Patrice Dumont in Mauritius

The man behind the chef Patrice met his lovely wife.

Murielle 8 years ago in Singapore. They have three gorgeous children, two daughters along with a 1 year old son. Patrice himself grew up in Metz, France with his two brothers and one sister. After completing his studies in a catering school, he began his career as a pastry chef in Luxembourg, following which he worked for 7 years as a chef in a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in Paris and Lyon. Patrice funnily recalls how "for years my brother and I used to help our mother while she was cooking for the many family gatherings…doing a little bit of preparation and dish washing. Then we went to a catering school.

From then on, we were doing all the cooking and our mother only the dish washing…."
He recognizes that he was lucky to have a mother who was a great cook. Most days he would come home and it smelt divine, in retrospect he now understands where the few extra kilos originate from.

Working as a Chef in a 2 Michelin Star Restaurant in
Paris When probed on his working experience as a chef for a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in Paris, Patrice has several points to make. Paris is undoubtedly a great city when working for that category of restaurant. He enjoyed the ease with which he could meet with colleagues and discuss the latest trend. Furthermore, many events
were regularly being organized within the catering community.There was also no dearth of ingredients but rather an extensive selection of ingredients including exclusive products for one to chose from and be the very first to offer to customers. The natural curiosity of customers was a great source of motivation and pleasure for him and it also allowed him to be very creative.

Patrice considers Mr. Seguin, a Chef he trained under to have had the most significant influence on him: "He was one of the first chef offering a sale-sucre style.He taught me many traditional skills,
often put aside by some chefs today; he shared his know-how unreservedly and I believe in his motto to always deliver what you have promised, to be the key in
our business." Whilst in Paris, Patrice had the opportunity to cook for some very famous French singers and actors. Even in Mauritius he has concocted dishes for some distinguished people both foreigners and Mauritians. He recalls cooking for the nephew of Giscard.D'Estaings (former French president)who even bought one of his
paintings.

Back to Mauritius,As compared to Europe, the staff numbers here is comprehensive,
this however allows one to go further. A lot of emphasis is placed on training as well since the gastronomic culture here is different,but at the end of the day, Patrice believes that "Mauritians are very motivated and willing to learn.The
level of service is of high quality, there is a large variety of food on offer. People are friendly with professional manners, coupled with positive attitude and ease of communication."Always one to rise up to new challenges and explore new avenues,Patrice has recently launched his very own company -Dumont Catering. His objective is to be recognized as the first choice for outside catering.With the help of a professional and dedicated team of experienced chefs and 'maitres d'hotels,' Dumont Catering caters for sit down dinners, lunches, cocktails, weddings,finger buffets, parties and anything in-between.A wide selection of products is available. Based in Floreal, they cater to the whole island with a choice of food ranging
from French, Mauritian, Classic or Fusion to Thai or Japanese After living in many countries such as Luxembourg, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Belgium, and of course France, Patrice and his family are happy to be back here in Mauritius. He concludes that " we have always had the feeling that our home is here".According to Patrice the advantages of settling here are numerous : "the pace of life is calmer, the quality of air better, the people are kind and authentic, generally there is less stress, and everywhere is easily accessible."Finally Patrice is just content to be able to savor all the pleasures of life, even and more importantly,the simplest ones, like being at home soaking in happiness in the company of happy children.

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