... we recommend mobilising a total of around 5 restaurants, as it is a manageable number for an efficient organisation of the festival. We will be able to help you figure out the right number of restaurants depending on your city and the amount of time that you have to organise the event.
The Refugee Food Festival is, by definition, an inclusive event and is therefore open to all. In this regard most restaurants should be eligible to participate. One thing is certain: restaurateurs have to share the values of the Refugee Food Festival. Participating requires commitment and preparation time before the actual event: on that day the restaurant will have to change its routine by opening up its kitchen to a new chef and potentially find new suppliers as it will probably have to source ingredients it’s not used to cook with. By participating, the restaurateurs will become the event’s ambassadors! They will be a part of the Refugee Food Festival community and will commit to supporting the refugee chef in his or her search for a job after the event. They will endorse and convey the values of the Festival to their customers.
❝ So far we have been amazed by the amount of time, effort and commitment each partner restaurant has put into the project. They’ve enjoyed supporting the refugee chefs, mutually sharing their skills, learning new techniques, finding new suppliers or even discovering new ingredients!❞
One of the first things to do is to imagine the best program possible for the festival: there should be a variety of restaurant to suit all taste buds and wallets. From there you can start drafting a list of the restaurants you’d like to work with. This list can be based on many things:
The values the restaurant might already share with the festival,
The fact that they are already active in solidarity-based economy projects or are social entrepreneurs,
The personality of the chef or restaurateur makes you think they’ll commit to the festival,
Or even because they are known to represent a certain set of values within your community.
You can also target the potential restaurants based on their menus and the specialties of their chefs. For example, if one of the chefs is Ethiopian you might choose to pair him or her up with a crepes restaurant, as one of the main ingredients in Ethiopian cuisine is the injera, a sort of large crepe. This will allow for an interesting menu of Ethiopian flavours mixed with French crepes… Or the other way around! If one of the chefs is Indian you might want to get in touch with vegetarian restaurants as Indian cuisine is full of tasty vegetarian dishes (and even vegan ones!). In order to give as much room for creativity as possible, it is important to make sure the skill levels of the chefs and the ones of the participating restaurants are well balanced.
