Building a culinary creative studio

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Charlotte Sitbon and Jonathan Espinasse are the co-founders of Balbosté, a culinary creative studio based in Paris. Balbosté works with luxury brands to produce highly curated dining experiences, photos of which you’ve mostly likely seen in previous The Stanza newsletters or on your Instagram feed. In this highly niche culinary industry, Balbosté stands out for their precision and incredible attention to detail in their execution. Since its inception in 2018, Balbosté’s impressive client roster includes Dior, Chanel, Chloe, Loewe, Hermes, Hennessy, Cartier, Boucheron, Veuve Clicquot, Miu Miu, Dom Perignon, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, Zegna, Kenzo, Schiaparelli, La Mer, and Gucci. Charlotte came up with the idea and started the business in her apartment kitchen, and her co-founder and husband Jonathan joined her a few years later to expand the business. I had the pleasure of meeting Charlotte and Balbosté’s head chef Jun Yeo in Milan during design week and left aperitivo feeling inspired by their energy.

A few months ago, I posted a video about the intersection of food and fashion which received over 317K cumulative views on TikTok & Instagram and validated my own curiosity. Since then, this response has prompted me to explore how these two worlds, fashion & food (which previously eschewed each other), have come together as an expression of creativity, a conduit for marketing, and as a statement for how consumers experience visual and emotional industries such as fashion today.

Interview highlights:

• Building a highly niche business

• Attracting clients & creating momentum

• Setting boundaries as a creative entrepreneur

• Why Balbosté doesn’t pitch new clients

• How Balbosté has grown their team and business

• Approach to creativity & savoir faire

• Building a profitable business

• How they’ve overcome challenges along the way

• Expanding into hospitality

Your first client ever was Chanel High Jewelry in 2018. Tell us the story of how that came to be.

Charlotte:

Actually, it's a funny story because when I began Balbosté, I didn't have any contacts in the catering industry. My background was in graphic design and art direction, and I had the contact of an intern that I knew from an advertising company. She was beginning her job at Chanel and she just introduced us in the first week of our job. And that's how we got the project. 

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