Perspectives change, love doesn’t

How about spending an evening in one of our Refettorios? Virtually, of course. We thought that now more than ever, as people all over the world are having to stop and stay at home to curb the spread of Coronavirus, we needed to show how the sense of community is alive and well.

Sit back and travel with us to one of our Refettorios – we are sure that by the end of this journey you’ll agree that a gesture, if made with love, can transform everyone involved. Whether you are a guest sitting at the table, a volunteer ready to welcome them, or a chef imagining their expression when the plate is served to them – a simple gesture is often able to create a ripple effect. And if it is true that a pebble can cause an avalanche, let yourself be inspired by the sense of community and hospitality that lives in our projects every day.

We are in France, it’s an apparently ordinary evening at Refettorio Paris, in the crypt of the Church of La Madeleine. If one looks closer, however, there are two exciting differences tonight: The first one is the way in which guests access the evening service. Usually, to be able to feed everyone in need, guests are asked to alternate, each one coming on a set day of the week – four times a month in total. But for the first time, the staff at the Refettorio have introduced a new method – ‘invite someone along’: each guest tonight has the opportunity to invite someone else to come with them to share the experience.

The second one is that chef Romain Meder, accompanied by the brigade of Alaine Ducasse’s michelin-starred Plaza Athénée, has joined the resident chefs of the Refettorio for a service that will be anything other than ordinary.

What happens tonight can be told from different perspectives, depending on whose eyes you are looking through. But the beauty of it is that every glance, at the end of the day, is looking in the same direction.

Through the eyes of the guests:

Pascal is a regular guest at Refettorio Paris. He heard of the project from his mother, who, given the old access method, had had to reduce how often she was going to the Refettorio. The exceptional nature of this particular evening however, allowed Pascal to invite her to dinner with him and his fiancee. What is striking about Pascal is definitely his sense of gratitude, but even more so, his great desire to share – “We eat good quality food here, things we never normally get to eat. Things we used to eat in the past but don’t have the opportunity to eat anymore. We get to eat quality food with refined presentation in a beautiful restaurant, we’ve never had that before. It’s a chance to eat elegant food- it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.”

Looking into his eyes as he talks, you can understand that Pascal isn’t just talking about food, but something more: “The importance of the surroundings, the music etc, it does a lot. I feel good here, it’s overwhelming. It’s really important, the value in this space. And here I have the chance to get to know volunteers that come from all sorts of different places – it means that we can have an appreciation for all these different environments. The volunteers all have different jobs, and through them, we have the chance to get to know about places we otherwise might never have the chance to learn about.”

In response to the question ‘what does food mean to you?’, he simply replies, “Food can have a complete form if it’s well made. Here they have a way of imagining and transforming something that could be boring, they are artists”.

Through the eyes of the volunteers: 

Carol Lara, from the United States is one of the volunteers who welcomes our guests, like Pascal, every evening at the doors of the crypt of the Church of La Madeleine. “Meeting all these amazing people – the volunteers, and of course the people who are our guests. They are very interesting people because they’ve all been travelling, they’re all interested in arts, politics, food, cuisine.”

Here, Carol expresses the same curiosity and desire to share as Pascal, it is a sentiment that goes far beyond being an interest, it is a real desire to create connections. “Everything is magic here. Normally it’s really difficult to communicate with people but here everything is easy, and the guests just bring me their smiles. We are all here for the same thing, for the same energy. It’s easy, it’s like I’ve known these people for years. It’s really great, and plus there’s lots of respect.”

If you asked Carol why she chose to become a volunteer, she would tell you “It’s all about quality…the food, the way that we work the way people react, they all have their difficult times but here is something special, because they come for a special time, to something inclusive, something very different from their everyday life. Even though they all have difficult times outdoors, coming here is like: everything is new, everything is beautiful, everything is amazing, everything is unique…and we meet unique people and we all leave here feeling much better than when we came. And that’s the best part.

So it’s quality that counts for Carol and Pascal: the quality of the food, but more importantly still, the quality of people’s actions. And in response to the question ‘what does food mean to you?’ Carol’s reply is not far off Pascal’s: “Food is sharing. Everything here is elegant, all people here including people in the kitchen, we all have the same goal, that is, making sure everyone has a nice smile when they live.”

Through the eyes of the chefs: 

And when we add a third perspective to the two we have just heard, it is here that food – apart from being a work of art and a method of communication – becomes food for the soul. And this is the perspective of Remain Meder, internationally acclaimed chef who, before starting to cook for the guests that evening, brought all the volunteers together to make them each feel involved and part of one big brigade: “My boys are very excited to take part in an experience like this, they couldn’t wait. Besides, I’m convinced that it will help them a lot in their professional life. Cooking in a place like a Refettorio allows you to gain a deeper awareness that is not always there in a starred kitchen. The same food that we usually serve to the guests at our restaurant is being served to the guests of the Refettorio. Food doesn’t respect social classes, it’s simply a way to feed the soul.”

But if Romain Meder is the exceptional element of the evening, it is the resident chefs of the Refettorio, who, every evening, with the same meticulous care, create a special evening for their guests. Maxime, one of these chefs, who has been at the Refettorio since day one, tells us that “The beautiful thing is that in a Refettorio, everyone is equal: guests, guest chefs, staff, everyone- all the prejudices are left at the entrance because in our Refettorio what really matters is how we welcome people, the service, the dishes, everything.”

And, as for Romain Meder, food is nourishment for both body and soul, for Maxime it represents freedom in its purest form: “Food for me is the first thing that we need in the world. Since humanity discovered fire, we started to cook, so it is the longest and oldest tool that we have. I think it is also the best technology that we have and that we need. Now we see that around the world so many ingredients exist, so many spices, so many techniques, it is our duty to learn what is happening, how you cook this ingredient, how you mix that spice, there are infinite possibilities. So food for me is freedom.”

So what counts, isn’t so much the perspective you are coming from, but the ability to go in the same direction and act together for a common good. And it is exactly this that happens daily around the tables of our Refettorios.

We hope that after this 360° tour inside one of our projects, we have reminded you that only by uniting forces are we able to send a concrete sign and that a gesture, even a simple one, home made or seemingly of little importance, is the first step towards creating a society that is more aware, and therefore, more responsible.

After all, the real work starts from our home.