When Corinne Robart left her job as a food sourcing specialist at department store Le Bon Marche in Paris and moved to Australia in 2008, she brought a knowledge and love of gourmet food with her.
Eager to share this passion, she started a business, A Taste of Paris, bringing the best of French food down under.
“Having been part of the small world of upmarket gourmet food for quite a long time back in France, we [Robart and son Julian who followed her to Australia in 2011] started to build our collections by contacting the French artisans I used to work with,” she explains.
The company imports a range of French gourmet items from flavoured olive oils to mustard and jams, which Robart and Julian source on yearly buying trips to France.
Coming from Paris, arguably the style capitol of Europe, it makes sense that Robart approaches her business the same way a fashion buyer would, creating two collections each year that have to look—and taste—fantastic.
“As we say in France ‘we eat with our eyes’ before being amazed by the product itself,” she says. “Our biggest challenge is the creative part because our clientele expects to be more impressed with each new collection than the previous one.”
A Taste of Paris will launch its latest collection when it exhibits for the first time at Reed Gift Fair in Melbourne this month.
The collection is a sweet one, including almonds, hazelnuts and crunchy cereals coated with ‘gold’, colourful nougatine and three kinds of chocolates, all packaged in clear bags, sleeve boxes and window boxes.
Robart says the demand for gourmet French products in Australia is growing as more people become ‘foodies’.
“Australians are big travellers and come back with all these meals and flavour memories from their trip that they would like to reproduce in their own homes,” she says. “International gourmet products will give them the opportunity to do it.
“Foodie consumers are always looking and waiting for some new products.”
Although food ranges are not always associated with gift and homewares stores, Robart is exhibiting at the gift fair because of an increasing number of requests from retailers in the industry wanting to stock her products.
She says A Taste of Paris is a good fit for these retailers because it offers luxury items that make great gifts.
“Our number of clients in gift and homewares stores Australia wide, increased significantly each season,” she says.
“Our product collections fit perfectly with retailers sharing their love of the unique and beautiful.”
By Ruth Cooper
