We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Victoire Loup a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Victoire, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first freelance client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

When I moved to Los Angeles in 2015, I used to work for Le Fooding as Marketing Director. I then received an offer from Airbnb, which helped me transition into the freelance world. Through friends in the French F&B community, I was introduced to Fabien Moreau, a NYC-based consultant who gave me my first solo gigs in Los Angeles — engineering a US launch for Champagne brand Pommery, producing a massive event for Cartier, etc. Having had a lot of press (LA Times, Bon Appetit Magazine, Vogue, Vanity Fair, etc.) on my role as a food critic and culinary consultant in Paris and Los Angeles has also helped me get my first clients in the restaurant world. Since 2017, I’ve worked on a dozen openings and relocations of brands, chefs and restaurants in France and the United States. All along I’ve continued writing for the Michelin Guide and Le Fooding, now adding Architectural Digest and a few more outlets to my roster. I’ve also appeared as a judge on several TV shows, most recently on the Food Network.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I studied International Relations in the United Kingdom, living in London for three years and Oxford for a year while I was writing my thesis. After that I moved back to Paris for my Master’s degree, specializing in Communications — and always with an emphasis on foreign cultures and languages, as I’m lucky to speak French, English, Italian and Spanish. My first step into the culinary world was at Le Fooding, a renowned restaurant guide in France, which now belongs to Michelin. I started there in 2013 and stayed full-time until late 2016, and then remained at a freelance writer for them.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I’ve had a lot of clients reach out to me through mutual friends, colleagues, or former clients. Sometimes they also find me through social media, but I always love to connect in person or on Zoom before getting down to business.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve had to pivot in March 2020 when Covid hit — before that, most of my clients were restaurants or brands in the F&B (food and beverage) industry, so I knew instantly that everything would be on hold for a few months, if not more. It was a funny coincidence because I had started writing my first cookbook manuscript in late 2019, based on an original idea by my friends Simon Cachera and Noëlla Neffati at Human Humans. I spent most of 2020 through 2021 working on this book (called Cuites) and a charity cookbook (called A La Maison) where 100% of the proceeds were donated to a Paris-based charity, Ernest.

Contact Info:

• Website: intheloup.la
• Instagram: instagram.com/victoire_loup
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoireloup/

Image Credits
François Berthier for the headshot Human Humans for the book