Husband-and-wife team of Alessandra and Jean-Francis met in Nice, France, where they were both working as chefs. Alessandra is originally from Toronto, and comes from a family of cooks. They moved to Canada in 1992 and opened their first Provence restaurant in Vancouver in 1997; a second Provence opened in 2002. Husband-and-wife team of Alessandra and Jean-Francis met in Nice, France, where they were both working as chefs. Jean-Francis is from Marseilles, France, where he cooked at the restaurant run by his mother, Marseilles? famed Le Patalain. In addition to running both Provence restaurants, they are the proud parents of two children.