{"id":177768,"date":"2026-01-15T17:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:27:18","slug":"how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b","status":"publish","type":"factorial_video","link":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/","title":{"rendered":"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B?"},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_video_type":"highlight","_related_series":167693,"_related_episode":177740,"_related_season":0,"_video_source":"vimeo","_youtube_video_id":"","_vimeo_video_id":"1117050640","_speaker_id":177287,"_video_description":"After 35 years in international B2B, Pierre Couturier transitioned to the restaurant industry, driven by a passion for cooking and community engagement. His leadership in establishing a restaurant in Madrid reflects his commitment to team management and the values of a fine dining experience. By collaborating with chef Romain Lascalides, who remains central to the restaurant's identity, Couturier emphasizes effective communication and a clear career plan for the team. This venture began after discovering a beloved restaurant, All\u00e9gorie, which faced closure. With 80% ownership, Couturier successfully navigated challenges, including venue selection and renovations, to launch the restaurant on November 22, 2023. According to Pierre Couturier, this endeavor embodies a blend of culinary passion and strategic leadership. Don\u2019t miss more tips and insights on career reinvention in the full episode.","_video_transcription":"00:03 - Reinventing your career This is our business card holder.\n00:13 - And the question: \"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B?\" Professionally, I had never worked in the restaurant industry until about two years ago. I used to work in market research with a particular group called JFK, which is a large German market and other fields research company.\n00:34 - But on the other hand, I've always been interested in cooking and in the restaurant industry.\n00:40 - I'm from Lyon, where people have a real passion for good food and fine cooking.\n00:45 - As did my family too.My friends go out to eat at a restaurant once a month.\n00:49 - In addition, I'm vice president of an association called Union des Fran\u00e7ais de l'\u00c9tranger,where, among other things, I organize banquets, Christmas dinners, gala dinners and other events throughout the year.\n01:01 - So, my group of friends, which I call \"the Bon Vivants\" and I once went to a new French restaurant called All\u00e9gorie.\n01:09 - I should say that I had already cooked for my friends, and they knew I had a refined palate, so to speak. Many of them used to tell me,\"You should open a restaurant.\" I didn't feel like being in the kitchen from ten in the morning until midnight.\n01:25 - So, I wasn't very keen on opening just any restaurant with just any chef.\n01:32 - When we went to try All\u00e9gorie's menu, which was located down an alley we found an excellent menu from an excellent chef and we really enjoyed it.\n01:45 - After the meal, we had a long conversation with the chef.\n01:49 - I stayed on after my friends had left to continue our conversation.\n01:52 - We really got along well.With my club, called UFE, Union des Fran\u00e7ais de l'\u00c9tranger,I organized a dinner for forty people at his small restaurant.\n02:07 - At the end of that successful dinner,I said to him and it was April:\"In September, I'm counting on you for the UFE welcome party.\" And he said: \"In September I won't be here anymore,I hardly have any customers.\" I didn't like that, because I wanted to keep eating at that restaurant.\n02:26 - Since everyone kept telling me: \"You should open a restaurant,\" and I was tired of the profession I had been in for 35 years,I saw the opportunity to end my career doing something I enjoyed more, helping Romain Lascalides,my chef and partner, to grow, while keeping something for myself and for everyone.\n02:50 - The restaurant aims to be a kind of embassy in Madrid, as it is practically the only one there, perhaps the only one.\n02:59 - Knowing that the restaurant was about to close,we talked.\n03:06 - There were a few things DREMA had to do to conclude its first stage.\n03:12 - Then, from June on, we started negotiating the terms of our collaboration.\n03:17 - In the end, I own 80% of the company's shares.In July, we began looking for a new venue, because the first one wasn't working well.\n03:27 - At the beginning of August, we found a place I already knew that suited us,as I had organized banquets and cooking competitions there when it used to be another restaurant called Atelier Belge.\n03:38 - I knew the place well and was happy to come across it again.\n03:41 - He was happy with the venue, especially with the kitchen,which was well equipped.\n03:46 - The dining area is lovely, and there's a bar downstairs where you can have a drink as well as eat.\n03:54 - So, we took this place.There were some issues between the person transferring the venue to us and the property owner.\n04:03 - After a while to reach an agreement, we signed in October.\n04:06 - We did a little renovation so we could open quickly as we were running short on time.\n04:11 - On November 22nd, 2023, we opened the restaurant,nearly a year and a half ago.- It was the chef. - Do you still work with him?\n04:20 - The All\u00e9gorie chef had a company called La Raison Gourmande.\n04:25 - It was a sole proprietorship.He was the 100% owner of the business.\n04:30 - What we did was that I kept 80% at the beginning and he gave up his debt with the company, since he had invested his own money.\n04:40 - But obviously, I couldn't take on that debt.That's how we made it work.\n04:45 - He's still the chef today.He owns 20% of the company, and he's very important to us Everything revolves around the chef.\n04:53 - The cuisine is very distinctive.If there were another chef, it would be a different restaurant.\n04:59 - The chef and his cooking are truly essential.I'll mention other things that are also very important,but he is the center of the restaurant.","_has_trailer":false,"_trailer_vimeo_id":""},"categories":[935],"factorial-categories":[],"class_list":["post-177768","factorial_video","type-factorial_video","status-publish","hentry","category-leadership-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B? | Factorial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Factorial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Factorial\/100064908455810\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/17131146\/factorial-open-graph.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@factorialapp\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/\",\"name\":\"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B? | Factorial\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-15T15:27:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-15T15:27:18+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Factorial\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"All-in-one business management software - Factorial\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/18155144\/factorial-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/18155144\/factorial-logo.png\",\"width\":946,\"height\":880,\"caption\":\"All-in-one business management software - Factorial\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Factorial\/100064908455810\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/factorialapp\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/factorialhr\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@factorialmedia\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/factorial\/#\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B? | Factorial","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B?","og_url":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/","og_site_name":"Factorial","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Factorial\/100064908455810\/","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/17131146\/factorial-open-graph.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@factorialapp","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/","url":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/","name":"How did you end up running a restaurant after 35 years in international B2B? | Factorial","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-01-15T15:27:18+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-15T15:27:18+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/factorial-play\/videos\/how-did-you-end-up-running-a-restaurant-after-35-years-in-international-b2b\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/","name":"Factorial","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"All-in-one business management software - Factorial","url":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/18155144\/factorial-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/18155144\/factorial-logo.png","width":946,"height":880,"caption":"All-in-one business management software - Factorial"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Factorial\/100064908455810\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/factorialapp","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/factorialhr","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@factorialmedia","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/factorial\/#"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/factorial-videos\/177768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/factorial-videos"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/factorial_video"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177768"},{"taxonomy":"factorial_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factorialhr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/factorial-categories?post=177768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}