Photo courtesy of Petit À Petit
Akin to the brand’s name, the Petit À Petit founder shares how her admiration for French culture and cuisine continues to be her brand’s creative inspiration
Kirsten Gacula’s relationship with French cuisine began in front of her television screen, living vicariously on the patisseries and French cafés of the movies she and her family used to watch.
From attempting various recipes with her mother to taking up a diplomacy course on the country’s language and culture, the home cook later saw the opportunity to develop her passions further after decorating a grazing table during Christmas dinner. “My family enjoyed it,” she says, “but I think I enjoyed making it even more at that time.”
For Gacula, it was the creative process of assembling her family’s grazing table that got her to discover a different side to decorative food arrangements, emphasizing the intention that goes into each aspect of the tablescape. “Over time I realized that food presentations had the power to evoke emotions, to tell stories and lasting memories.”
She also attributes such qualities to floral arrangement, explaining how both fields have a shared ability to non-verbally capture a story. “They both require a balance between structure and spontaneity. However, when you make them, they maintain [a sense of] harmony and composition; And like any form of art, the grazing table evolves making it unique to every project.”
Having started Petit À Petit as a one-woman team in 2020, Gacula shares that her initial challenge was translating her methods and standards to her gradually growing team. “I started building the team in the 10th month, and what I focused on was telling them what the brand is because when they familiarize themselves with the identity, their actions will follow,” she adds.
Among her contemporaries, Chef Cris Mamaril sought to develop her own admiration for French cuisine since her start as the production assistant for the company. She later became the company’s first culinary scholar, utilizing her new-found knowledge of baking and pastries by spearheading the creation of the brand’s range of hors d’oeuvres today.
However, Gacula still prefers to keep her team concise, believing that such an approach will allow the company to uphold a shared creative vision while maintaining a unified approach with each client and event. Additionally, the business owner also shared that one of her creative challenges was to incorporate the acquired taste of caviar within the brand’s menu and catering services.
“Not a lot of people like the taste of caviar. It can be intimidating, especially when considering its price and bold flavor profile. But with that said, we made sure to offer complementary flavors that would allow clients to ease into the experience of eating caviar,” she expounds.
From smoked salmon mousse to ensembles of scones and quiches, the Petit À Petit team believes that each dish serves as their own mediator to the French delicacy, all while retaining their distinct looks and flavors. “It’s more of enhancing rather than overpowering their palette,” she adds.
In adopting such dishes to her decorative ensembles, Gacula sees this as an opportunity to prioritize quality over quantity when sourcing the needed ingredients for each arrangement. “We also converse with the client about what they actually want and from there, we design a menu for them, making sure it’s all personalized all the way down to their preferences,” she explains, “We want to be challenged in that way; When the client refers or shows us something, we would be able to deliver that.”
Moving forward, Gacula wants Petit À Petit to go beyond its online presence, letting its current endeavors be the means for its potential expansion into the brick-and-mortar scene. “I’ve always believed that food is a form of art, one that has the power to transform an experience,” the founder shares.
