One over-arching part of Thierry’s life has been his interest in photography, which he picked up as a young child from his father who was an avid photographer.  Thierry has passed on the “shutter-bug” to one of his sons as well.  In this facet of his life, Thierry’s motto is “Let me show you the world in my eyes”, the refrain from a 1990s song by Depeche Mode. If you have even a passing interest in photography, you might enjoy a trip through some of the epic photos to be found on Thierry’s alternate Facebook page, Thierry Fostier Photographer.  One might get lost here, browsing for hours at a time.

Thierry quite neatly divides his life into 3 distinct epochs, with brief interludes between them, similar to the way a long film requires a comfort break. The first 2 epochs were roughly 15 years each, and the duration of the third will be dependent on Thierry’s lifespan.  He has no thought of ever giving up his current passion, and confirmed he is likely to pass away, collapsing into a tray of cooling pans of freshly baked pâté.  Thierry has a skill possessed much more often by woman than men, if you believe the anecdotal evidence: he is a master at multitasking.  During the chat for this article, he baked 112 small metal pans of pâté, arranged neatly in trays of 16, all the while responding to questions and almost obsessively arranging the trays in straight lines as the produce cooled.

Thierry is Belgian, the elder of two children born to a father who was the director of Miele in Europe and a mother she who was the Asia rep for the firm L’Oreal.  His younger sister was born a mere 10 months after him, and he has always rued the fact that it was clear he was the favourite child, though he had no idea why this was, and certainly no control over the impact this had on his sister.

As a child, Thierry remembers revelling in walking in the forest with his parents and dog.  He has always felt a genuine affinity with the natural world, and beaches in particular, citing Ao Manao as one of his favourite places on earth. At school, young Thierry played the class clown, through boredom since the curriculum delivery didn’t match the pace of his ability to assimilate new information.  He was constantly seeking new activities to try, new intellectual stimulation. Thierry graduated a year early, at 17 years of age, having been promoted an extra year along the way. His first main certification was in the field of interior architectural design, and he soon moved beyond this to develop a promising career in garden design and landscaping, such was his fondness for eastern influences such as bonsai and tai chi. Thierry became involved in importing teak furniture from Bali into his native Belgium, experiencing a high level of success in his chosen field, while at the same time remaining deeply involved in his passion for photography.  Thierry had a professional studio and capitalised on his skill by taking commissions for studio portraits and fashion shoots, as well as corporate and wedding photography. It was in this epoch that Thierry met and married his first wife, a Greek woman, who was to become the mother of his two sons.

Thierry cites his greatest life achievement as having done as he wants, being a happy, independent man who has survived well, not through luck, but rather dedication, hard work and following his passions. His financial success has come through prudence and he professes zero interest in flaunting it through the purchase of brand-name luxury goods, a practice he sees as superficial.

The interregnum between Thierry’s first and second epochs saw him, accompanied by his wife, move to Corfu and open a restaurant, on the heels of having operated a successful restaurant in Brussels.  This period of just under 3 years was perhaps the least fruitful of Thierry’s life.  Trained in interior architecture, Thierry never dreamt he would metamorphose into a restaurateur, let alone one outside his native Belgium. Although he gave it his all, in true Thierry fashion, he encountered a significant problem with the nearby Albanian mafia, said issue hushed up at the time to avoid panic amongst international tourists.  Tour operators pulled out of Corfu, the already short tourist season of 5 months cut short, and the restaurant patronage fell to just 15% capacity.  Thierry returned to Belgium, tail between his legs, forced to start again from nothing, his strengths of resilience and adaptability sorely tested.

Fortunately, Thierry is naturally optimistic and has a good dose of self-belief, and so began the second long epoch in his life.  Thierry exploited seemingly each and every business opportunity he spied, and opened 4 different shops, in fields as far removed from his previous ventures as one can imagine: tattoos and body piercing, skateboards and motorcycles, Rock&Roll and graffiti art. When Thierry eventually was ready to move on from this lengthy period of his life, his staff in the various ventures were happy to buy the businesses from him.

The beginning of the third era of Thierry’s life coincided with Thierry’s arrival in Thailand some decade ago now.  Divorced from his first wife, Thierry was searching for a change of scenery and he found it in Bangkok.  Maison Fostier was founded and relatively quickly became the name on the lips of many.  Thierry turned the cooking skills he had acquired at the apron-strings of his aunt, a fabulous cook, who used to mind him for a couple of hours each afternoon after school, into a highly regarded range of artisan charcuterie.

Less than 6 months ago now, Maison Fostier was passed into the hands of the next generation of Fostiers, when Thierry, his wife Tui and 20-year-old step-daughter Oum made the move to Hua Hin to embrace its better weather, close proximity to the sea and quieter pace of life.  Thierry mistakenly believed, albeit briefly, that he would enjoy at least a semi-retired lifestyle.  This momentary lapse in self-understanding was rectified with the birth of Maison Fostier’s younger sibling, Baan Fostier, which again utilises all Thierry’s self-taught skills and recipes.  It is no wonder that some of Maison Fostier’s client base have switched their allegiance to our local producer of a range of some 40 quality pork and beef sausages and saucisson, made right here in Hin Lek Fai.

Thierry relishes working alongside Tui and Oum and aims to make the best cold cuts in Thailand, a real possibility given his drive and the compliments his food has received from a Michelin chef. Thierry expected the bulk of his business to be contact-less and has become adept at using online sales platforms such as FB, Lazada, Shopee and his website to drive sales.  However, foot traffic to his home and processing facility continues to grow as people wish to tap into his insight into his products, as well as purchasing them to take home and enjoy. Repeat customers in Hua Hin include Monsoon Valley, The Standard and the Centara Grand Hotel and Villas, and Baan Fostier ships smallgoods to restaurants as far afield as Bangkok, Koh Samui, Phuket and Chiang Mai, a very impressive feat for a business of less than 6 month’s standing.  Thierry is quick to acknowledge the pivotal role his wife and step-daughter have played, and will continue to play, in the success of Baan Fostier.

In this third epoch, Thierry believes that it is the people of Thailand, along with its customs and culture, that have provided the impetus for him to change the way he interacts with people.  In earlier times, all his friendship group consisted of entrepreneurial types such as himself.  Now, Thierry doesn’t feel the need to maintain friendships outside his family.  He acknowledges he hasn’t necessarily been a good friend to others, because he has had unrealistic expectations of them. As a younger man, he experienced hurt and disappointment at the hands of people he called friends.  Once bitten, twice shy is an adage to which Thierry can relate. He treats all people with common courtesy, and demands it in return. Thierry can certainly do without rude, graceless customers, either in person or online.

In his personal life, Thierry concedes that in the first two epochs, his focus was firmly on himself.  Yet, in more recent times, he has turned his focus to learning how to take better care of his family relationships.  Thierry feels that to make the people around him happy, the best thing to do is give them security, and he is doing this by being constant, loving, predictable and spending quality time with them. At this point in his life, Thierry is firmly focused on the “we” rather than “I”. His step-daughter Oum attends regular English lessons, and Thierry is helping her improve her computer skills. For his wife, Thierry is planning to continue with travel plans which got shelved during Covid.  He intends to take Tui to some of the Asian countries on her bucket-list, hoping to help her feel more confident when she encounters unfamiliar people and places.

Although Thierry fondly remembers being 45, strong, successful, self-confident and at his peak both intellectually and physically, he is actually supremely satisfied with the simple life he is living right now.  Thierry follows Sadhguru online. Sadhguru, an Indian spiritual teacher has words which resonate with Thierry. Thierry’s sole guilty pleasure is chocolate, but he enjoys even that in moderation. Give Thierry a fine day, his koi fish and bonsai trees, a little trip of discovery into nature, a bowl of his favourite spaghetti with ham and grilled cheese fresh from the oven, and the hand of the lovely lady wife he can’t do without, and you’ve got a master charcutier as happy as a pig in mud.