{"id":860,"date":"2021-04-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-new2022.chezcora.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:27:00","slug":"de-cuisiniere-de-casse-croute-a-presidente-fondatrice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/de-cuisiniere-de-casse-croute-a-presidente-fondatrice\/","title":{"rendered":"From diner cook to Founding President"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I am garrulous by nature, so journalists love to interview me. It was true in the past and still true today, though I may have a lot fewer things to say of importance. Let\u2019s go back to the start of our franchises; to the time when I began my transformation from diner cook to FOUNDING PRESIDENT\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cHow do you feel, Mme Cora, when you see your own name on 30 Cora restaurant signs?\u201d asked the nice interviewer on the show Capital Action<\/i> in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt like answering that I had the same disconnected feeling every time as the day I read on an official document the imposing title of \u201cFounding President\u201d printed underneath my name for the first time. I felt distant, as if I had already shrivelled up and was sitting on a tall, old board of directors chair whose legs would be planted a thousand miles away from my custard pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cThis distance is an integral part of progress\u201d whispered a beautiful angel in my ear. Instead I replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cWell, Miss Chalifoux, you can\u2019t be everywhere all at once unfortunately. You can\u2019t do everything yourself. The Cora of the sign is no longer a real person flipping pancakes in a restaurant kitchen. She has become an idea, a concept. Like a beacon in the morning fog for hungry bellies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019d add how proud I am of where this little kernel of an idea, planted in my head by Providence, has taken us. I can now savour the experience of having engendered these other entities, not identical to the original child, but resembling it like two drops of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being in business is as painful and exhilarating as motherhood. It\u2019s a kind of endless public birthing that takes all your heart and soul, all your strength and the same maternal determination to ensure one\u2019s offspring grow up strong and healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cBut of course, Ms. Chalifoux, the bigger the company gets, the more I tend to feel overwhelmed. Fortunately, I am surrounded by experienced collaborators to whom I am free to delegate. With each day, I realize that I don’t have to have all the skills anymore, especially since reading Henry Ford\u2019s instructive biography for support.\u00a0In the end, it\u2019s the top title that is right: my role is to preside over the Company, to embody its values, to represent it, to explain it to others; to ensure that it lacks nothing and to enrich it as often as possible with wonderful ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cWell said, Mme Cora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cI no longer handle the spatula or big fork, Ms. Chalifoux, but, like a good conductor, I lead the symphony. I tap the magic wand a few times here and there, and the finale salute is still mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was fairly easy for me to give up my arsenal of kitchen supplies. And fairly easy to make the final decision, since I was always ready with a big YES. Yes to the next location, yes to this job candidate and yes to hiring even more people at the Head Office. I was very proud to carry the embryonic germ for Cora Breakfast and Lunch in my heart. I trusted my intuition and always waited for it to give me its blessing before acting. I always knew that this little voice inside was the smart chip of the computer sitting between the ears, and that when we listen to it, it becomes the entrepreneur\u2019s unfailing ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cBut yes, Ms. Chalifoux, being wrong is a risk you run each time you make a decision. I had to be both courageous and humble. I had to have the courage to eventually make the call and the wisdom to ask for the necessary information to weigh the consequences of our choices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I loved my job as President. Whenever I was unsure about accepting or rejecting a certain project, location or candidate, I always insisted on \u201csleeping on it\u201d as you say in English. I\u2019d wait for the answer to come to me or for my guardian angel to send me some key information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, I would chat with my colleagues, listen to their comments, draw signs, write a poem, watch a Japanese movie or read an Icelandic crime novel. I knew that an inner tide would always bring me a piece of wise advice. I didn’t care how long I waited. \u201cThe important thing is to win,\u201d as the great P\u00e9ladeau said so well at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cWhat do you think about the risks, Mme Cora?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cWhen you\u2019re stirring a big pot, more and more foam escapes from the stock. That\u2019s just how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We opened the first restaurant with the money left over from the sale of our heavily mortgaged family home. Most of it was used to purchase the old, fully equipped restaurant, with $2,000 going to clean-up, our first order of supplies, some homemade flower-themed aprons and a front sign ($350 to be paid a month after opening). The rest of the necessities we brought with us when we emptied the house: my late mother\u2019s nice round wood table, a few good pots and pans, some utensils, kitchen linen, decorative knick-knacks, an attractive vase for later when we could afford to buy flowers and, most importantly, the framed picture of my father that I put on the wall so that his eyes could see the \u201ccash\u201d going into the old cash register that came with the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cAll we had to lose, Ms. Chalifoux, was our enthusiasm and passion for our work. And we never lost that, despite a few crying spells, teenage squabbles and losing my voice a few times due to lengthy negotiations with suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cMy story as Founding President is quite simple, Ms. Chalifoux.\u00a0I drew myself, as Walt Disney used to say, with what I had at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like when Aunt Olivette taught us how to build a house of cards as kids. Each time the wind blew my little building into pieces, I would rebuild my castle one card at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cWhen I opened the first small restaurant, I simply wanted to survive, to get us out of poverty and feed my children. I listened to my heart and decided to make people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t do it out of self-interest or because I was driven by some strategy, but because I was so desperate for love and personal satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cora<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psst: Today, in 2021, I still like the grand-sounding title of FOUNDING PRESIDENT because it acts like an anti-missile shield, protecting me from the blows of boredom, idleness and fear of senility.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am garrulous by nature, so journalists love to interview me. It was true in the past and still true today, though I may have a lot fewer things to say of importance. Let\u2019s go back to the start of our franchises; to the time when I began my transformation from diner cook to FOUNDING PRESIDENT\u2026 – \u201cHow do you feel, Mme Cora, when you see your own name on 30 Cora restaurant signs?\u201d asked the nice interviewer on the show Capital Action in 1998. I felt like answering that I had the same disconnected feeling every time as the day I read on an official document the imposing title of \u201cFounding President\u201d printed underneath my name for the first time. I felt distant, as if I had already shrivelled up and was sitting on a tall, old board of directors chair whose legs would be planted a thousand miles away from my custard pot. – \u201cThis distance is an integral part of progress\u201d whispered a beautiful angel in my ear. Instead I replied: – \u201cWell, Miss Chalifoux, you can\u2019t be everywhere all at once unfortunately. You can\u2019t do everything yourself. The Cora of the sign is no longer a real person flipping pancakes in a restaurant kitchen. She has become an idea, a concept. Like a beacon in the morning fog for hungry bellies.\u201d And I\u2019d add how proud I am of where this little kernel of an idea, planted in my head by Providence, has taken us. I can now savour the experience of having engendered these other entities, not identical to the original child, but resembling it like two drops of water. Being in business is as painful and exhilarating as motherhood. It\u2019s a kind of endless public birthing that takes all your heart and soul, all\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Les journalistes aiment l'interviewer : Mme Cora revient sur son parcours, de cuisini\u00e8re de casse-cro\u00fbte \u00e0 pr\u00e9sidente fondatrice de Cora.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lettre-mme-cora"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}