Joe Thuillier (right), Paris, 1920s. Joe first worked in the Shelbourne Hotel, training to be a chef. The Head Chef there was a very good friend of M. Jammet of the famous Jammet’s Restaurant in Dublin, which had family connections to Le Boeuf à la Mode, one of the finest restaurants in Paris. M.
Jammet wanted to bring a French chef over to the Dublin, so it was decided that Joe would be sent to Paris as an exchange, with the
understanding that once qualified, Joe would come back and work at Jammet’s. Joe went to Paris in 1924 aged 14 years old. He trained in the Boeuf à la Mode Restaurant on the Rue de Valois for 7 years. On his return to Dublin, he started in Jammet’s. He was there a number of years before meeting Una Cullen and tiring of the long hours in the restaurant business, he decided to retrain in Paris and London as a hairdresser and join his siblings in the salon in Wicklow Street, Dublin.