When French couple Eric and Francoise Pernoud opened in Meridan Plains on the Sunshine Coast earlier this year, the last thing they expected was to be pulled up on the cafe not being ‘French’ enough. Prior to opening the cafe, the couple successfully ran Maison de Provence for 12 years in Cooroy, in the nearby Noosa hinterland, before selling in 2017. And, of course, they’re French (Eric Pernoud hails from Annecy in the French Alps), so the credentials are all there.
Nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened. Recently, the Queensland (OFT) phoned the patisserie with some not-so-great news. Someone had filed an official complaint about the business .
Among the complainant’s main points: the bread and brioche are tasteless and not baked in-house from scratch, that the food served is not actually French at all, and – the gravest misdemeanour – that there are no macarons for sale.
Was this the work of an enraged Francophile with a bone to pick? Or that of a diehard macaron fan suffering from withdrawals?
Neither, according to Eric Pernoud. The complaint was lodged by a French customer.
“It all began with a Facebook post about a week after we opened,” Pernoud tells SBS. “She had obviously had a bad day and was taking it out on out us. She posted on the saying we bought our croissants from IGA, and that we were falsely advertising selling macarons.”
Someone had filed an official complaint about the business for “selling fake French food” and “false advertising”.
The original post has since been deleted, but Pernoud says the post amassed “hundreds” of comments from regular Meridan Plains customers defending the patisserie.
“We run a very serious business and we’re truly passionate about what we do,” Pernoud says. “But when something like this happens you start to doubt yourself a little bit. It hurts – it’s just the way it is. But our customers have always been very supportive.”
The Office of Fair Trade eventually found the complaint to be unsubstantiated.
“When the OFT receives a complaint from a consumer, it is assessed to determine whether there are possible breaches of legislation administered by the OFT,” an OFT spokesperson tells SBS. “In matters where no apparent breach is identified for which enforcement action can be taken, the matter is conciliated, which is a process by which the OFT attempts to achieve an acceptable outcome for both the consumer and the business.”
The OFT are obviously unable to comment on specific cases like this one, but the work of the office lead directly to . The unhappy La Maison customer might not be so lucky.
“On principle, there’s nothing wrong with the products we sell,” Pernoud says. “We make everything from scratch, and if I do something that I’m not 100 per cent happy with, it won’t make it to the menu.”
Unfortunately for the Pernouds, the end to this war isn’t exactly in sight. Eric tells SBS the customer has adopted multiple online aliases and continues to leave scathing reviews on Facebook and other social media sites, even though the complaint has been dropped. The Pernouds have since acquired a lawyer, and are keeping a record of everything that transpires online.
There is, of course, a silver lining.
“Business-wise, it’s been great for us,” Pernoud says. “Many of our customers from our Noosa restaurant didn’t know where we ended up, so all the media coverage has really put us on the map.”
If you’re in Queensland, pay a visit to La Maison du Patissier to show your support – just don’t expect to see any macarons on the menu.
