“We won’t lie, if we come it’s first of all because it’s cheap“, they let Amine and Sofiane go, after depositing their trays at the exit of the university restaurant of the University of Paris 8 in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). Why on the plate”it is edible“, laughs the first. “I wouldn’t say it’s delicious”, continues the second, “it’s good for health, it’s balanced but for the taste… really not great. After that, it’s not expensive, so hey, you can’t even have everything“. Julia Sedefdjian’s challenge is to prove that yes.
Spices instead of truffles and caviar
The youngest Michelin-starred chef in France, at the helm of the Baieta restaurant in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, has responded positively to the Crous de Créteil proposal, and will therefore take up the challenge on Tuesday at the U restaurant.”For many, university catering remains synonymous with mass cuisine. But homemade is predominant in U restaurants“, explains Crous in her press release. But she struggles to convince the students, many of whom still prefer to eat elsewhere, even at the cost of paying more. There are only a thousand who have lunch every day in Saint-Denis, for over 22,000 subscribers.
“Of course, I won’t be offering caviar or truffles“, explains Julia Sedefdjian, who had to use the usual budgets of the U restaurant: the cost price of her menu amounts to 1.96 euros (against 1.70 on average for a classic meal). “But the idea is to work with the spices, to give flavor and colourOn the student tray this Tuesday at lunch we will therefore find the following dishes: hummus, lentil and coriander salad or carrot and orange salad, sweet potato curry or fish with turmeric rice. And for dessert, tiramisu or vanilla cream puffs. Something to lick your lips at least once.
In the background, food insecurity
Behind this one-off operation, the chef wants to underline the food insecurity of the students. “This is also one of the battles I lead with other associations. I too, when I arrived in Paris, had to stock up the wardrobes at the end of the month and today, among the young people who work in my restaurant, I clearly see that some don’t have enough to eat.“.
If today a quarter of the beneficiaries of the Banco Alimentare are under 25 years of age, even the Crous is worrying, where meals for 1 euro have been widespread for scholarship holders and students in precarious situations. At the end of the lunch, the technical sheets of the six dishes created by Julia Sedefdjian will be shared with all university restaurants in France. To try to do better, just over a day.
