#9 | LUMI HACHIYA: co-founder of RAYSONNANCE patisserie
Welcome to POING FORT, the podcast that will give you the weapons of self-confidence. In this first season, 10 guests take off their masks to talk to us frankly about the failures and doubts they had to overcome to achieve their ambitions.
Don't listen to this episode on an empty stomach! Today, I am delighted to introduce you to the sparkling co-founder of the Rayonnance pastry shop, Lumi Hachiya.
After a childhood between the United States and Japan, Lumi began studying to be an interpreter in Paris, but her passion caught up with her thanks to a student job at Helen Darroze, French double-starred chef.
She did a Master's degree at ESSEC and became manager of the Michelin-starred restaurant Pages, where she met Yuki, her future partner, then of 116, the neighboring restaurant. From their friendship, the Rayonnance pastry shop was born, a few years and a covid later.
So many questions that my guest will try to answer!
TRIPLE LOOP EARRING - KIRA EARRING
MARGAUX: What did you want to do when you were little?
LUMI: When you're little, you want to be an astronaut, a pirate, an airplane pilot, whatever. My dreams were always about "food". My first dream job was selling ice cream. I haven't deviated too much from my trajectory today. My second dream, which is quite niche in the end, is that I wanted to have a grape concept store.
MARGAUX: Where did you grow up?
LUMI: I was born in Japan, I grew up there until I was 5 years old. Then we moved to the United States, in the suburbs of Washington DC until I was 10 years old. Then we returned to Japan with my parents, I barely spoke Japanese so I made a lot of effort to catch up.
MARGAUX: What made you want to work together with Yuki? What is the secret of a good partnership for you?
LUMI: I asked Yuki to make a dessert for my birthday and our partnership started there. She made me a "Parfait", "kisaten" in Japanese, it's an ice cream sundae with cream, jellies, fresh fruits and each bite has a different texture, a different flavor. Then I said to myself: I think we can do something.
For us, the secret is to be complementary, we have really opposite personalities. But we have the same work ethic, we have the same ideas, not necessarily in the same way, but we think the same.
TRIPLE LOOP EARRING - KIRA EARRING
MARGAUX: Can you tell us about your experience at Pages, a 1-star Michelin restaurant?
LUMI: I was first in charge of the dining room team and then the kitchen team. That's where I met Yuki. Then we opened 116, the adjoining restaurant. I saw all the phases of the opening: the purchase of the business assets then the purchase of furniture, the work, the design of the menu, the design of the menu, the calculation of prices, the search for suppliers, etc. It helped me a lot to set up my project.
It was a bit complicated because I wasn't a very good manager but I learned a lot about myself and how to communicate with your team. I said to myself "I'm going to take all the mistakes I've made in the past and I'm going to try to rectify them".
To be a good manager, you have to be careful about how you give feedback, you have to celebrate and also encourage your team. It is important to boost their self-confidence. When there are things that are not going well, it is also important to say so and to reframe.
TRIPLE LOOP EARRING - KIRA EARRING
