The French duo selling Italian food to the British (and smashing it)

Telegraph

6 days ago

The restaurant is packed, full of noise, laughter and loud chatter. Italian voices punctuate the air as diners dive into big bowls of pasta, pizzas and tables loaded with antipasti. I could be in Rome, Naples, Milan or any Italian city. Except I'm not. I'm in Paris – at one of Big Mamma's 29 restaurants that span seven countries.
While it may ooze all things Italian, Big Mamma is actually the brainchild of two Frenchmen and started its life in Paris. Since its first trattoria, East Mamma, opened in the 11th arrondissement in 2015, the restaurant group has gone on to expand across Europe, including to the UK, where its five London restaurants attract lengthy queues and get rave reviews.
At the end of 2024 it added La Bellezza in Birmingham to the list (its first British location outside the capital) and on June 6 Circolo Popolare will launch in Manchester – both delivering the brand's trademark wow-factor interiors (evoking a Sardinian festa, complete with twinkling festoon lights, in the case of the Deansgate venue) and Willy Wonka-esque dishes such as carbonara or creamy truffle pasta served in giant cheese wheels, and towering slabs of lemon meringue pie.
On paper, it's hard to follow the logic. An Italian brand, conceived in Paris, using ingredients from Italy, and somehow garnering success everywhere from Munich to Monaco. Against a backdrop of what is undoubtedly a torrid time for hospitality, with big-name UK restaurant closures being announced almost every month (notably TV chef Gary Usher's Burnt Truffle in January, and Tom Kerridge 's Chelsea-based Butcher's Tap & Grill in May).
So what is Big Mamma's secret?
There's the age-old ethos that quality ingredients are key. Then there's the recent trend of creating restaurant interiors to impress those of us who post on Instagram before their first mouthful. But for Big Mamma's co-founder Tigrane Seydoux, the main thing is ensuring the price is right.
That doesn't necessarily mean rolling out the same-priced dish in every location (unlike big chains, prices can vary between Big Mamma venues), but rather for customers to feel that, whatever the price point, they've enjoyed food at the top end of the scale for what they're paying – with the bonus of devouring it in a gorgeous space with authentic Italian service.
'It's quite difficult to identify Big Mamma in the [traditional framework] of the restaurant landscape,' Seydoux tells me. 'We're not a chain; we don't think about taking a recipe that has worked for one site and just copy-pasting that to other locations.' Instead, he says, they take a bespoke approach at each site – from the design and menu to the price point.
'Affordable,' Seydoux explains, has a different meaning for different clientele. 'We run restaurants with a 25-euro average spend up to a 90-euro average spend. We might not have the best product that exists on the market,' he admits, 'but at the price we are doing it, it is the best, and I think people value that a lot.'
Seydoux stresses that he didn't set out with his co-founder, Victor Lugger, to 'revolutionise the restaurant industry'. Instead, he argues, 'what you're seeing is pretty much what any restaurant should be – offering something good on the plate, somewhere you are welcomed in the right way,' and for the right price.
While each restaurant may feel unique, Seydoux admits they share a 'common DNA and common culture' – something he sums up as a 'happy mess', in which 'there is imperfection, but that gives soul and authenticity to a place'. Even the former Sunday Times restaurant critic, Marina O'Loughlin, while classing the food 'a bit crap' on her visit in 2019, hailed London's Circo Popolare as 'the restaurant where you will have the time of your life.'
Seydoux and Lugger, who graduated from business school in Paris together (Seydoux to work for a luxury hotel brand, Lugger in the music industry), drew upon their shared passion for Italian cuisine when founding Big Mamma, but they weren't ignorant to its popularity and potential in the French market – nor to the power of social media.
In their Paris restaurants I take in everything – from flower-adorned entrances to Rod Stewart-inspired toilets, while at Carlotta in London a statue of the Virgin Mary in boxing gloves watches over the bathroom wash basins. In Birmingham, La Bellezza boasts seven-metre-long tapestry curtains and handmade Murano glass chandeliers for its Perugia-inspired setting. Customers will get to dine in jasmine-draped courtyards in Manchester. This is 'doing it for the 'gram', and then some.
Then there's the staffing. It's not my imagination that I can hear Italian accents; 80 per cent of Big Mamma's staff are recruited directly from Italy, as it's the founders' belief that the 'Italianity' they want to peddle must be delivered by Italian people.
And we Britons – as well as the French – are lapping it up. The company's turnover was over £44m in 2024. When private equity firm McWin took on a majority stake in 2023, the deal valued the business at £233m (even though Lugger admitted that interest from investors ahead of the purchase 'was less' than he had expected).
Big Mamma's combination of 'brash, eye-catching decor and theatrical food presentation is highly appealing to the Instagram-driven millennial generation, encouraging social media sharing and viral marketing,' says Zoe Adjey, senior lecturer in hospitality and events management at the University of East London's Institute of Hospitality and Tourism. On top of this, their dishes come with 'an added element of theatre in the service' (cue silken pasta strands being tossed in that truckle of pecorino).
By expanding into six European countries outside of the UK, the company has diversified its market and reduced its exposure to challenges faced by UK hospitality, Adjey believes.
Isabelle Shepherd, partner at accountancy firm HaysMac, attributes Big Mamma's success to a combination of elements, including the novelty factor of some of its dishes. 'Generally people these days want more than a typical casual dining concept, and they provide that.'
Add to that the use of social media to record those experiences and you've got the perfect marketing tool for a generation that looks to Instagram and TikTok for inspiration about where to eat out. The same platforms can, of course, quickly turn sour, as Big Mamma discovered in 2024 when the group was criticised by disgruntled diners for applying a 'checkout fee' on its optional payment app, Sunday, on top of a service charge – a fee that still remains when paying via the app, though bills can be paid by card or cash without incurring a fee).
Seydoux admits it isn't easy when your business is growing exponentially. Certain aspects of growth work in their favour, such as when sourcing direct from Italy, with volume helping them to work with smaller suppliers. But when growth starts to impact Big Mamma's ability to do what it does best, he acknowledges that could be the sign to slow down. Somehow, as another carbonara is captured by a sea of smartphone cameras, that doesn't seem likely any time soon…