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The Work We Do: Marie Eiffel, Marie Eiffel Market

I’m Marie Eiffel and I own the Marie Eiffel Market on Shelter Island.

A day for us is to come in around 5:30 to start cooking.

We actually cook pastries for the morning; we do croissants, we also do juices, we do baguettes. This is exactly my fifth summer.

We have a lot of catering. You name it, whatever they need for their lunches at the beach, next to their swimming pool for their guests, we do it.

We work with people in Montauk and they come with fresh fish every day. People tell me what they want the day before, we order it and it’s fresh. They pick it up when we text them “your fish is here.”

I actually didn’t want to get into this business. A friend of mine was a private chef for the French consulate and he asked me to partner with him to help in the front. I did that to help him out and get started because he had no idea about business. I told him the first year you’re going to cook, second year I’ll teach you the front, the third one I’ll be a consultant, and the fourth year you’re on your own and I’ll go back to fashion. He kind of freaked out because he was used to working for a few people, but we work for 200 people a day. It overwhelmed him. He basically had a nervous breakdown, so I found myself with this business on my lap.

Marie Eiffel of Marie Eiffel Market. (Rachel Siford photo)

It’s like totally a crazy business because it’s so many little different things to please everybody. I mean, it’s nonstop. It’s a huge business. We have 20 people working every day.

We always try to get out of here at 7 p.m. but we’re here up to 8 because we have to clean up, prep for the next day. My favorite part is to please the customer. They say it’s an extension of their home, which makes me feel super-good.

And also they said, it’s like a community center. So those two things, if I achieve that I’m pretty happy with that.

“The Work We Do” is a Shelter Island Reporter multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. It is made possible by Peconic Landing in Greenport. See photos on Instagram @the_shelterislander.