It has been common for a while for a number of cafes and restaurants to open more than one branch across different locations of Addis Abeba. Some Ethiopian businesses are moving towards the still rare practice of franchising, while others are doing it on their own and with their own management and staff, as well as a central kitchen to maintain uniformity of service to their customers. Two such businesses are La Parisienne, a café, and Kategna, a traditional restaurant.
When Yetna Teferi Djmaneh, now 48, opened La Parisienne back in 1997, it was not without sound preparation. Initially intending to serve French bakery goods, he headed off to Montpellier, a city in southern France, to serve under an artisan baker in 1996.
He has warm memories of his experience-based education there.
“The baker who trained me operated a Viennoiserie in a downtown area of Montpellier,” Yetna said. “It was a lively area with cinemas, cafes and lots of people moving about all through the night. I started work at midnight myself.”
Viennoiseries are baked foods, such as croissants, milk-bread dough and brioche, which are made from yeast-leavened laminated dough with eggs, butter, milk, cream and sugar. Lamination of dough happens by wrapping it around a piece of butter, rolling it out and folding it, and repeating the process many times until one gets many layers that puff when baked.
The French artisans, as he recalled, are protective of their baking craft, and he was only accepted after he signed a non-competition contract, promising he would be working in another country. His sister and him originally planned to name the business La Parisienne Boulangerie, the Parisian Bakery, but decided the name would be too long and shortened it.
Upon his return, after an arduous apprenticeship with a traditional French artisan, he set up shop. The market response was very positive.
“Our croissants were sold as fast as we could make them,” said Yetna, who was shortly thereafter joined by his brother, Djemaneh Teferi, one of six siblings – all of whom attended Lycee Gebremariam in Addis Abeba.
Like him, Djemaneh also took an apprenticeship, but this time with a very well established Belgian pastry chef in Toronto, Canada, where he worked as a software engineer at the time. When he finished, he came back to Addis Abeba and together with his brother they set up another café in 1994 with an expanded product range, this time on the ground floor of the Sheger Building on Zambia St, not far from Edna Mall. La Parisienne progressed slowly, graduating from baked goods to juices, burgers and other items a little at a time. As of 2014, they have five branches and another one is well underway, debuting in the Haile Alem Building along Haile Gebreselassie St.
Hanna Shiferaw, the young owner of Kategna Restaurant took a different route to achieving food preparation excellence. Her mother and current head chef, Senait Atlabachew, taught her from an early age. Two months ago, Kategna Restaurant opened a spacious 600 sqm two-floor branch in the Impression Building close to the Bole Menhalem Church. The menus of this restaurant include traditional dishes, such as Gored Gored with Dirkosh, 132 Br; Gored Gored with Kitfo, 138 Br, and Fillet Dry Tibs, 127 Br.
Just like La Parisienne, Kategna has a centralised kitchen for all of its branches. During lunch hour, the place enjoys a steady stream of customers, mostly young and urbane types, some of whom, says Daniel, the 22-year-old manager, enjoy access to the kitchen and are on first name basis with the kitchen staff. The 250 staff undergo training with Senait Atlabachew, who oversees every detail of the operation at Kategna’s central kitchen, where food is prepared daily and distributed to every branch. It has been seven years since the restaurant began operations, with all three branches enjoying a good customer base.
The name resounds with the loyal customers, many of whom savoured the Injera, berbere spice and butter snack, after which the restaurant is named, while growing up. Amongst the major attractions of Katayna is the special half-in-half, or combination, meals, which allows customers to have the variety they seek and has received a very warm reception. In addition to regular restaurant services, Kategna prepares Agelgel, a vast dish for 35 to 40 people, for 1900 Br. Additionally, they export packed and frozen doro wot (chicken stew), an Ethiopian traditional dish, with popular destinations including China and America. They also cater for Mels, a party at a bride’s family a day after the main wedding party, and other family occasions of all sorts.
Katayna spoke with Fortune about their approach to management now and the future, “We have a fully modern restaurant structure in place and favor hiring fresh graduates from the many catering schools, and then training them intensively,” said Daniel, who received a Hotel and Tourism degree from Hawassa University.
Parisien’s Yetna spoke of the future with both optimism and concern, “You have to expand slowly, knowing your capacity, investment and human resources are under control,” he said. “We are building a system to standardize our bakery process, storage and distribution.”
Yetna is enthusiastic about the future and spoke affably about his sister’s daughter, Meron Fikre, who he is expecting to join in the La Parisian team as soon as she completes an intensive chef’s course in France.
“You have to love the business to succeed,” Hanna said. “We always make sure the food is fresh, as it is prepared every day based on demand.”
Katayna’s central kitchen make deliveries four basic menu items to each branch, namely Dinich be sega (potatoes with meat), qey wot (spicy peppered stew), misir be sega (lentils with meat) and doro wot, at 11 am and 12 pm. Each branch serves only for as long as the amount delivered lasts.
She explained that supply of quality ingredients is also very important, as is the designing and outfitting of the restaurant. Kategna sources its butter from Selale, 150 kilometres from Addis Abeba, and Lasta, in Wollo. It processes other ingredients it needs for its recipes with its own staff; the restaurant only sunflower and niger seed oils.
“To achieve the home cooked taste, quality ingredients are important,” says Hanna.
La Parisienne and Kategna’s owners both spoke at length about their supply chain. For instance, Yetna said Parisien only uses Shola butter for their difficult to make croissants, which requires layer after layer of butter to be administered delicately. Kategna similary holds its Selale and Lasta butter suppliers in high esteem, stating that they have never deviated to any others in all their years of business.
Both reported some problems with price hikes; Yetna said coffee was 25 Br a kilo when he opened the shop in 1989, but is now in the 165 Br range. Yet he was optimistic, stating supplies are much better than before and he took great pleasure in talking about the many successes of his staff.
“I think of them like a family and many of them who have moved on to run their own businesses are still in touch with me,” he said.
These two businesses are expanding at their own pace, and want to keep the business process close at hand to maintain the quality they want.
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