Glenham couple caters to creative and French tastes
When Laura and Georges Goba-Byrne at Oui Oui Cuisine cater outdoor events, like the one last month when they served 1,400 people over two days at the Amazon warehouse in Fishkill, their airy green and pinkish-purple food trailer makes a striking impression.
“Food trucks can be dark and closed off, with the people toiling in the back, so we wanted to have something open, where people can see the food being prepared and we can interact with them,” says Laura.
Built in Amsterdam, the trailer still gleams because it’s only been rolled out five times, including stops at Two Way Brewery and The Yard during Beacon Open Studios.
The curved windows that wrap around the narrow rectangle are difficult to get in the U.S., she says. When the front panels are open, the ledge serves as a buffet serving station. The fryer, grill and bain-marie, used to keep food hot, are from Japan.
Born in Ireland, Laura came to New York in 2012 on a still-open artist visa and created the trailer’s look. Georges is a trained French chef from the Ivory Coast who worked in Paris and customized the interior. The couple met at Barcade in the East Village, where he ran the kitchen and she tended bar.
They often visited Dia Beacon and became enamored with the surroundings, so after deciding to get married and start a family, they moved from Brooklyn to Glenham in 2021. (On Aug. 2, they welcomed their first child, Georges.) Happy suburbanites, they only go into the big city for gigs.
Laura has worked in the service sector since she was 13 but still pursues her artistic muses, including painting, creative bookmaking and experimental photography.
Her forte, which brought her to New York City, is a specialized subset of publishing called artists’ books, which showcase a visual creator’s concept in book form and are designed to be works of art in themselves rather than a collection of works.
She arrived in the city under the tutelage of the Ellen Frank Illumination Atelier, which led to a gig with Printed Matter, a nonprofit that promotes and advocates artists’ books. Then came a year-long scholarship with the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan and the founding of Potatoe Press, which spotlights projects by female artists and bookmakers.
Its titles stretch the boundaries of what a book can be: Forgotten Memories serves as a creative way to showcase old photos. Salvation Mountain binds around two dozen Polaroid photos and My Mother Told Me… [sic] is a small, round showcase of painted works devoid of text.
For Chef Georges, his art is food and as the name Oui Oui suggests, the main focus of the rolling mini-restaurant is French cuisine. Yet orthodoxy is lax, and Americanization is imperative.
Menu staples include a classic croque monsieur sandwich (ham) and waffle fries/frites with herbs de Provence and remoulade dipping sauce. They offer crème brulee for dessert but also cannolis.
Other diversions include a Bavarian pretzel with beer cheese and Parisian Cheesesteak Eggrolls, a fried nod to the Philadelphia mainstay with gruyere cheese.
“I’m trying to find a balance between the French connection and the demands of American palettes,” he says.
Coming soon: French tacos, hand-held street food that stuffs a tortilla with meat, cheese, french fries and other items, like a wrap or a panini.
“I live here now, so I have to adjust the cuisine, and I always want to have a twist, like using brioche buns instead of rolls and substituting gruyere for American cheese,” he says. “French tacos are wildly popular in Europe, and I think they’ll make the jump to Beacon.”
Oui Oui Cuisine can be contacted via ouiouicuisine.com.
Such an amazing journey. I built their trailer and so happy to see them using it to its fullest. Congrats!