Jalapeño Loco

This mind-blowing, super exhausting experience changed my life completely. For the people who didn't watch 'Mijn Pop-up restaurant' is a television show in Belgium. It was a contest between 6 pop-up restaurants. We did a Mexican concept (salsa, tacos, and margaritas). We ended-up 2nd, that's pretty good though! 

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

I was studying accountancy - taxation. During my internship, I realized that my love for working in a restaurant was way bigger than my course. Because I wasn't sure of opening an own restaurant, I sign up for 'Mijn pop-up restaurant'. The main reason to participate in the show was to find out exactly how passionate I am about the food service industry. 

To be honest, it was exhausting. I didn't have a lot of skills to run a big restaurant. We had to create a concept and when we found our concept 'Mexico' we had to learn a lot about the Mexican kitchen and tequila. Beside this, we had to decorate the restaurant and hire staff and all of this with 1 million people who are watching your back. 

 My hardest struggle, in the beginning, was 'social media'. The people who are talking shit about you while you're working your but off. They just don't understand that it is television and yes sometimes they make is a lot juicier than it actually is. Months go by and you're getting smarter and smarter. In other words, you don't read that crap anymore. (:

Happy ending

After the show, the passion for entrepreneurship and food was growing bigger. Because we convinced many people who watch the show of Mexican food we decided to travel around Belgium with a self-made food truck so that everyone could try our taco's! Whether this was a success or not you can read it in:... 

The television show

If you don't know the show, here is a little example.