The first restaurant dedicated to the support and training of refugee chefs has just opened in Paris.
It's the team behind the Refugee Food Festival who launched La Résidence earlier this month. The restaurant will allow Parisians to taste new flavours while the chefs will put their name out there while gaining experience working in the French hospitality industry. The chefs, all refugees living in France, will change every two to six months.
"We wanted to create a contact point between Parisians and refugees through cooking. The idea was to put their talent forward," explained Louis Martin et Marine Marila, founders of La Résidence to Le Bonbon.
The Refugee Food Festival started a crowdfunding campaign to finance the project. After reaching the initial goal of 12 000 euros, they're not trying to get to 20 000 euros so they can launch a caterer service. You can see on the crowdfunding page how the money will be used (35% for kitchen equipment, 30% for the training of the refugees, 17% for the first grocery shopping, 10% for the layout and 8% for the crowdfunding's website fees).
The first chef, Nabil Attar, has already taken over La Résidence. A refugee from Syria, he's been involved with the Refugee Festival before, cooking for several people, including Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo.
"I'm happy to make people discover mezzes from my homeland ; eggplant caviar; spices like cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, sesame... It's a real pleasure," said the chef to Le Bonbon.
La Résidence is located at 81 rue du Charolais, in Paris.
