BOLOGNA, JUNE 14 – For the second time in 2019, the menu of some of Bologna’s favorite restaurants has been enriched with dishes imagined and prepared by refugee cooks, for four-handed menus or tasty white cards.
The Refugee Food Festival showcases the skills of the guest chefs and offers participants the chance to feast on demanding, original and meaningful menus. Kabulàgna will serve Syrian Cuisine, while Omnia will bring to the table the flavors of the Ivory Coast. Nigerian food at Focacceria Mediterranea @ Montagnola. Malian cuisine at Fuori Orsa is the new opening of Cooperativa Arca di Noè, Pakistani treats thanks to Chef Haroon at La Svolta, participating for the second consecutive year in Bologna in the Refugee Food Festival.
“The reason why I decided to organise the Refugee Food Festival in Bologna, the city where I live, concerns my daily life. Every day, thanks to my work, I meet many refugees and asylum seekers who work hard to create a new life in a new country, starting from scratch. What I have learned from all of this is that, beyond any categorisation, there are people with talents, abilities and attitudes in need of emergence. And the most important thing to know is that it’s not just about “helping” the refugees! It is the common effort of a civil society that gives people the opportunity to be what they are or would like to be: artists, tailors, metalworkers, artisans… chefs!”, explained Emanuela who organized the festival in 2018.
Bologna is one of the 15 city participating in the fourth edition of the Festival. More than 100 refugee chefs will collaborate with restaurants to share their love of food. The event takes place simultaneously in several cities around the world, around June 20th, the World Refugee Day. This year, besides Bologna, refugee chefs will be cooking in Bordeaux, Brussels, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Geneva, Lille, London, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, New York, Paris, Rennes and Strasbourg.
The Refugee Food Festival is run by Food Sweet Food, a non-profit organization founded in 2013 with the aim to promote culinary traditions from around the world. After several trips around the globe to discover traditional cuisines, founders Marine Mandrila and Louis Martin believed in the power of cooking as a tool for sharing, exchanging and meeting people. Through this project, imagined in collaboration with other citizens, they want to remind us that food allows us to move beyond status, to discover the worlds of others through what is most singular and most universal: food.
Food Sweet Food has also launched the first Parisian restaurant and training space dedicated to refugee cooks: La Résidence du Refugee Food Festival. The restaurant already enabled two chefs to open their own restaurants. The organization also launched a catering service to support cooks aiming to launch their own catering business. (@OnuItalia)
