Ooh La La Foods in Paris--Perhaps the Rudest People I've Never Met
 

So, last night, I was looking through threads regarding cooking classes in Paris. Someone mentioned Ooh La La Foods and gave their website: http://www.paris-cooking-class.com/. Great, I thought, as my stalwarts are undergoing renovations while I'm there. I wasn't able to view a schedule of classes online, so I sent a simple inquiry email asking if there were classes on while I'll be in Paris. I happened to mention that I write a food blog and have traveled all around Europe taking classes. It was for reference, and certainly wasn't meant to be interpreted as a query for a free class. Mind you, the request was written in English.

As such, you can imagine my surprise when I woke up to the email below this morning:

Résolution 2013:

- faire un blog sur tout sujet, poster 3 articles par an et demander de ne pas payer à chaque fois que je dine, dors ou fais quoi que ce soit

- si ça ne marche pas, envoyer un vilain commentaire et me faire rembourser....
______________________________
Translated:

- Make a blog on any topic, post 3 articles per year and ask not to pay every time I dine, sleep or do anything

- If it does not work, send a nasty comment and get a refund ....
______________________________

I don't know if the person was trying to be funny, but this is a total disregard for professionalism in my opinion. I do speak French, so I was able to decipher that snide commentary in about two seconds.

The point is, I'd steer clear of this company. If they can't respond in a polite and friendly manner to a request as simple as their schedule of courses, I shutter to think of what spending a day with them would have been like.

They are perhaps the ones who have had bad experiences with blogging freeloaders in the past. Since there are so many bad bloggers in the cybersphere, it is probably best now not to mention writing a blog when making such enquiries.

I guess not, but you have to agree that was a completely unacceptable way to respond to a friendly inquiry about giving them my money. At no part did I even mention the word "gratis," so it was extremely presumptive in my opinion.

I wasn't a business major in college, but bad experiences or not, taking it out on potential patrons going forward is a great way to nail your business door shut.

Wow. Just wow. Is there any chance they couldn't read/understand your letter? Seems like a remote possibility if they run cooking classes, but still...otherwise, I agree, their response is utterly unacceptable.

Write it up in your blog!

Wow...that is acually quite shocking.

I would respond and tell them you are disappointed as you were not asking to receive anything for free but were looking for dates to attend their classes as a paying customer, but will now happily make reference to this unprofessional and rude email on fodors and in your blog.

Utterly unacceptable from a legitimate business.

I couldn't believe my eyes...I just couldn't! I don't know how they could have misinterpreted my email (it was very simple), but I suppose anything is possible.

Even if they did, responding like that is completely unacceptable to me. It was like a response you would send to your friend, and perhaps that what they meant to do...forward it to a colleague instead of respond to me. I have already replied, pointing out that their deliberate reply in French was also presumptive, and maybe to be more careful next time in just assuming that no American on the planet can speak/read/write French ;)

StCirq: that's a wonderful idea! In an odd twist of fate, I'm getting my blog post gratis after all!

Yes, that's correct. And I agree. While that was never my intention, I agree they should have offered the class for free should they ever want to see me in their "great open space." Which brings up another point: if people have access to their computers and what not, I hope they have a safe place for cooking students to store their belongings. I just hate whipping egg whites with my handbag on my shoulder ;)

I think I would just move on to another cookking class. You may never understand what happened here.

Try Cookin' with Class, they are great and really fun classes.

I went on the website of discoverwalks.com and it looks a bit dicey!!

Also there is another one called Cuisine Paris, or something like this. La Cuisine Paris, I think. They sound very good too.

What the heck is a "great open space," and how does it excuse the unacceptable reply? Not much of an explanation, I'd say, and yes, it does make you wonder what sort of controls they have in place. Time to move on...

TPaxe: I've taken a class there before, and I love it! That was going to be my plan, but they're closed for renovations while I'm there (they're one of the ones I was referring to). I'll check into the other one though. Thank you!

Right, StCirq?! Also, no mention of the schedule of classes, which was my original inquiry. These people need to get it together!

"Open space" is the French code word for cubicle offices with no walls.

However, if their place is that big, they probably do not need your trade. Nevertheless, I found the second message perfectly charming. It certainly won me over, but I'm not the person who wants to take a cooking class.

Kylie - have you looked at TA? they have listings of lots of activities including cooking classes.

there are also some mentioned in the March 2012 Paris GTG thread - we didn't go but some of our fellow GTGers did. if I have time later, I'll have a hunt round for it. There was a baking one that they raved about.

That would be lovely, Annhig! I will try to look later too.

Between doing laundry, working, and trying to figure out how I'm going to get to work at JFK on Saturday, I may not have much time. I should be polishing the oars after seeing all of the photos of the airports :-/

But TA is a good thought and I'll have a look there too. I'm bummed my go-to's won't be able to accommodate me this time around, but it's an opportunity to find a new favorite, I suppose!

I'd probably be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

That said, I've done Cookin With Class and it was very nice. Eric, the owner, is lovely.

Kylie, that's crazy. It sounds like they were trying to forward your request to a co-worker with a sarcastic remark along the lines of "look, another freeloading request from some blogger" and replied to you instead. Maybe this will be a lesson to them to double check before hitting the "send" button.

http://lacuisineparis.com/content/contact-us>>

here's one i found but I don't think that it is the one that Patty and the others did - I'll keep looking.

et voila!

Website for the boulangerie http://www.barapain.com/accueil.htm

Benjamin's email [email protected]

AGM and Patty speak very highly of it. it's €75 each I think - not bad.

Here's the link to Patty's thread where she talks about it:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ims-report.cfm

You're awesome, Annhig! Thank you :)

You're awesome, Annhig! Thank you >>

so my family [sometimes] tell me!

glad to be of help, Kylie - let us know how you get on.

Just emailed Benjamin, so hoping he can fit me in :)

I've also crafted my first blog post about the trip, with a link to this thread: http://culinaryhopscotch.com/2012/10...nd-strasbourg/

OMG, a dinner at Jim Haynes! :-/ You are really a neophyte, aren't you?

I think it's pretty obvious that they looked at your blog (how else would they know that there are only a few entries?) Probably the second reply is an attempt at damage control when they saw you posted on Fodors.

I can imagine that they are well aware of the food bloggers that try to turn their obsession into a cash flow situation.

kerouac - I confess that i had to remind myself of the definition of the word "neophyte". which definition were YOU using?

mlgb - if they had read kylie's very polite enquiry to them, they should not have assumed that she was asking for a freebie - and all they had to do was to reply politely and attach a list of their prices to make the situation clear.

Not really sure what that means regarding the Jim Haynes dinner, Kerouac. It's something that's been on my list of "to-do's" for awhile now, but have never gotten around to it. If I'm in for bad time, a more direct explanation of what you mean would be appreciated.

And by the way, the reason there are only a few blog posts this year is because I was in training for work for part of the year, and since then, have been on reserve with an airline. I haven't been able to travel internationally, but as noted in my blog post, I will now that my probationary period is over. If you look back, there are actually quite a few blog posts on there. I hope you weren't referencing me as a "food blogger that (tries) to turn (my) obsession into a cash flow situation," because I can assure you that's not the case. I've paid my way each and every time.

Thanks, annhig for posting Benjamin's contact info and the link to my report.

We've also taken classes at La Cuisine Paris and Un Dimanche a Paris on a previous trip and enjoyed those too. More on those classes here http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

Awesome, Patty! Thank you so much. I can't wait to catch-up on your post.

If you plan on going to a Jim Haynes dinner for any sort of culinary experience, don't , its a bunch of food served to a bunch of people is how it seems best understood, go for the fun, for the chance to chat with some expats, some other tourists, and perhaps 2 or 3 locals,,

As for the email mix up, sorry , I do sympathize with you, but I do think its a funny mix up , yes, someone in the office probably did mean to forward it to a friend in office with sarcastic comment, but so what, are we all so perfect we never make sarcastic comments about clients or customers that we would never want them to hear, this was a mix up.. and also, who knows if your inquiry sounded as undemanding as you say, you did write in english, it could have been taken in translation like a big "hint hint" I write a blog, etc

Reminds me of an email I sent to a restaurant regarding a really bad typo/misspelling on their website. Just sent it to the Webmaster as a courtesy FYI, go the most blistering reply ever saying that that was the worst way to look for a job they'd ever seen. Man, I was pretty angry! I just emailed the guy back, said I was a customer who noticed an issue and because it's something I would like to know I thought they would appreciate the notice. Hope the guy felt terrible after that, and that he was more careful with his tone in the future!

There have been posters here on Fodors who weren't neophytes, know Paris well, have been there many times, and speak French who have gone to a Jim Haynes dinner/get together who didn't have a bad time. But I agree I certainly wouldn't go to one expecting a culinary experience, and I certainly wouldn't mention it on a food blog if I had one, unless I was prepared to be completely objective and critical. More specifically, I wouldn't go to Paris as a French food blogger expecting to get any relevant data from a Jim Haynes experience.

I just re-read the second email back from Oooh La La, and though I agree with kerouac that I might have been taken in by the sympathetic tone, anytime a French person says he'd be "ravi" to to something with/for me, I believe I'm dealing with one of the country's few real capitalistic entrepreneurs.

@MonicaRichards- Oh, wow! Isn't it amazing how quickly some people jump to conclusions? I always marvel at how careless people are in emails too with regard to tone. You have to select your words carefully because things can easily get misconstrued when you're looking at something that's typed.

@StCirq- Definitely wasn't expecting a levitating culinary moment at Jim Haynes; was thinking about it more from an experience standpoint. I'll mull it over and let him know the day of (when you're meant to confirm) if I'll be there or not. A lot can happen in a week and a half, especially when you have Fodorites by your side highlighting new and interesting ideas everyday.

My point was basically the same as kerouacs.

I'm sure Kylie knows there many ways to turn blogs into cash flow (besides asking for comps), ie, publishing a cookbook, putting commercial links on your blog, publicizing appearances, etc.

For an example see here (maybe you'll get some ideas)

cowgirlchef.com/

Interestingly enough, I received an email from someone else at the company this morning who simply replied to my email. They don't appear to have any idea of the dialogue between me and the other gentleman.

My name is Philippe and I happen to be the chef of Ooh la la food. I just read the post and I feel very surprised that you could have got such an answer from the office of Discover walks, my partners in marketing of the fun cooking class. Actually your email never got to my where I usually get all the emails regarding the cooking class forwarded. Please accept my apologies. I welcome lots of blogger every year in my cooking classes and of course it's always free of charges if I consider that the blog offers a valuable exposition of my class. I would be thankfull if you could let me know when you enquired with Discover walks since ous cooking website www.paris-cooking-class.com has been down (hacked) for the last 7 mont! It's back on line since last week with a proper schedule appearing on the main page, a direct link to email us and other informations about the class. As well, you can have a look at the reviews posted on my tripadvisor page. So far, I never got a bad one and all my guests enjoyed a good time cooking with me. Let me know if you pass by Paris, I would be very happy to meet you. Best regards Philippe

Philippe, you might want to take note that the original post was from 2012 so not sure if your reply will ever be seen by that person.

betrandphilippe- I looked but can't find the email because this happened in October 2012. I have no idea if Discover Walks was helping you with the marketing for the class at the time or not. But it was honestly one of the rudest replies I have ever received, and the back-pedaling to try and cover it up was no less offensive. If I ever find the email, I will gladly show it to you. I do appreciate you replying and for your apology. You certainly do not sound like the kind of person who would reply in this way :)

I may actually be back in Paris this weekend, which is why I jumped on Fodors and saw that you had replied to this thread.