Chef Bruno Viala preparing Ecotable dishes. - Eco - friendly © Mika Cotellon

  • Since April 1, the Ecotable association has delivered 500 meals a day to a dozen hospitals in Ile-de-France.
  • Two vegetarian recipes and two meat recipes are available, made from organic products or in short circuits, from independent producers or cooperatives.

Make yourself useful to caregivers rather than twiddling your thumbs, by delivering them fresh meals, cooked with good green products, and delivered without polluting: this is the bet of Ecotable, a network of committed restaurateurs and restaurateurs , which transports nearly 500 meals a day to various hospitals in Ile-de-France, to keep them in good health and continue to support local producers.

Ecotable is an association "which brings together all the players from the field to the plate", and which awards a label to eco-responsible restaurants, based on specifications. Among these restaurants are, for example, the creperie Lulu la Nantaise, the café-restaurant L'Oratoire, and even Les Marmites Volantes in Montreuil.

"Restore bodies, restore forces"

It all started with a WhatsApp group on Monday March 16, a few hours after the announcement by the President of the Republic. On this network, about fifteen chefs and chefs are exchanging, upset by the situation. After closing the curtain of their restaurant, they quickly realize that hospital staff will no longer be able to eat on site. And these engaged citizens, as they call themselves, want to make themselves useful. "Action is the best way to avoid being eaten by anxiety", explains Alix Gerbet, very active in this initiative and also founder of La Table du Recho, which mixes inhabitants of the capital and refugees an emergency shelter.

The idea was then launched to deliver meals to women and men doctors, nurses, caregivers who fight every day against the virus, while supporting producers, market gardeners, breeders and farmers who can no longer sell their merchandise. "Restore the bodies, restore the strengths, of those who need them" while supporting "those who produce the contents of our plates with care", says Ecotable, because food is also one of the first medicines, according to Hippocrates.

Organic or short circuit products

A kitty is open on the crowdfunding platform KissKissBankbank and a first message is sent on March 22 on social networks. The next day, Ecotable has already raised money for 2,000 meals. Enough to finance the purchase of raw materials but also ensure the delivery of meals in an electric vehicle via Private Courier, pay the chefs, chiefs, clerks and divers, or even buy the masks that must be changed every three hours, and gloves more often.

Let's restore the caregivers, sustainably!
👨‍🍳🍽️🥦💪👩‍⚕️
The chefs committed to sustainable food cook and deliver restorative meals to caregivers on the front line in the face of the coronavirus epidemic. Support our operation: https://t.co/bALpBeDKEp pic.twitter.com/nMon3yyDkl

- Écotable (@_ecotable) March 22, 2020

Deliveries begin on April 1 in three hospitals in Ile-de-France, Lariboisière, the Alphonse de Rothschild Foundation and the Beaujon hospital. Everything is prepared in the large kitchen of restaurateur Bruno Viala in Arcueil, with eight different people every day. Two vegetarian recipes and two meat recipes are available, made from organic products or in short circuits, from independent producers or cooperatives, such as the neighborhood grocery store Le Zingam, the underground urban farm La Caverne, the store Au Bout Du Champ which offers fresh fruit and vegetables within 150 km of the point of sale, and others…

"I felt very useless, I needed to help"

Since Saturday 4 April, it is the chefs Bérangère Boucher and Bérangère Fagart who are in the kitchen. The first founded Nomikaï in Paris two years ago, a Japanese-inspired restaurant that serves small plates to share, and the second runs Sélune, a "French restaurant with travel inspirations".

For Bérangère Boucher, who converted to chief after having worked in publishing, and who has many members of her family in the medical field, she says, taking action was "obvious". "I felt very useless, I needed to help, and since food is very comforting, and that it can bring happiness ...", adds Bérangère Fagart to his side.

Regional initiatives

On Saturday, they turned off the light at 10 p.m. But the result is there, thanks to a great collective work. Nearly 9,000 meals have been funded, which can provide deliveries for 18 days at the rate of 500 units per day, at 8 euros per meal. And the caregivers are delighted, judging by the many messages received by the team, and the photos posted on social networks. "Seeing that collective intelligence works is pretty crazy" enthuses Alix Gerbet.

The staff of Lariboisière hospital, thanking Ecotable. - Elise Muller / Ecotable

Today Ecotable is trying to find subsidies to perpetuate its action, since the containment seems to be called to last. And also to facilitate the launch of initiatives in the regions, particularly in Touraine, Marseille or Lille. Projects that come close to dozens of other ideas, such as that of the winner of "Top chef" Pierre Augé in Béziers, these 30 Nantes chefs and chieftains, Michel Sarran's truffle croque-monsieur in Toulouse or of course, the almost 400 sizes gathered by the head of the Elysée Palace Guillaume Gomez and the journalist Stéphane Méjanès, under the banner #chefsXsoignants. From stoves to hospitals, sometimes there is only a tiny step.

Nantes

Coronavirus in Nantes: Thirty chefs offer 300 menus per day and “comfort” to the carers of the CHU

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Coronavirus in Toulouse: The gourmet and united gift of chef Michel Sarran to caregivers



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