Our story and beginnings

Today the fridge has been cooling off a little due to the stream of nostalgia flowing in. Taking trips down memory lane is pretty common in our Fridge, as we love to joke around about "the good old days" or about what happened the night before at the bar…

I noticed a loooottt of tomatoes in the fridge… it reminded me of the first days of Madame Sum, when Yves, Arnaud, and I would be prepping huge (back then it was much smaller than now lol) quantities of tomatoes and other ingredients late at night just so we we're sure that we had enough filling for dumplings!

Those were the days… I cannot count the amount of sleepless nights, amazing customers and cuts on our hands we had. That is why I thought now is the time for me to share with you the story of Madame Sum.

So the whole story starts at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, where as friends and flatmates we found our common passion for food and startups(the urge to be our own bosses). Okay now, imagine three 20-23 year old boys hustling to get big clients whilst just starting their events company. Yeah… it was rough.

While organizing gigs for epic clients, we caught a break. A once in a youth time opportunity came through: The keys for Buech in Herrliberg and carte blanche. This was a big deal. With the closing of the restaurant due to off-season, Marc (the owner) wanted a cool "hip" concept like us to fill the space.

So what was our concept? Good question. During his 6 month internship in Hong Kong, Yves fell in love with dumplings. And that's how we came up with the idea for a premium dumpling pop-up.

Having never rolled dumplings, for some reason we agreed to serve over 400 guests within the span of 10 days. We had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into.

For context, we were in deep sh*t. We had less than 20 days to learn how to roll dumplings, create interesting recipes, AND set up an entire venue.

This is where the story sounds like a total farce but I promise you, its real.

Somehow we got the help of 2 Tibetan monks from Mont-Pellerin from whom we learned the art of creating and rolling dumplings. Since we were "beginners' ' (not even), they joined us at our pop-up where we rolled Damn Good Dumplings (that's where that slogan comes from ahaha!) Now, although it was GREAT it was still just a pop up. Keep in mind, we still had a year of studies left and we had absolutely no clue what we were going to pursue. So we went back to school with the fond memory of Madame Sum in the back of our minds.

That's it. That's the story. Thank you for reading and see you next week!

No. Just kidding of course there's more!

The boys and I graduated and entered the "real world". Yves stayed in Switzerland, Arnaud went back to Belgium and I went back to Italy. So basically we all just went home..

Months later we called each other. "Guys, why the hell are we wasting our time and not seriously pursuing Madame Sum?."

That was Friday. By Monday we were all in Zurich ready to get started. For the next four months we were living at Yves' family home like the cast of Cheaper by The Dozen.

5 kids, 3 dogs, 2 parents, and the honorary guests: Arnaud and Tobia.

With no gameplan we applied to the Zurich Streetfood Festival to test our products. With no kitchen to prepare the dumplings

And that is how our first Atelier (in Herrliberg) started. Within a week, little to no sleep, and a good playlist we rebuilt the entire place with our 6 hands, and 3 hearts

We were finally ready for the Street Food festival and it went GREAT. For the next couple of months we tested our products all over Switzerland: at events, directly from our Atelier, and through a second pop-up: THE DUMPLING ROOM. We were almost ready for the big louch of our Dumpling Bar Concept. Location? Zurich city center, a prime spot.

Next thing we know it's February, 2020. COVID-19. Was this the best time for us to open our new restaurant? Obviously not. So we gave up the offer, and with our first 2 hired interns we had to find a way to stay afloat.

So what did we do?

We built a website overnight.

Started delivering frozen dumplings in Zurich (or sometimes even by foot… Tobia Tagliacozzo #notthebestdriver )

Reshaped our brand into its Revolutionary concept.

In truth, this was the actual start of Madame Sum.

Queue dramatic victory music

But why do we deliver our dumplings?

We looooove our customers! And by delivering by ourselves, we are able to talk all things food, bring the online → offline, and truly maintain a personal relationship with you.

In a matter of months boutiques were opened in Lausanne, Geneva and our seasonal restaurant in St. Moritz was born: @dumplinginaltitude

Then in September of 2021, we launched SWISS WIDE deliveries!! Absolutely insane.

Frozen logistics? That’s an entire topic for a new blog

Our team grew from 3 founders + 2 interns to over 20 full-time foodies, all with one mission: to impact people with inspiring food.

And that is exactly what we plan to do.

Now it’s time to look ahead and continue building. A lot has changed.

And I mean A LOOOT, but I speak for the three of us (Yves, Arnaud and myself), when I say that we realized the importance of friendship, of listening to each other, staying humble and looking ahead even in the hardest of times.

At the end of the day, we wake up to impact people with inspiring food, we wake up to see people happily consuming our dumplings, and we wake up proud of what we do. Every. Single. Day.

Hopefully, that will never change.

Thank you for taking part in this journey and helping us build the Madame Sum legacy.

We are so grateful for your love and support.

See you next time in The Fridge.

Stay cool, stay steamy

Love,

Toby