel group, initially found work as an export manager of a furniture store.
In The Big Easy she had managed two jewellery and antique stores. And, while she always enjoyed cooking, it was not something she had considered professionally before arriving in Hong Kong.
Then, while lunching with a colleague from the furniture store, she became inspired by the possibility of cooking for a living.
"My colleague was telling me about these two women she knew who had started their own catering business and were having so much fun and doing well. That was when I thought, why don't I do this as well? I have pots and pans; I know how to cook."
She started small, advertising her niche in Cajun cuisine in newspapers. Then word of mouth spread like wild fire and she was catering anything from bespoke intimate dinner parties to larger cocktail events. She has catered for exclusive gigs and backstage parties for performing artists Kanye West, the Rolling Stones and James Brown.
"My mother, who is an excellent cook, was flabbergasted when she found out people were paying me to cook. I had always liked cooking but was never the first person to run into the kitchen at home, so I think my family was very surprised I was doing this for a living," Ms Granito said.
"I do a lot based on taste and basic techniques. It also helps that I grew up in a big foodie environment where people would be willing to drive an hour across town to get the best and freshest food products. And I also learnt a lot from my husband, who is trained in classical French cuisine."
After some of her most avid clients took to devouring food in her small industrial kitchen whenever they came to pick up their orders, overwhelming pressure from friends and customers eventually prompted her to open her own Cajun restaurant.
Following months of finding investors who shared her vision and then scouting for an affordable and accessible location for her outfit, she opened the Bayou restaurant, one of the first western eateries in the heart of SoHo, an area that was still undeveloped then.
Ms Granito worked day and night at the only restaurant in the city at that time to offer authentic Cajun food, serving gumbo soups, classic jambalaya and casserole dishes.
But five years later, the eatery became victim of undercapitalisation as many of her investors pulled out following the Asian financial crisis.
"I went through a very tough time after that. Aside from the financial losses, the restaurant had been such an intricate part of me that it left a major void in my life for a long time," she recalled.
"I remember sitting at home feeling depressed and with a mounting pile of bills in front of me. My daughter kept singing the same lines from a song out of the cartoon Nemo which had just been released. The words were `just keep swimming', and I thought to myself, yes, I need to keep going. I need to put things in perspective." Slowly but surely, she got back on her feet. She started her second business, Go-Gourmet, which catered initially for corporate lunch functions because she was mindful of keeping things small and manageable.
But, not long after, business began snowballing and referrals from former clients buzzed around town to the point where she diversified her business to feature her own product line selling Go-Gourmet items. She also holds private cooking parties for individuals and companies who use them as a team-building exercise.
Beyond the financial returns, Go-Gourmet's biggest reward is the euphoria she gets out of building a business from scratch, coupled with her love for throwing dinner parties.
With a full-time staff of six and two partners, Go-Gourmet now operates out of a two-storey kitchen facility off Hollywood road. Her loyal customers soon urged her to open yet another restaurant.
But her bad experience earlier had left her disillusioned so instead of going for a full-fledged eatery, she decided to pursue an informal private dining concept on her own terms.
The result is Magnolia. Diners have to pre-pay for their dinner. The restaurant, which shares Go-Gourmet's kitchen, is open only three nights a week. There is no menu and customers have to be prepared to sit with others they don't know.
"I love my job. I really like the fact that I can be creative with the menu and decorations and help others throw really exceptional parties," she said, adding that throwing a good party had always been in her blood.
"New Orleans is de facto a party town. It is what I grew up around."
AfroShanghai
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