La Fettuccina
Andrea Pinciarova and John Japp know the restaurant industry inside and out, having owned La Fettuccina for 14 years after managing it first for four years.
What qualities do you think are necessary for a couple to work together successfully? Patience, lots and lots of patience! As well, you need tenacity and trust. Whether times are good or bad you still need to be able to work together and live together.
Do you make all major decisions together or do you each have specialised knowledge of certain aspects of the business? Most of our decisions are joint decisions - Andrea mainly in the front of house and John in the kitchen.
Do you both cook? If so, who cooks when you’re at home? John is the primary cook, but Andrea does cook at home and occasionally lends a hand at the restaurant.
Do you talk about work at the end of the day, or leave work behind when you go home? Work follows you no matter what. When you have a small business it is your provider, so it is always a big part of your life. We just try to take a break from it as much as we can.
What do you like best about the food in Far North Queensland?
Fresh local produce is always available, from meats and seafood to quality local-grown produce. There are lots of small producers creating some amazing small goods and preserves.
Do you have future goals you still want to achieve?
We have some, but we’re keeping them to ourselves at this stage!
What advice would you give a couple starting out in the food industry? Make sure you know exactly what you are in for - we have seen a lot of relationships suffer when the dream and work is one sided.
