Seven lessons from a life in the lunchtime biz - Mange Tout owners share their secrets

Monday 28 November 2016

Working in a world of coffees, cakes, and ciabattas might sound like the dream, but make no mistake: it's not a job for the faint-hearted - especially when over 2,000 Islanders rely on you to furnish their lunchboxes each day. That's exactly the role of outgoing Mange Tout owners, Abbie and Andrew Hosegood.

With 20 years of culinary experience under their belts - and surprisingly no extra pounds due to their 'all good food' diets - the pair divulge secrets of the industry to Express, and the lessons they've learned.

1. Selling sandwiches isn't as easy as it sounds

“Restauranteurs often look down their noses at us,” Andrew laments. “People think it’s easy – it’s not.” Mange Tout might not be Michelin-starred, but churning out 4,000 foodie items to feed hungry Islanders a day is award-worthy itself. “All the plaudits go to the restaurateurs, but people rarely acknowledge what goes on behind the scenes,” where even the addition of a single lettuce leaf to each sandwich could have “a massive knock-on effect.” 

2.  You’ve got to be willing to bounce back

“It’s a Monday morning and you’re short staffed. Deep breath. Here we go.” This is how the team found themselves one day earlier this year when they decided to close the busy Colomberie outlet for the day – except they didn’t. “We were back on the phone within ten minutes and made a plan,” Andrew remembers. The next day, all four shops were open – all it took was a slightly earlier start, and a good dose of determination.

3. Family first

In times of crisis, who better to rely on? Sure, the team might not be related, but, according to Abbie, it’s a sense of “belonging” that have helped the team weather all crises – both personal and professional. No wonder, then, that so many of the staff have stayed for five, six, even 10 years – far more than the usual two-year stints of those in the catering industry. “We’ve had births, deaths, marriages divorces – and how many babies?”

Like nurturing parents, putting staff first is key, says Andrew. “If you don’t, there’s 30 people that look at you on Friday, and say, “Where’s my wage?” Even if you have to have a can of baked beans, as long as your guys are getting paid, that’s all that matters.”

“We all pull together. Cut our staff in half and they’re Mange Tout – even more so than us!” says Abbie.

That doesn't mean there's no sibling-style antics, though. Coriander-hating Andrew reminisces, "The boys used to chase me around the kitchen with a sprig of coriander. “Leave me alone! I hate it!”

 4. Cut out the carbs fads

Remember Atkins fever? Abbie and Andrew do – for all the wrong reasons. When the carb-hating diet craze took hold in the early noughties, it hit Mange Tout hard. “Suddenly bread was bad and everyone was on these protein diets. We had a tough year,” recalls Andrew.

But, with baguette swords in hand, Mange Tout fought their way through the fads. “We generally haven’t adhered to all the different diets – we ‘ve just done what we do, we do it well and we keep consistent. And people – they go away and they do the fad diet and they come back again and they actually realise, you eat healthily, you eat cleanly, you eat well and that’s probably the best way forward," advises Abbie.

And it appears to be the right approach, as Andrew observes: “20 years ago, the world was in love with the sandwich, then it fell out of love with all the carb and gluten-free diets. Now, they’re beginning to fall in love all over again, realising that there’s nothing quite as good as a well-made sandwich. 

“We’ve lived our Mange Tout diets. If bread was that bad, we would be in right trouble!”

5. Got it wrong? Move on!

 Customers won’t mince their words when they dislike something, but that’s no reason to lose heart – innovation needs determination, and sandwiches are an oddly apt metaphor for this.

“We have done some really strange sandwiches– ” 

“Don’t mentioned the chicken and kiwi!” Andrew interrupts. “We also did sliced turkey and fresh roasted sage. You dry roast the sage in the oven and it go quite brittle, then add cranberry sauce, mayo… They’re quite different. People used to say, “There’s leaves in my sandwiches! That’s outrageous!””

“Sometimes we get it wrong,” Abbie admits, but the flavour factory chugs on regardless. The newest fusion? ‘Beets and Bacon’.

Pictured: The latest flavourite at Mange Tout: Beets and Bacon

6. Perks of the profession

Between the bread and coffee beans, the Hosegoods, who have two daughters, seem to have hit upon that much-coveted work-life balance. “The working hours have allowed us to have a family life as well as a business life,” Abbie says.

But that’s not necessarily the best bit… being able to gauge feelings and building connections with members of the public is rather special too.

According to Andrew, cafés are “a place where people’s feelings are really felt.”

“If you’re in an office 9 until 5 and the one other person you’re going to see in your day is probably them. We tell our staff to remember that, because if everyone’s on a high and it’s the middle of summer everyone’s having a great day but if it’s the middle of winter and it’s peeing with rain, everyone’s a bit down. You get a real overview of what’s happening generally.”

“Oh, and you pick up gossip! You see people come in and think, "Wait! I thought they were married to someone else!"”

7. Working for yourself can be addictive

…Seriously addictive. So much so, that Andrew’s never had an employment contract. “I’ve never had a ‘proper job’.”

Of course, it’s a lot of responsibility, but the challenge is its own reward, he says. “What’s exciting is that the buck stops with you – there’s no one to bail us out.” Not being able to “say no” can be a great motivator: “The minute you say no, it’s a slippery slope.”

The pair might be giving up Mange Tout, it’s exactly this self-propelled “get up and go” attitude that leads Abbie to believe excitement still lies ahead.

“I’m sure we won’t be sitting still for too long. We’re not very good at that…”