My father was a shopper for Barbados's famous Bagatelle Restaurant. My husband was chef/owner of The Foolish Fish, The Palm, Chutneys, Night Owls & Bamboozle, all popular restaurants & bars in Barbados, with a loyal, customer base. My mother & I ran a successful catering business supplying upmarket hotels, restaurants and villas with paté, starters, desserts or anything else requested.
After a few too many rum punch's one evening, we decided that a dedicated, specialty Gourmet Food Shop would prosper. We opened the gourmet store on a shoe-string in 1991 selling Italian Prosciutto de Parma & Baci Chocolates along with our own paté, Mom's jellies & chutneys, & my decadent 'chocolate paradise'. The Gourmet Shop was an instant success that grew annually. Customers would ask for a product not offered & we sourced it, imported it & sold it to them. We filled the void for good, upmarket food unavailable elsewhere in Barbados. The Gourmet Shop now stocks' 1000s of products from all over the world.
We are happy with our product and continue investing in improvements. As winners of two prestigious Barbados Tourism Awards for Excellence in the retail sector & one Small Business Association Award for the Wholesale & Retail sectors we feel we have succeeded in our goals.