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
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
‘Even Paris taxi drivers have opinions on Dior': Jonathan Anderson makes his debut
For someone making his debut on the world stage in the biggest job in fashion, embarking on a volume of work that's almost unheard of, 40-year-old Irishman Jonathan Anderson was cheerfully relaxed on the morning of his inaugural men's show at Dior. In the citadel of a show venue that Dior has installed against the gold-gilt majesty of the Hôtel des Invalides, he swerves a van that's offloading provisions and swings open its doors unexpectedly, threatening to fell Dior's new all-powerful creative director before he's even begun. 'That wouldn't have been a great start,' he jokes. Then it's down to business curating the biggest moment of his life so far. Anderson's been up until dawn – a celebrity fitting with a star renowned for her elastic take on time (we wager Rihanna, who was front row at the show) – but he's fizzing with energy about this momentous day. It's certainly seismic in terms of fashion. In February, he was announced as the new creative head of Dior Men, later confirming that he would take over not just the menswear but the women's ready-to-wear, couture, resort collections and accessories. That might sound standard, but it's not – houses traditionally split the workload of the two, and Dior is a French national treasure with the output to match. No designer has worked at this prolific level since Karl Lagerfeld, who famously split his time between Chanel, designing for Fendi, and his own line. Anderson's aware of what has gone before: John Galliano's infamous departure from the house following an anti-Semitic rant, which he later claimed was the result of a substance abuse-fuelled, cataclysmic burnout. But if he has butterflies at the task ahead, he's not showing it. 'I can't say that I'm not nervous or I'm not petrified – this is Dior and we are in France after all – but I'm really focusing on trying to enjoy it. I'm relaxed, I'm ready,' he says. You'd be forgiven for having not heard of Anderson before, but in fashion terms he's revered. After starting his own namesake label in London, a tenure at Spanish house Loewe, owned by Bernard Arnault-run parent house LVMH duly followed in 2014. It resulted in a full Loewe-vication of fashion, creating a greatest hits seller of an accessory (a must at LVMH) in terms of the Puzzle bag and enlisting a constellation of artists, craft collaborations and stars, including the most recent ad campaign with Daniel Craig. The bosses were watching – the Succession -like brood that is the Arnaults – and towards the end of 2024 rumours swirled that Delphine Arnault, daughter of the founder, and Dior CEO, was planning to chopper him into the house, replacing men's creative head Kim Jones and womenswear designer Maria Grazia Chiuri. All caught up? A plucky Irish fellow (the son of former Irish rugby captain Willie Anderson), with the lilting accent to match, taking over the most storied and romantic of couture houses in Paris made for quite the fashion fairy tale. Anderson began as a London menswear designer talent, so it was kismet that his first collection would be a men's one. 'I had the idea of this gang of guys, a little bit Sorbonne, a little bit Jean-Luc Godard. I wanted formality, a take on history and mixing it with a kind of personal style,' comments Anderson of the collection, which mixed historic references such as the Court of Versailles with traditional Donegal tweed, sculpted into his own riff on the iconic Dior Bar jacket, the shape that became a signature of the house in 1947. 'It was important to open the show with Donegal tweed; I'm Irish obviously, and Dior used it in his first two collections,' he explains. 'Then I paired it with these ballooning cotton drill cargo trousers that use 15 metres of fabric folded like layers of cake in squares.' The trousers, coincidentally, were inspired by the folds in Dior's 1948 Delft dress. 'An incredible work of engineering,' says Anderson; the trousers have the appearance of panniers for men. Other elements in the collection subtly reference Dior's original emblems and signatures for the most feminine of couture houses; roses worked into woven embroidery in waistcoats that nod to Louis XIV rococo pomp, embroidered on knits, balanced with rougher pieces such as heavy wool coats and undone trainers. Jeans slung on hips, worn with moccasins, contrasted with very formal black tie with plumes of silk bows and collars at the neck, perhaps more of a styling flex rather than reality dressing. Military frock coats with frogging and epaulettes were juxtaposed with fisherman sandals ('It's that sense of savoir faire but grounded in today's world,' says Anderson). The Bar jacket interpretation was an interesting proposal for men; sculptural but still lean on the body. Anderson has spoken about his love of Dracula – he's used the cover for the novel and printed it on Dior's book bag; perhaps there was something of the Count in the knitted capes. 'I collect men's fashion pieces from the 18th century and you can find radical clothing from that time in terms of fabrication and colour,' says Anderson. 'There's modernity with the old. It's about not being scared of the past. History maketh the brand.' And profits maketh the LVMH designer, which is why Anderson has focused on the iconic Lady Dior bag – the distinctive, quilted bag that Princess Diana helped put on the map – has been rendered anew by artist Sheila Hicks, with upholstery tassels (artist collaboration being something of an Anderson hallmark). Within the venue space, two 18th-century paintings by Chardin were displayed (on loan). These are favourites of Anderson's and lent a curated, gallery feel rather than thrumming, full-throttle show experience like those of old. The more opulent elements – a severe coat in metallic gold thread, woven capes, those embroidered waistcoats and frou-frou blouses – were countered by loveworn denim jeans, slouching knitwear and jolts of electric colour. Grey was a theme, being a hallmark of the house; 'it gives this incredible depth of colour,' explains Anderson, and a classic grey flannel suit closed the show. The groundswell of support from designers front row, including Donatella Versace, Pierpaolo Picciolo, Silvia Fendi, Pharrell Williams, proved the point that Anderson is a designer's designer. The collection was nuanced in its stories and various themes, telling variants of the Dior mythology, and while the subversive quirkiness that worked at Loewe was dialled way back, that feels correct at Dior. It's a house that's more formal and mannered, and the eveningwear with silk neck scarves or bows were chic without being peacock. The weight of history is palpable; only a rarefied handful of designers have occupied a position like this. But Anderson is quietly methodical and ambitious; he's got the rollout of each new collection meticulously planned. 'There are five shows to come [in the next year], where each will show different aspects of the house, some will contradict it, some will go along with it, some will be radical. To me it's about establishing a language,' he says. It's quite a legacy to inherit, from Monsieur Dior to Galliano, and the other designers who created their own interpretation of the house. 'I looked at everyone. Hedi [Slimane], Raf [Simons], Marc Bohan, John [Galliano],' says Anderson. 'My approach is that you have to de-code to re-code Dior. Some of the greatest designers in history have worked here and it's not about chopping it all down, it's about rebirth within itself. It's bigger than me, it transcends this moment.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet, French cinema power couple, call it quits
Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and actor-director Guillaume Canet announced their separation Friday after 18 years and two children together, breaking up a power relationship of French cinema. Cotillard won an Academy Award in 2008 for her performance as the legendary French singer Edith Piaf in 'La Vie en Rose" and is one of France's best-known stars internationally. She starred with Brad Pitt in the World War II romantic thriller 'Allied" and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Inception.' Canet has acting, directing and screenplay credits and played in "The Beach" with DiCaprio. The 49-year-old Cotillard and 52-year-old Canet starred together in the French-Belgian film 'Love Me If You Dare' in 2003, a breakthrough box-office hit in France for her. They began dating in 2007. They announced their separation in a statement to the Agence France-Presse news agency that said they made the split public 'to avoid all speculation, rumors and risky interpretations.' It did not give a reason but said they were separating by 'common accord' and with 'mutual goodwill.' France-based agents for Cotillard and Canet did not respond to emails from The Associated Press.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
What is a deep plane facelift? Nipping into the buzzy cosmetic procedure
For decades, the Kardashian-Jenner clan have pushed the boundaries of onerous beauty standards. Recently, the group's matriarch, Kris Jenner, set the internet aflutter when she emerged at Lauren Sánchez's Paris bachelorette party in May looking … different. Outlets including People, USA Today and Vogue posted urgent bulletins about the almost-septuagenarian's smooth, taut face. 'The 69-year-old ...]has recently been mistaken by fans for her supermodel daughter, Kendall Jenner, 29,' wrote Page Six. Many speculated that Jenner's new look was the result of a procedure known as a deep plane facelift. There has been debate about whether this is true; nevertheless, Google searches for the term skyrocketed. 'Let's be honest – if someone looks incredible for their age, they've likely had a facelift,' says Dr Anand Sanan, a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon. 'The truth is, there's no green juice, workout regimen or amount of Botox and filler that can replicate the results of deep plane surgery,' Sanan says. Here's what to know about the deep plane facelift. The goal of any facelift – also known as a rhytidectomy – is to 'lift and reposition the skin, soft tissue, fat pads and muscle layers that naturally descend over time due to gravity and aging', says Sanan. Specifically, it targets signs of ageing in the mid-face, jawline and neck, explains Dr Patrick J Byrne, facial plastic surgeon, president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) and chair of the Cleveland Clinic's Head & Neck Institute. Facelifts are one of the most popular cosmetic procedures in the US. According to a 2024 members survey from the AAFPRS, the procedure is one of the three most common top facial surgery procedures, and nearly 90% of the group's members perform them each year. The survey also noted that facelift patients are 'trending younger' – roughly 32% of facelifts are performed on those ages 33-55, up from 26%. Facelifts are also becoming more common in the UK. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons reported an 8% increase in the number of face and neck lifts performed in 2024, partly due to a 26% increase in the number of the procedures performed on men. A deep plane facelift works with deeper layers of tissue than a typical facelift, also known as a superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS) facelift. The SMAS is a thin, fibrous layer that divides the face's deep and superficial layers of adipose tissue (or fat cells). 'With a traditional SMAS facelift, the skin is lifted away from the underlying SMAS layer and tightened separately from it,' explains Dr Justin Cohen, a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon. This technique is 'relatively easy to perform, and remains one of the most commonly used by surgeons today', he says. By contrast, a deep plane facelift works beneath the SMAS layer, says Sanan. During a deep plane facelift, a surgeon releases the facial ligaments that 'tether the face and neck down'. Releasing these ligaments allows the surgeon to 'lift the entire facial soft tissue layer as a single unit,' he says. 'The technique avoids the overly tight or 'pulled' look sometimes seen with more traditional techniques,' says Cohen. Because they work with a deeper layer of tissue, deep plane facelifts tend to last longer. 'The face will continue to age following surgery,' says Cohen, and the longevity of the results depends on a number of factors including the patient's genetics, lifestyle and skincare regimen. Generally, though, results can be seen for 10-15 years following surgery, as opposed to up to 10 years for regular facelifts. As it is a more complex procedure, the deep plane facelift often costs more than an SMAS facelift, says Cohen. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons puts the average cost of a facelift in the US at about $11,395. A deep plane facelift, meanwhile, can set you back between $30,000 and $100,000, says Cohen. Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion 'There are some high-demand surgeons charging up to $250,000 or more,' he says. Every surgery comes with risks, and the risks of a deep plane facelift are similar to the risks of any facelift, says Cohen. These include hematomas (a collection of blood inside a closed wound), infection, nerve injury, a prolonged healing process, and facial asymmetries or irregularities. 'In experienced hands, these risks are low but should be part of an informed discussion,' says Byrne. For people interested in a facelift, experts repeatedly emphasized how important it is to choose a skilled surgeon, especially when it comes to an advanced procedure like the deep plane facelift. 'Unfortunately, with the growing popularity of the term 'deep plane' as a marketing buzzword, there are surgeons advertising deep plane procedures' when that's not what they're doing, says Cohen. Experts recommend working specifically with a facial plastic surgeon – 'someone who has dedicated their entire career to mastering facial anatomy, harmony and ageing', says Sanan. Additionally, just because a deep plane facelift is the buzzy procedure du jour doesn't mean you need one. Even if you are interested in cosmetic surgery, it might not be the procedure for you. 'No single technique is right for everyone,' says Cohen. And if it's not for you, just think of all the other things you could spend that money on – like a rare Beanie Baby, or several diamond crystal bathtubs for your dogs.
