Today I am happy to tell you about Avec Plaisir a website that will help you to find allergen-free restaurants all around France!
Simple and easy to use, Avec Plaisir is the brainchild of a young, smart lady, Julie Maillard, whom I met a few months ago.
So today I am happy to make you discover more about her and this fantastic project in a one to one conversation around the table, eating gluten free, of course 😉
Chiara: Why gluten free?
Julie: I stopped eating gluten when I was still at school. I followed the advice of my doctor and run many tests. I had pain in my muscles and in my bones, and I was always sick after I ate. Since I started eating gluten free, I don’t have pain anymore. Later on I also stopped eating lactose as I feel better without it. Sometimes I try to re-introduce a little bit of lactose to see if my health condition has changed. I still can’t tolerate it but I can eat goat cheese instead and it is very good.
Chiara: What is Avec Plaisir?
Julie: Avec Plaisir is the solution for a community of gluten free and allergy free eaters who want to find a place to eat easily and quickly.
You can have a look at it: avec-plaisir.fr .
My idea is to make people suffering from multiple food allergies be able to go to a restaurant andfully enjoy the experience!
You can access my website both from laptop and mobile.
I want people who went through a lot with their health conditions to regain the pleasure of sharing a great meal with their friends or loved ones.
Chiara: How does it work ?
Julie: You just need to create your own account, select your food preferences and the website will show which restaurants suit you the best.
I really want to build a community around this project: users can also propose restaurants that I will check afterwards or leave comments and recommendations about what they loved the most.
Chiara: What is your favourite gluten free restaurant?
Julie: This is difficult to answer. I would say anyone where I can go and feel safe about eating the gluten free food.
Lately I loved the Café Mareva (thank you Chiara for the address!): the sweet potatoes waffles are so delicious!
Chiara: Which is the gluten free food that you loved the most?
Julie: A gluten free lactose free pizza I ate in Sardinia: we found this restaurant following the recommendations of some people living nearby and the pizza was so good!
Chiara: Which is your next challenge?
Julie: I actually have many:
The first is to have plenty of restaurants to propose to the people who subscribe to Avec Plaisir and that match their criteria.
The second is to find all the restaurants that are allergy free in France.
Chiara: If you had an advice to give to someone starting a new business, which one would it be?
Julie: Be courageous as the way is long. Before starting Avec Plaisir, I had no idea how complicated it was. As you can never foresee everything, it is important to have the right people to support you when you fall.
Chiara: Gluten free is…
Julie: Gluten free is not without but with pleasure!
