We’re a family of individual restaurants and our aim is to make everyday dining feel special. That’s why we create delicious French bistrot dishes that are not only affordably priced, they use only the finest quality ingredients too.
Bon chance François!
We’re always really sorry to say goodbye to someone that has been with us so long, especially when they’re such a popular member of staff amongst colleagues and customers alike. François has been working at our Nottingham bistrot for nearly ten years and with new venutures on the horizon we’d just like to wish him all the very best and to say you’re welcome back anytime. Good luck François!
As Harrogate says au revoir Stockton says bonjour!
We’re thrilled to announce that Alexis Legrand, our General Manager from Harrogate has moved to become the new GM at Stockton Heath. Alexis is one of our French members of staff and began working in the restaurant industry near his home when he was just 15. Whilst living in Paris he worked in some of the best five star hotels and Michelin starred restaurants the city has to offer. In 2008 he passed his Catering and Hotel Management Diploma and came to England to improve his language skills. That year he joined Le Bistrot Pierre and quickly progressed through the ranks in all front of house roles at several of our bistrots.
Alexis has been nominated for the Acorn Awards 2012, a reward bestowed upon thirty of the brightest prospects in the hospitality industry under the age of 30. Previous winners include Marco Pierre White and Marcus Wareing.
With Alexis’ departure, Matt Dalingwater has been promoted to the General Manager role at Harrogate. Matt is a Harrogate lad born and bred and is excited about the prospect of taking over the reigns from Alexis. Over his career he has opened and managed a number of award winning independent restaurants and bars. Matt too has been nominated for an award - Best Newcomer in the Destination Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Awards 2012.
Congratulations to you both!
Congratulations to our April ‘Dish of the Month’ winner
Congratulations to Di Stevenson who won our ‘Dish of the Month’ competition in April. This is a picture of Di enjoying her prize dinner with her friends at our Derby bistrot. Di cooked our classic ‘Brioche et Champignons’ dish which you can enjoy on our current à la carte menu.
Each month we feature one of our favourite dishes on our website that you can easily prepare at home. Each recipe also includes a top tip from our Area Chef, Matt Howes. To enter the competition, all you have to do is send in a picture of the dish of the month via Facebook or Twitter. It’s as simple as that!
We’ll choose a winner at random each month and the prize is dinner up to four people. To find out more about our Dish of the Month for May filet de mulet rouge or to see previous recipes just click here.
So it’s May and we hope the sun will finally come back out for the bank holiday weekend!
What better way to spend a lazy lunch than by eating fresh pan-fried red mullet with ratatouille, zingy lemon and olive oil. This dish is easy to make and extremely tasty (and very healthy). Download the recipe here.
If you enjoy fresh fish as much as we do, you might instead want to head out of doors to try out our new spring/summer à la carte menu. A particular favourite of ours on the menu is the Mulet au Fenouil pan-fried fillet of wild mullet with a salad of shaved fennel, dill, baby capers and lemon – delicious!
Don’t forget to post your pictures to our Facebook fan page or tweet us @Le Bistrot Pierre to be in with a chance of winning dinner for you and your friends* at any of our restaurants.
Watch this space for next month’s dish…
*Up to four people. Two courses only, not including drinks. (Winners will be announced on Facebook and Twitter).
A daring shade darker and our Leicester bistrot is transformed!
We couldn’t wait to unveil our new exterior look at Leicester and we’re delighted with the results…and more importantly, our customers say they love it too!
The restaurant comes into its own at night and the gorgeous new look creates a very special ambience.
Food for thought with the launch of new food hygiene scheme.
Le Bistrot Pierre was presented with a Food Standard Agency (FSA) certificate last week to award the high standards of our kitchens!
The certificate was presented at an event to launch the new scheme to better inform customers about food hygiene when eating out.
Food hygiene is a BIG thing for us at Le Bistrot Pierre, so we’re happy to be recognised as a top 10 rated food business in Nottingham and Derby.
The certificate will be proudly displayed in our restaurants to show our customers that we maintain an excellent level of hygiene and food preparation.
The award was presented to Marylise Perrard, Operations Director and Paul Warner, General Manager for Nottingham.
Our ‘Dish of the Month’ for April is the tasty brioche et champignons.
It’s that time again! But we can’t quite believe it’s April already…
This month’s dish is one of our favourites - brioche et champignons (toasted brioche with fricassée of mushrooms and crispy bacon lardons).
What’s great about this dish is that it can be served with or without bacon so it’s perfect for vegetarians. We used specially sourced Alsace bacon in our recipe which you can enjoy at any of our restaurants. You can download the recipe here and have a go at cooking it at home – it would make an impressive snack or starter to enjoy this Easter!
Don’t forget, if you post a photo of this dish on our Facebook fan page or tweet us @LeBistrotPierre you’ll automatically to be entered into our monthly competition to win a meal for you and your friends at your favourite Le Bistrot Pierre restaurant*.
Happy munching!
Watch this space for next month’s dish…
*Up to four people. Two courses only, not including drinks.
Raising Money For Combat Stress
Earlier this month we hosted a charity event at our Leamington Spa restaurant to raise awareness of Combat Stress.
The event was organised by Keira Lightbody, a long serving waitress at Le Bistrot Pierre who tragically lost her cousin in Iraq in 2010.
Keira said: “A special fundraising event was held to help raise awareness of people affected by Combat Stress. The evening was a huge success and we raised over £1,200.”
Keira’s cousin Nic Crouch moved to Iraq in January 2009 and was protecting American troops building a hospital in the city of Mosul when his convoy came under attack on 19 July 2010. A suicide bomb in a passing car killed Nic instantly, and wounded three of his colleagues and five Iraqi civillians.
The fundraising event included a three-course dinner along with a charity auction, riasing a great deal of money for the invaluable charity.
Thank you to everyone who helped make the night a resounding success.
We’re proud to announce our award-winning Tricolore Managers!
Tricolore is a management and leadership program launched late last year for all kitchen and front of house Managers at Le Bistrot Pierre.
There are three levels:
1.) Bleu for Junior Sous chefs and Duty Managers
2:) Blanc for Assistant Managers and Sous Chefs
3:) Rouge for General Managers and Head Chefs
We strive to be the best we can at Le Bistrot Pierre to make sure our customers have the best dining experience possible.
Tricolore is used to ensure this as it allows our Managers to get the appropriate training to improve people skills and learn what’s required for good leadership and management practices.
Well done guys…Arnold Olah (Leicester), James Henderson (Stratford-upon-Avon), Jane Sinden (Stratford-upon-Avon), Judith Kidenya (Stratford-upon-Avon), Jenny Charge (Leamington Spa), Manash Muthuvana (Stockton Heath), Manish Dabral (Stratford-upon-Avon), Stella Swan (Leicester), Natalie Butler (Nottingham) who is proudly holding her certificate!
New mouth-watering dishes on the menu - thanks to our Sous Chefs and a culinary tour of France
Following an internal job satisfaction survey, we were delighted to put into action one of the ideas suggested by our Sous Chefs, to run a cookery competition.
The competition invited our talented Chefs to create a new and exciting regional French dish to go on our à la carte menu.
Competition fever kicked in and each of our Sous Chefs were tasked to research an area of France and devise a starter, main or dessert of choice.
The guys excelled themselves and were keen to show their dish deserved to be on the menu.
Our tasting panel was thrilled with the dishes put forward and the diversity on offer. Adrian (Stockton Heath) produced Lange de boeuf aux sauce tomate (braised ox tongue with gherkins and tomato sauce), it was executed brilliantly, looked good and tasted immense. Eva (Derby) shone too with her trout fillet stuffed with mushrooms, bacon and parsley, served with beurre noisette…delicious.
The competition was very close in the end and it was impossible to pick just one winner, so we picked three!
Big congratulations to Manish, Chrystia and Andy. We look forward to seeing your dishes on our menu.
The dishes are:
Manish (Stratford-upon-Avon) : Venison loin with port and redcurrant sauce with creamed cabbage and puréed swede.
Chrystia (Nottingham) : Pan-fried cod marinated with harissa and served with a flageolet bean and chorizo cassoulet.
Andy (Sheffield) : Couronne de fruits meringuee et son coulis de framboise (meringue nest, Grand Marnier cream, with exotic fruits and raspberry coulis).
