Going from a Michelin Star kitchen, preparing dishes with lengthy names and descriptions, to heating cans of pre-cooked ravioli. That is the journey of the protagonist of the kitchen brigade (Theatrical release June 17), a social comedy in which gastronomy is the background and the center.
Inspired by true stories, Louis-Julien Petit write and direct a story of integration of immigrant minors through the kitchen. Cathy MarieAudrey Lamy She is the main chef. Chef, sorry. A very capable woman, she knows herself well. Whose dreams of owning her own restaurant come crashing down and she has to take the first job to earn money. And it turns out that this job is in the kitchen of a reception center for unaccompanied immigrant minors. Kids who before the age of 18 have to have a degree or work to be able to stay and not be returned to their countries.
Cathy Marie in The Kitchen Brigade.
Cathy Marie, with her super chef pride, has a hard time getting hold of that poorly equipped kitchen, without a budget (8 euros per day and per child) and with diners who know nothing about gastronomy or healthy eating. “They like ravioli and football”, explains the director of the center (François Cluzet). They don't have the best predisposition either, but little by little he is winning over the stove. And they go creating menus inspired by each one's country, they take pleasure in the kitchen, the selection of food, the technique, the good service, the good table and to do everything with a lot of love.
That is also the key Chema de Isidro, the gastronomic director of CESAL, an NGO that has been dedicated for 12 years to train young people at risk of social exclusion. They are trained in the kitchen and in the dining room for four months plus two internships in restaurants. “We have more than 90% insertion, who stay working”, he tells us.
De Isidro saw The Kitchen Brigade and spent "half a movie crying like a cupcake." “It's a kick. What comes out is our day to day, it is a replica of what we have been doing for 12 years. It is extremely well portrayed, the problems that the kids face, and us, the paperwork, the insertion, the language…”, he says.
Kids not actors in the movie.
Through the NGO, they have two restaurant-schools. One is the fifth kitchen, the restaurant of The Fifth of Los Molinos in Madrid, where they serve modern market food and, except for the trainers, all the staff are kids in training. Kids who suggest and create their own dishes, inspired by their countries of origin. the other is the Aluche Sports Center. And, in addition to also working in the countries of origin (when we talked to him he was going to El Salvador), they already have a market-restaurant-school project in the Mercado de San Cristóbal that they hope to see underway next year.
Like in the movie, in each promotion (they have three a year) they are introduced to a number of kids, interviewed and select about 40 to those who train in workshops to see their skills and then each one defines himself in the field that he likes the most and is best at.
COOKING IS AN ACT OF LOVE
De Isidro tells his own story to get here (which is a bit like the journey of the protagonist of The Kitchen Brigade). “As a child I was a piece of noses, my teacher, Iñaki Yzaguirre, crossed my life and changed my life, and it went very well, I did television, I wrote books, but one day I stopped and said: I'm here because one day a guy believed in me, so I left the restaurant and set up a school and started working with kids. I used to do courses for kids open to everyone, and now what I like the most is this”.
Learning smells and tastes.
That 90% insertion makes them want to not stop. “We have more than 50 chefs among those who have passed through our school-restaurants over the years. There is a kid who runs five restaurants, many start as interns and end up as bosses. At La Quinta all the trainers have been former students, That's how we close the circle." bill.
What does the kitchen have to achieve that success? "I believe that It is something very manual, which gives very instant pleasure. These kids have terrible self-esteem, but when they see that if you put effort into it, you enjoy the result and others enjoy it, it makes them very happy”, bill. And she adds for that shared and gifted satisfaction: “I am a happy guy, really”.
The kitchen brigade.