HOW BISTRO MARGOT CAME TO BE
The story began 15 years ago, alongside my colleagues at the time, with whom I created campaigns, concepts, and brainstormed ideas. However, the longest brainstorming sessions were when we had to decide what to order for lunch, and, day by day, we began exhausting all the options. Each day, the food we ordered seemed to lose its flavor, so one day I thought I'd surprise them and cook something myself. I had no idea how to cook, but being a literature person, I thought, "How hard can it be? I'll take a book and follow the recipe, it’s bound to turn out well!"
It was either naivety or beginner's luck, but I never once considered that I might fail, and as a result, the dish turned out great. That gave me the confidence to try other recipes and, for the duration of a meal, make people happy. We distanced ourselves from the grayness of the office for at least an hour during lunch, closing ourselves in the meeting room to create our own world where we took imaginary journeys through gastronomy, discussed beautiful things, and enjoyed life’s simple pleasures. That’s how Bistro Margot was born. Every day, my colleagues would come to work and ask, "So, what’s on the menu at Bistro Margot today?" Before it existed online as a blog, it was our own imaginary bistro.
Then, they started encouraging me to write about all this because, whenever I tried new recipes, I was always eager to learn what was behind them—how they were created, who invented them, how they came to be, and what stories they told. Enthusiastically, I would share these stories with those around me, who urged me to write them down. "But I’m not a chef," I protested. "No, but you’re a writer, you’re a storyteller, and you should write stories," they said. And that’s how they convinced me to start the blog, www.bistromargot.ro.
Why Margot?
Margot actually comes from "The Master and Margarita," the novel by M. Bulgakov that I was reading when it all began. My colleagues were reading the same book, and they had divided the characters among themselves: someone was Behemoth, someone was Woland, someone was Koroviev, but they were missing a Margarita. They named me their Margarita and, since I had just returned from France, they affectionately called me Margot. That’s how I began to have a kind of double identity: Nicolle was the copywriter, the creative professional, and Margot was the cook, the storyteller. Now, I’m happy that my path has evolved in such a way that I can blend both sides harmoniously at the studio—my communication projects and my gastronomic ones, two seemingly different directions, but which-for me-are one and the same: pure creativity.
The Gastronomic Journey
At first, I wrote on the blog mainly for friends. But over time, the blog grew, and more people than just my friends gathered around the virtual table. I found myself consumed by a passion that, over time, would become an integral part of my life—more than just a passion, it became an occupation. I began reading and studying the history of gastronomy on my own, trying to learn as much as possible and improve myself every day. Meanwhile, I graduated from a culinary school in Bucharest, and in 2017, I made it to France, where I attended the Hautes Études du Goût, a gastronomy program of the world’s oldest culinary academy, Le Cordon Bleu Paris, in partnership with the University of Reims, Champagne-Ardenne.
Bistro Margot Today – More Than a Blog
Initially started as a personal editorial project out of pure passion for gastronomy, Bistro Margot has grown and evolved over time into a virtual space dedicated to stories of taste and good taste, conviviality, and the art of living.
One of the first Romanian sites to explore the history of gastronomy, food culture and the study of taste, Bistro Margot has shaped an interdisciplinary approach where food is merely a pretext for a broader conversation. It brings together wine, travel, books, music, films, and everything that defines the "art de vivre." And the people who join every day are exactly the kind who think and feel the same way.
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