Ever since we met in February 2020 and began our work with Marie Curry, Elise Thorelet and I have been curious about the region’s inspiring initiatives to help refugees find work in the culinary world. We’re sharing them with you here:
Since 2016, this solidarity caterer has been helping refugees to rebuild their lives through cooking, access to stable employment and the development of their talents.
Mamayoka :
Mam’Ayoka is a cooperative set up in 2015 by a group of residents from the 19th and 18th arrondissements, driven by the desire to see alternative production and consumption models emerge in north-east Paris.
There are still too many talented women with a passion for cooking who dream of becoming chefs but who face numerous obstacles. The 3 founders, Donia, Loubna and Youssef, set up Meet My Mama with a mission: to reveal the culinary talent of Mamas around the world so that they can make a living from their passion and thus make society more inclusive, sustainable and responsible!
Refugee Food Festival :
The Refugee Food Festival is a wonderful project that brings citizens and refugees together around a positive cultural experience, including the simple joy of preparing a good meal and enjoying good food. Supported by the co-founders of Marie Curry from 2017 to 2021 in Bordeaux, the Refugee Food Festival took place last June as it does every year, more precisely on World Refugee Day!
This year, in collaboration with La Manuco, the third-location venue where the Marie Curry restaurant is located, Fatima Kharma offered a culinary workshop, sharing her tips and techniques for making her famous kebbeh.
She revealed her recipe for “muhammara”, a mezze made with peppers, walnuts and pomegranate molasses, and gave us the chance to make a lemonade with her that ONLY she can make!
The Refugee Food Festival is a culinary event that opens up the kitchens
restaurants to refugee chefs, enabling them to showcase their talents, changing the way we look at refugees, promoting access to employment and introducing people to world cuisine! Marie Curry is, of course, a partner in this inspiring initiative every year!
Each of these projects has inspired us in our work with migrant and refugee women, and we now share this in the 3 Kitchens project.
By Sandrine Clément, Marie Curry – Traiteur et Restaurant Solidaire
