koko’s Story
After acquiring my cooking license at Le Cordon Bleu,
I worked tirelessly for 2 years at the Mirabelle of Marco Pierre White in Green Park, as a pâtissier.
I continued to work as a pâtissier at the Embassy London Restaurant under Jane Hoffer (the current Head Pastry Chef at Fortnum and Masons), for another 2 years.
Here, under the supervision of Chef Garry Holyhead,I started to develop and improve my skills in
preparing seafood.
This experience was not the only reason this restaurant is special to me:
This is the restaurant where I met my husband Joe,who at the time was working as the Head Chef.
Joe had been working in high-end, modern European restaurants,including working in Orrery with
Chris Galvin, and had spent some time with Marco Pierre White in a few of his restaurants.
I, however, decided to move away from the kitchen to spend some time in the front of the restaurant.
My purpose was to learn their general flow, as well as to cultivate my customer Service and Hospitality.
By working in the front of house in various venues such as Mayfair’s Dinnings, the Japanese restaurant,
Saki, in Smithfield, and the Embassy Abu Dhabi
(which at the time was exhibited at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi),
I gained a great deal of experience and knowledge on how to run a restaurant with high-class service.
We then moved to Prague, Czech Republic for my husband’s work,
and while engaged in overseeing customer service there,
I began to research cooking seriously.
During our time in this foreign country where we knew none of the language,
we got my beloved Labrador, Bernie, who is currently the same age as my Mighty Dressing
at 10 years and 9 months old.
We bonded deeply, and the time I spent with him was the time I could truly reflect upon myself.
He helped me to continue my research and eventually create my Mighty Dressing.
Even now, almost 11 years since the birth of my recipe, when I make my dressing,
I feel, in my heart, the pure joy and elation I felt when I first perfected my recipe.
In 2010, we moved as a family of 3 (Joe, Bernie, and I) to the Bella Luce Hotel in
Guernsey where I was placed in charge of Hojo, the only Japanese style tapas restaurant on the island.
After 2 and a half years of hard work, the business became successful,
and we decided to move back to London.
In London, Joe and I came up with the idea to start our own business making Katsu,
incorporating everything that we had learned, and all of the experience we had gained over the course of our careers.
.png)
