'Cork is a city all about food': Bastien Peyraud, Imperial Hotel

School Daze: Bastien Peyraud, general manager of The Imperial Hotel, Cork, looks at the life lessons he learned while at school in France

Bastien Peyraud, general manager, The Imperial Hotel, Cork. Picture: Miki Barlok

My motto is I want to live every day of my life doing a job I love. That’s why I work in hotels.

I was born in Lyon in France — my mother was Swiss, my father French.

I lost my mother when I was seven or eight years old. My father was a policeman and travelled a lot with his work, so I moved to the South of France, to Nice, where I was raised by my grandmother.

Later I did engineering studies in Nice's Scientific University. My family wasn’t very rich — my grandmother was living on a pension — and I knew if I wanted to study I needed to work. So, I started to work in restaurants as a kitchen porter, and that’s how I started out in this business, to pay for my engineering studies.

I finished my studies but I kept working, as a barman and as a waiter, and I enjoyed the industry so much — talking about food, talking to people from all over the world — I was never bored.

I moved to Paris and that’s when I decided to start my career in hospitality.

When I was very young, I was taught a lot at home by my mother. I was very asthmatic, and often couldn’t go to school, so I would be in my pyjamas yet still have to learn English — when I was so young I didn’t even know how to speak French properly!

Later on, in the South of France, my favourite memory is after school finished for the day, I would run out the school gates and my grandmother would take me to the bakery for a fougasse (a type of bread). She didn’t have much money but she would buy me one every day…I can still taste it!

Weirdly enough I skipped a grade in primary school, so when I arrived in secondary school I was a year and a half or two years younger than everyone else in my class. I wasn’t yet 10 years old when I started. 

I was going to the same secondary school as my sister who was six years older. I was scared and excited but it was a good day. I made some of my best friends there and I am still in touch with them.

Do you know the movie the War of the Buttons? That was me. I loved to play outside as much as I could with my friends as late as I could. The South of France was good for my asthma. I would go out for the day with my friends on my bike.

At school, I was good at Maths and Physics and really bad at history and geography. I loved history, listening to what the teacher was saying — but would not remember any of it; it was like a fairy tale to me.

Lessons from those years that I apply to life today? Loyalty and friendship.

If I met myself as a child today, I would tell myself: Be nicer to your sister. She will be your best friend. And I would also say, Accept yourself.

My grandmother had an expression: Be a good person and don’t waste your time proving it.

As for teachers who influenced me, I would say my mother. She always told me if you want to be good at something, you need to enjoy it.

What would I say to her today? I would like to say: “Thank you for the time we had together. I made it fun.” And she will understand.

The closest thing we had to a school disco was an end-of-year party organised by one of my friends. The girls were on one side and the boys were on the other. We all knew we would have to dance together so, Diet Coke in hand, we danced a little bit, moving two knees, but then we got bored and all went outside and played football instead, boys and girls. We just weren’t grown up enough yet.

I was working in London, and after seven years, I grew tired of the pace and lifestyle. I felt it was time to go back to a human-sized city. I was headhunted for this role and after visiting Cork I loved it and loved that Cork is a city all about food.

I am honoured to join The Imperial Hotel family. We are so passionate about supporting our local economy and our restaurant Thyme supports our local farmers and producers.

I feel in these times we have to look at the good in the situation if we can find it. Spend quality time with family and create memories.

• Bastien Peyraud is general manager at The Imperial Hotel, Cork. He began his career in the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris in 2001 before joining the Red Carnation Hotels Group in Geneva, Switzerland, then London, He worked with the luxury British hotel group Rocco Forte Hotels, before his more recent move to Ireland to join Flynn Hotels. www.imperialhotelcork.ie; 021- 4274040