Ladies and gentlemen, good morning,
Small presentation: my name is Philip
De Buck and I m speaking today as a represantant of Slow Food Brussels.
After spending 15 years as a chef in
my small hotel of south of belgium, I became to be a Organic Food Addict and
also an adept of the ideologie of the Slow Food Mouvement.
Sins 10 years I’m working as
freelance for Horeca sectory and green Events organisation.
Horeca in the name we use in Blegium
to speak about Hotel-Restaurant and Café business.
This year with Slow Food Brussels we
decided to do all we can to valorise et promote the Good, Clean and Fair wich
are the three aspects of our philosophy into the HORECA business.
For us, the restaurants have an
important educational role, recipes and dishes that they offer can help
consumer to discover or rediscover the taste or flavor that assembly of new
taste.
We hope with that processus to
stimulate the consumer to buying product differently.
Chefs and owners of restaurants are
trendsetters, they create new desires and new "trendy" food.
But unlike the trendsetters of
fashion textile, their purchases have a much greater impact on agriculture and
directly on the economy in general.
What we are trying to stimulate the
sector to understand the human aspect of serving food.
Serving a good plate in a restauant
is an kind of art and need a bit of “Love”
This form of love is closely linked
to agriculture.
If we want to pt quaity in our plate
we must encourage producers "Good, clean and fair."
Sins 6 years, Slow Food Brussels
organized the event "Taste Brussels" in restaurants just for one
week.
During this small week, 80 to 100
participating restaurants proposed a Slow Food menu or a Slow Food Dish....
We realized that it meant nothing,
they just use the image of Slow Food to communicate to their customers, and
they did’nt respect complytely theyre part of the “Deal”
And in a so short period the public
does not have time to test all of these restaurants.
And some of them bought a
product "Slow Food" just once time for this week et then …basta…they
stoped.
So, for this year (from septembre
2013 to septembre 2014) we decided to select only the 25 most motivated
restaurants.
And that’s what they realy expect,
they were very happy to learn that Slow Food Brussels will support them during
all the year.
But realistically what will they do
this year? What does it mean to work in Slow Food way?
All interpretations are possible
because the specification can be considered or interpreted as vague and is not
well known by the general public.
So we ask them to sign a little
agreement in which they agree to work one or more local and seasonal products
indicating their origin and preferably the name of the producer.
For example, organic angus beef steak
from Mr Andre Grevisse from Habay la Neuve south of Ardenne.
We asked them to provide a dish with
belgium cheese or milk product. Organic is better but not required.
They must also propose a Belgian wine
on there carte.
A easy way to promote our 78 belgium
appelation….
Not buying fish over-fishing, not
buying protected species, etc ...
Organic food is not mandatory, Slow
Food is a step towards a better agriculture but also a step towards thinking.
And we hope by that way to promote organic food in there mind.
To facilitate their work order or
search provider which in their daily is not easy,
we give them a "catalog" of
producers and pipeline of delivery.
They must also be member of Slow Food
and truth that agrement they are supposed to know a little more about the Good
Clean and Fair and begins to be able to argue and communicate themselves to
their staff, customers, friends and family etc. ....
With Taste Brussels Action we also
try to build bridges between all of these restauratants.
Horeca is an "industry"
with almost 30,000 jobs in the Brussels Region for a little more than 6,500
companies. To this we must add the deliveraciers who depend on it, freelance
etc…
As in all cities of the world, every
restaurant working alone on their own, there is nearly no solidarity between
them.
We believe that with Slow Food somes
links are possible, as trade suppliers, common purchasing, joint actions or
event may be finally imaginable. Even if on the beginning we have to push them
a little bit.
During this year, we will support our
25 restaurants providing them visibility through the written press with whom we
have "free" partnership agreements as well as national radio and tv.
Even if it has not always been the
case, the kitchen is fashionable and media like to talk about. It is not very
difficult to get support from the press.
With this support and partnership
with the press at the same time we can communicate on the Slow Food Movement,
which is not yet well known to the general public.
This is only the beginning ... the
best in coming….we hope that our way to work will be follow by other coutry and
cities.
For information, I wanted to tell you
that among the 25 restaurants, there is a very motivated Greek gourmet
restaurant. And they even agreed to put a Belgian wine in there “carte” wich is
contained only Greek wines for over 10 years ....
And I hope that you have a lot
of questions..
Thank you for listening
