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Times
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Inside the Michelin star soup kitchen serving delicacies to destitute
It boasts more Michelin-starred chefs than any restaurant in France, but the rich and famous do not figure on Le Refettorio's carefully vetted guest list. Its fine dining experience is reserved exclusively for the poor and homeless. Located in the crypt of the Madeleine church in Paris's chic 8th arrondissement, it is a soup kitchen, albeit one that serves five-course gourmet dinners five nights a week. Several times a month, they are cooked by one of its more than 100 celebrity guest chefs, who include Alain Ducasse, Ken Hom and Michel Troisgros. 'We like to say we've got more Michelin stars than any other restaurant, although we've never received a star,' said Marco Berrebi, 63, a former tech entrepreneur and chief executive who is Refettorio's co-president. 'Our guests are people who live on the streets, who have difficult times, sometimes women in shelters with their children, and we try to make them enjoy the evening with the food, the decor and the welcome. I've seen some of the greatest chefs of France moved to tears when they come here.' The guests are all recommended by charities or non-profit organisations. When The Times visited this week, many arrived with backpacks or carrier bags. 'We never search them or stop them bringing in their bags because that's their homes they have on their backs, all their possessions,' Berrebi said. 'It's a safe space here,' added his co-president, Jean-François Rial, chief executive of Voyageurs du Monde, a French tour company. 'It's not somewhere they come every night but a place where they come once in a while, for a special night out, just like us when we go to a restaurant.' Le Refettorio Paris was founded in 2018 by the Michelin-starred Italian chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore, his American wife and fellow chef. 'There is no difference between our three-star Michelin restaurants and cooking here. Cooking is an act of love,' Bottura said in a recent interview. Pascal Barbot, one of Refettorio's Michelin-starred guest chefs, said: 'We all see people in difficulty around us and for us chefs, the only thing we can do is to cook and give people pleasure.' This week there was no guest chef, but the two resident chefs, Blandine Paris and Marine Beulaigue, both previously worked in Michelin-starred restaurants. 'We work as if we were in a one-star restaurant, so that when chefs like Alain Ducasse cook here, they feel that they are with a professional team, said Paris, 29, speaking in the bustling kitchen as volunteer sous-chefs worked around her. The waiters are volunteers from many walks of life. One is a journalist, another an investment banker. They may not be professional, but they manage to create an atmosphere like that of a high-end restaurant. The stylish decor, with cloud motifs hanging from the ceiling to symbolise dreams, was created by the French artist JR and Ramy Fischler, a Belgian who also designed the National Café at London's National Gallery. Pastries are sometimes donated by Pierre Hermé, the celebrated chef nicknamed the Picasso of pâtisserie, and macarons by Ladurée. 'All our ingredients are donated and 70 per cent of them would have been thrown away,' Paris said. 'We work with whatever comes in and we didn't receive any meat this week so we are creating vegetarian dishes. Our guests are discovering nice flavours they didn't know, like aubergines with soy sauce. It tastes almost like meat. And we have scallops for the amuse-bouche.' One of the kitchen volunteers, Lucy Drew, a graphic designer from London who has lived in Paris for decades, said: 'The people who come here benefit hugely. It's everything from the minute they walk in the door to what's put in front of them. It's a feeling of respect and dignity.' Dominique, 64, who lives in a shelter and has come to Le Refettorio several times, said: 'It's very special for me to come here. I know almost everyone and the food is excellent.' Berrebi said: 'We don't just feed people here, we chat with them, we joke. For some, it might be the only meaningful conversation they've had for months. We also organise outings to museums, the opera or concerts.' The first Refettorio opened in Milan in 2015, followed by others in Rio de Janeiro and London, but the Paris branch is the only one with such an impressive roster of Michelin-starred chefs. Amuse-bouchePan fried scallops with beetroot and green Kalamata olivesVegetarian option: St Nectaire cheese to replace the scallops StarterSoy-lacquered aubergines topped with cherries and smoked almonds, tahini cream and fresh herbs from the Perche farm near Paris, which supplies top-rated restaurants Main coursePurée of potatoes with fondant vegetables including kohlrabi and turnip, cooked in rice vinegar, and new carrots DessertChocolate ganache with fig leaves and candied pearsMignardise (an additional mini-dessert to finish the meal on a sweet noteCompote of apples and strawberries with cardamom-scented Chantilly cream
Forbes
22-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
No, Once Again, The Federal Reserve Did Not Cause The Great Depression
Notorious gangster Al Capone attempts to help unemployed men with his soup kitchen "Big Al's Kitchen ... More for the Needy." The kitchen provides three meals a day consisting of soup with meat, bread, coffee, and doughnuts, feeding about 3500 people daily at a cost of $300 per day. The Federal Reserve did not cause the Great Depression. To pretend that it did is to believe that central planners dictate access to capital from the proverbial Commanding Heights, and that the central planners were 'stingy' in the 1930s. The fatuous Fed/1930s narrative raises a basic question: why are successful investors paid so well? The answer is simple: the returns from well-allocated capital are enormous. That's why there are so many well-paid investment bankers scouring the globe, and competing feverishly with each other to match the world's greatest business and business ideas with capital. The rewards from well-allocated capital are once again enormous, which is why Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, could probably be persuaded to rethink his analysis of the 1930s from a recent book review published in the Wall Street Journal. Glock's review of George Selgin's False Dawn accepts as true the conventional, Milton Friedman view of the 1930s that the Fed mistakenly caused the downturn through what Glock described as a 'contraction in the economy's' so-called 'money supply.' Glock is focused on symptoms, not causes. To understand why, readers need only ask why as they're reading this opinion piece that there are copious amounts of dollars circulating in the New York City borough of Manhattan, but quite a bit fewer in the Bronx. Is this the Fed at work, or is there quite a bit more productive economic activity taking place in Manhattan? Crossing the country to Beverly Hills, why so many dollars in one of California's best-known cities but so few in Banning, a California town 93 miles away? Considering the above phenomenon globally, why do dollars liquefy exchange in Caracas, Teheran and Pyongyang? Did the Fed drop so-called 'money supply' into all three? More realistically, money in circulation mirrors production. It's abundant where production is, less so where production is less evident. Where there's production there's always money precisely because the rewards from matching production with capital are so impressive. As Ludwig von Mises put it long ago, 'No individual and no nation need fear at any time to have less money than it needs.' Precisely. The monetarist, Friedman-ite narrative about the 1930s that just won't die suggests that in response to alleged Fed tightness with so-called 'money supply,' private, profit-motivated sources of credit didn't respond to the opportunity of a lifetime whereby they brought capital, 'money,' and money equivalents to the world's biggest, most dynamic economy. The view isn't serious. Where there's dynamism, there's always money in abundance. To believe otherwise, as in to believe that the Fed and President Roosevelt restrained money circulating in the U.S., is for Glock and other free-market types to imply 'market failure' whereby global investors who were and are rewarded for effectively allocating capital, chose not to, fell asleep, or both. No. Not a chance. For much of the U.S.'s existence, productivity stateside has proven a powerful lure for global capital. This was true before the 1930s, and it's been true since. That's why the U.S. has always run 'trade deficits,' which were and are nothing more than a signal of the U.S.'s attractiveness as a destination for global investment. Considering the historical flow of capital to its highest use, we can then easily conclude that reduced money in circulation didn't cause the 1930s, rather it was an effect of awful policy not just from FDR, but also President Hoover. Money in circulation reflected the atrocious policy that plainly restrained production. No, yet again, the Federal Reserve did not cause the Great Depression.
CTV News
19-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘We're going to make it work': Moncton soup kitchens prepare for additional guests
The kitchen at Harvest House in Moncton, N.B., is pictured. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett) Thursday was another busy day at the Ray of Hope Soup Kitchen in Moncton and it's likely to get even busier in the coming days and weeks. Kitchen manager Barb Mackenzie said they serve between 80 to 100 meals a day, every Monday to Friday. But she expects those numbers to jump drastically. On Tuesday, Harvest House Atlantic executive director Leon Baker told CTV News they would be phasing out their meal programs and other services for people not staying at the shelter. Baker said provincial funding hasn't been cut, but they just can't afford the additional $38,000 a month for the services. Debbie Bieman and Barb Mackenzie Debbie Bieman and Barb Mackenzie at the Ray of Hope Soup Kitchen in Moncton, N.B. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett) Mackenzie believes that will put a strain on her operation. 'We are probably going to see a fair increase. I would say 20 to 30 people a day, I would imagine,' said Mackenzie. Debbie Bieman, the other full-time employee at Ray of Hope, said things are already hard enough. 'We're going to make it work, but yeah, there's going to be a strain definitely,' said Bieman. 'There's a strain now. It's hard. We're feeding twice the amount of people that we did last year at this time. Twice. We're not getting any more food. We're just making it stretch farther.' Barb Mackenzie Barb Mackenzie looks at her weekly schedule in the pantry of the Ray of Hope Soup Kitchen in Moncton, N.B. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett) Around 100 meals are served a day a few blocks away at Karing Kitchen. 'We can't imagine it's not going to have an impact,' said executive director Bruce Lawson. Harvest House stopped serving breakfast this week and the breakfast program at St. George's Anglican Church is scheduled to stop at the end of the month. 'We're seeing an increase in our number even this week,' said Lawson. 'We're seeing new faces and we're seeing faces we haven't seen in a while showing up at our doors.' Bruce Lawson Bruce Lawson, the executive director of the Karing Kitchen in Moncton, N.B., is pictured. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett) The Humanity Project serves between 250 and 300 meals a day seven days a week, but they actually ran short on Wednesday night by around 15 people. Staff scrambled to make sure no one went hungry, but Humanity Project founder Charlie Burrell said the end to programs provided elsewhere is going to have a huge impact on them. 'At supper time we're expecting to have quite a few more people showing up because they no longer have a meal one block over from us,' said Burrell. Like the staff at Ray of Hope, Burrell is expecting the extra mouths to feed will be a huge strain. 'This whole last year has been a huge strain. As the numbers keep increasing and going up, you need more volunteers to help and it's hard to fill those voids when the numbers just keep getting higher and higher day after day,' said Burrell. Charlie Burrell Humanity Project founder Charlie Burrell is pictured. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett) Working Poor Lawson said only five to ten per cent of the people they serve are homeless. The hope is to receive more funding from the provincial government and donations from the general public as they do their due diligence in preparing for the extra guests. 'We've upped our seating capacity downstairs here. We've talked to our volunteers about the additional workload we're about to see. So yeah, we've covered all of our bases and we're ready willing and able to serve the additional people,' said Lawson. Everyone is welcome to come for a meal at Ray of Hope, not just the city's homeless. 'We've got senior citizens that have enough money to pay their rent, but they're hungry, they come in, we feed them,' said Bieman. 'We have moms and kids that come in. Little children, sweet little children.' Up to 30 per cent of the people served daily at the Humanity project are experiencing homeless. 'The rest are seniors on fixed incomes. Families with children,' said Burrell. 'Or you'll see people pull up in their work truck or in their work uniforms, get out and grab a meal because they can't afford rent. There's a lot of people struggling.' For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Soup kitchen distributes meals to desperate Palestinians in Gaza City tent camp amid Israeli blockade
A soup kitchen distributed food in a Gaza City tent camp on Saturday as Palestinians struggle to get meals amid Israel's ongoing blockade and military operation. Palestinians across the Gaza Strip have become increasingly desperate as nearly three months of Israeli border closures have pushed the territory to the brink of famine.
Free Malaysia Today
01-06-2025
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Soup kitchen feeds the needy, as access to food is everybody's right
The needy queue up for free vegetarian meals from a staff member of the Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen. (Andrea Rhiannon Edmonds@FMT Lifestyle) KUALA LUMPUR : It's about 7.30am on a bright and sunny Monday morning, and members of the Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen are already hard at work, washing and cutting vegetables for the day. Founded in 2024, this noble initiative located in Jalan Air Panas Baharu here, has been preparing free home-cooked vegetarian meals to be distributed to needy and underprivileged communities across the Klang Valley. What stands out about this soup kitchen, according to coordinator Arwind Kumar, is its emphasis on healthy and high-quality food. 'Vegetarian meals can also be unhealthy if you add too much salt or preservatives. Here, we don't use onions or garlic, and all our spices are sourced from suppliers who we know are ethical,' Arwind told FMT Lifestyle. 'Our vegetables here are all from an organic farm. And everything is fresh, nothing is pre-kept here. We don't believe in that. Everything is cut and cooked on the day itself.' The Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen is an initiative by the Kriyalakshmi Mandir Shree Sai Gurukul Charitable Society founded by GuruMaa Annai Shree Kriyalakshmi Deviyar. 'All this is because of a single person's vision and endless determination. You just cannot put out her fire,' Arwind commented. Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen coordinator Arwind Kumar believes everybody has a right to food. (Andrea Rhiannon Edmonds@FMT Lifestyle) A typical day at the kitchen starts around 7.00am, when members of the soup kitchen start work on the 600 to 1,000 meals they usually cook just in time for the lunch hour. The meals usually consist of rice and curry, with vegetables such as spinach, cauliflower, pumpkin, long beans, carrots and capsicum. Hygiene in the kitchen is maintained at high standards, Arwind added. Many who work here are family members of students from a nearby school, also run by the Kriyalakshmi Mandir Shree Sai Gurukul Charitable Society. Arwind said this was a good way to help underserved members of the community, while equipping volunteers with useful kitchen skills that could help them with employment later. 'Besides, who knows better about home cooking than mothers themselves?' Arwind quipped. He added that members were encouraged to mix things up and add variety in what they cooked: their mission is to make vegetarian meals fun and interesting. The soup kitchen maintains a high standard of hygiene and safety at all times. Andrea Rhiannon Edmonds@FMT Lifestyle) Once cooked, the food is packed, and transported by van to various locations all over the region. The kitchen has a list of about 40-50 locations they often visit, including homes and houses of worship. They also serve the marginalised, including migrant workers and members of the transgender community. Arwind commented that there were many other organisations in the Klang Valley who wished to carry out similar acts of charity. However, they were bound or restricted by bureaucracy. 'By the time you complete background checks, people are already starving to death. Our idea is not to judge or decide who deserves to eat. GuruMaa's idea is if you need food, come and take it,' Arwind stressed. 'It shocks us in this day and age, there are still school students who don't have enough money to get something to eat. And we hope we can contribute towards ending this problem. Food is a right, not a privilege.' Currently, the soup kitchen only serves meals during the lunch hour, but they hope to expand the scope of their operations in the future. Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen staff pack the day's food, under the watch of (left) founder GuruMatha Annai Shree Kriyalakshmi Deviyar. (Andrea Rhiannon Edmonds@FMT Lifestyle) For Arwind and staff members of the soup kitchen, knowing they have helped to feed someone and make their community a little bit better is the most rewarding part of their efforts. He emphasised that you don't need to operate on a big scale to create positive change: just start small, and the ripple effect will take care of the rest. 'We did not start this kitchen off this big. We started feeding 10, 20, about 30 people. You don't need to assume that to do things like this, you have to immediately jump the gun and feed 500 people,' Arwind said. 'If you can just cook for your neighbour who's in need, you're on the right path, you're doing the work already!' Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen 68, Jalan Ayer Panas Baharu Taman Ayer Panas 53200 Kuala Lumpur Follow the Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen on Instagram.
