This is the official blog for Tiffany, owner and chief cooking person at Bistrot Le Cortal in Vernet-Les-Bains, Pyrenees-Orientales in France.

Myself and my husband Dave, the host-with-the-most and chief bottle washer, sold our hotel/restaurant Le Trefle A Quatre Feuilles in the Dordogne at the beginning of this year and bought a run-down restaurant in the mountains. We no longer wanted to do hotel, but wanted to concentrate on food, and also be able to close the doors and leave the business behind us at the end of the day. We found a renovation project with a house next door in this lovely mountain village near Perpignan.

After the usual complications and overspending, we finally opened the doors to the unsuspecting public on the 29th October 2008. 3 times over budget, and 3 times longer to do! Still, it just wouldn't be interesting if it all went to plan, now would it.

Having chronicled the renovation through my blog, we are now onto the day- to-day stuff, and how to make a new business grow. Enjoy, and join in!

End of September the year 2000 saw Tiffany and Dave embark on a complete change of career, lifestyle and country. We had been living and working in Thessaloniki, Greece for four years, helping set up the largest casino in Europe. All good things come to an end and we decided it was time to try something new. We had planned to end up living in France, as we had spent considerable time already living and working here, and loved it. But what to do? The casino industry had changed and we were no longer interested in working in it. We were surprised by the affordability of big, albeit run-down, properties that we found on the internet in France and thought we'd have a look. Well, yes, most of them were hotels or hotels and restaurants - but how hard could it be?! We found ourselves by accident in the Dordogne and were entranced by the beauty of the place, and soon found Le Trefle A Quatre Feuilles, which became our first venture. A small hotel of 7 rooms and a 40 seater restaurant, it was in bankruptcy, and was very neglected. Still, it was a property with a lot of potential, and with a lot of luck has turned into an integral part of a lovely Dordogne village.

Having got it up and running, after 4 years working in the kitchen with our chef, Tiffany took the bull by the horns and turned her passion for food into her job and took over the kitchen when their chef left. The passion has only grown since.

The time has now come to stop the hotel side and concentrate on food. So we have found a run down place in the Pyrenees-Orientales, close to Spain, to turn into our 'boutique bistrot'.