We cannot overstate how disappointing, and frankly unacceptable, our experience with Au Piano des…read moreChefs and its owner, Éric Geoffroy, was. This was meant to be the centrepiece of a week-long family celebration for my husband's 40th birthday -- a 7-course tasting menu for 8 guests, including his mother who flew in from LA and his aunt and uncle who travelled from Switzerland and our family from across England.
We first contacted Éric on 24th March, over three months before the event, precisely because we wanted everything organised properly for such a significant occasion. Over the following weeks we exchanged more than 24 emails, plus several phone calls and texts, confirming every detail: the menu, the timings, the guest count. Éric sent his bank details and we paid the 70% deposit of €525 the same day we received them. He was consistently slow to respond to emails throughout, except, notably, when it came to requesting payment. As recently as Thursday 25th June, just six days before the dinner, we spoke by phone to finalise adding two extra guests. Éric confirmed this was no problem at all and said he'd see us "next week." Everything, as far as we knew, was set.
On the morning of 2nd July, I texted Éric at 10am purely as a courtesy, to ask whether he or a member of his team would be cooking, since we'd previously discussed that he's the only English speaker on his team and I'd offered to translate if needed. It was only this text that prompted him to call me at 11:46am to tell me the dinner was cancelled. His explanation was that the booking had somehow "disappeared" from his diary. Given that this call only happened because I'd proactively checked in, it's hard not to conclude that had I not texted, we would have spent the evening dressed up and waiting for a chef who was never coming, with eight guests, several of whom had flown across the world, none the wiser until it was far too late to salvage the evening.
When I explained on the phone how unprofessional this was, Éric's response was to correct me: it wasn't unprofessional, he said, just a mistake. At no point during that call did he apologise. He offered no help finding an alternative for the evening, despite the fact I was in tears on the phone with him. He didn't even proactively offer to refund the €525 deposit; I had to ask him for that myself. The only apology we received came via text later that day, after I mentioned I'd be leaving a review, which, given the timing, felt less like genuine remorse and more like damage control.
Beyond the emotional toll of watching a once-in-a-lifetime celebration collapse five hours before it began, we had also spent several hundred pounds on wines specifically sourced from a local cellar to pair with the menu Éric himself had designed. That expense, along with the time, planning, and anticipation invested over three months, was simply disregarded.
A significant family occasion, planned meticulously over months, was destroyed by an admin error that the owner wouldn't even acknowledge as a professional failing, let alone apologise for unprompted. No contingency, no accountability, and no refund offered without being asked. I would strongly caution anyone considering booking Au Piano des Chefs for an important occasion: there is seemingly no safety net if something goes wrong, and no genuine care shown when it does.
