our journey has been an emotional one and one that’s taught us many lessons in life.

 

It all started in the kitchens where I worked as a chef for over 12 years smashing out 14 hour shifts and learning to work hard in a high pressure environment ,where every day you would look forward to the fast paced adrenalin fuelled evening that was service.

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During this time I had always dreamt of creating something of my but had no clue as to what it could be , I tried setting up a gardening business, washing cars and even a spot of buying and selling from auctions but nothing got me fired up enough to carry on pursuing it until one life changing day.

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It was one of my days off from grafting in the kitchen and after watching a program on the BBC with Michelle roux about artisans I thought why not try to make a kitchen knife, I mean how hard could that be right? well it turns out very when you only have a file and a small selection of other hand tools, so after many, many...........many hours the first knife was created and actually wasn’t half bad.

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I then took it into college when I was attending my NVQ level 3 cookery course and as I pulled it out from my rugged leather knife roll I noticed all the other chefs on the course were flocking around me like a heard of sheep and to my amazement one of them asked if they could buy one, then the week after the word had spread and the requests kept on coming, it was at that point it felt like I was struck by lightning and suddenly I had complete clarity of what I could create and start for myself, A knife making business.

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                                          The Big Leap

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                                         (the old derelict workshop)

 

After this idea we knew we needed somewhere to start up but with less than £20 in my account finding a premises was going to be difficult , however after many weeks of searching and asking around we managed to get hold of an old derelict building on the outskirts of st.agnes , it had no electric, no water, a tin roof that had the characteristics of a colander and holes in the wall where the windows should of been but to me this was it , this was the start of something truly special and after  a mixture of working 60 hours a week in the kitchens and grafting at the workshop we managed to make it just a bout bearable to work in.

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after few months of creating our knives in the old and possibly dangerous workshop and with interest growing we knew it was time to cut off our safety net and fully commit to this beautiful idea, so with that in mind we went searching for a new premises which ideally was somewhere with electric.

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                                     (The first day in our new workshop)

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we knew There was a beautiful workshop on the very edge of the Cornish coast which a farrier had worked in for over 20 years and I remembered when I was around 7 or 8  standing on the pile of old rusty horse shoes outside and peering in through the dusty window of the workshop thinking to myself "one day I’d love to explore in there"  with that memory in my mind I thought why not call the owner of the building and find out if the farrier was still working there and that is exactly what I did , I then asked the owner if the workshop was still occupied and to my amazement he told me that it was incredibly strange I just called asking about it as 5 minutes before the farrier called up saying he would like to move out .

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This to me was absolute fait and so we moved in feeling incredibly happy and amazed that we had reached another steppingstone.

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the first few months were tough and there were times where I couldn’t afford to eat I also sold my car and all of my belongings to keep everything going which meant walking 6 miles a day to be able to get to the workshop, most of which was through the winter in the pouring rain and howling wind, there were also some days I would work from 06:00 in the morning to 03:00 in the morning the next day to improve my skills and to take things to the next level.

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                                  Hard work pays off

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Once a few months off intense hard work and shear persistence had gone by we noticed that Pareusi was being recognised by more and more people and things were starting to really take off.

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since then we haven't stopped and have now been featured on the BBC, a write up in the local paper, had a video created for BBC bitesize and have worked with the chefs we idolised growing up such as Michael Wignall,Paul Ainsworth and Matt Abe at restaurant Gordon Ramsay. We have also formed some incredible friendships with our customers and sometimes even meet up for a brew with them.

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I guess then to summarise Pareusi is our life and we want to inspire people by showing that if your passionate about what you love and are willing to put in the work you can achieve anything.

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I hope you enjoyed reading our journey so far and with all my heart I want to say thank you to all of you who have supported us over the years by following us on social media, liking all our posts, placing orders, sending us messages and emails asking how we all are and keeping us fired up and hungry to keep on pushing forward.

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you are all absolute legends.

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All the very best Dan at Pareusi.