COUPLES AT W O R K
LOCAL LOVE
French chef Richard Bertinet and his wife Jo have been working together for more than a decade
Meet the couples who have all made working together work… By L I SA E VA NS
A
s Valentine’s is in the air, we’ve been chatting to local couples who own businesses together and have found a way to integrate love and work. Read on to discover the stories behind these power duos...
THE BERTINET BAKERY
Richard Bertinet and Jo Harrod Bertinet have been married since 1999 Was it love at first sight? We were inseparable after meeting at a London nightclub. We got engaged in Cape Town when I [Richard] was working there, and got married the year after. Why did you start working together? We wanted something of our own so that we could be flexible around a family. We left London for Bath in 2005, which was when we really started working together. Tell us more about the business… There are two: The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School, which holds baking and cooking classes; and The Bertinet Bakery. The bakery started as a Saturday shop but has been growing, and now has two retail shops in Bath but also supplies bread and pastries to restaurants, hotels and shops, as well as to 100 Waitrose stores across the country. How do you find working together as a couple? Our paths don’t cross that much. It can sometimes seem like we are ships that pass in the night. Share your secrets to success as a couple who works together? Don’t take work home. Running a business is time-consuming enough as it is without discussing it over your cornflakes.
St Andrew’s Terrace; Brunel Square; and New Bond Street Place, Bath; www.bertinetbakery.com
PINTXO DE BATH
Married couple Mark Mentzel and Teresa Vazquez run their San Sebastian-style tapas restaurant together in perfect harmony How did you meet? In 1989, working as chefs at a Savoy group restaurant. Our relationship 30 I BATH LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
PHOTO BY DAVID SHOUKRY
Favourite spots at which to spend a day off? We used to have a date night every fortnight; we’d go to a favourite local pub like the King William, or just find a bench with a view. Now, days off tend to revolve around our three children.