Food for Soul, the nonprofit association founded by chef Massimo Bottura, has joined forces with The Felix Project, a London charity, to launch its second international project. The Refettorio Felix has opened on June 5, on the occasion of the London Food Month festival. Mutina took part on the project, along with Domus Tiles, with great enthusiasm, providing the Mews collection by Londoners Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby.
The Refettorio will serve lunch from Monday to Friday to the homeless and other socially vulnerable subjects. The goal is to provide more than 2000 meals from food surplus, otherwise destined for landfills, recovered by The Felix Project. The community canteen will replicate the success model of the Refettorios created in Milan and Rio de Janeiro respectively during Expo2015 and the 2016 Olympics.
More than 30 British and international chefs have already responded to Massimo Bottura’s call to cook at the Refettorio. Among those confirmed: Alain Ducasse (along with Jean-Philippe Blondet, Alain Ducasse’s executive chef at the Dorchester), Alberto Crisci (from the non-profit The Clink Charity), Angela Hartnett, Anna Hansen, Antonio Favuzzi, Ashley Palmer-Watts, Brett Graham, Bruno Loubet, Clare Smyth, Claude Bosi, Damian Clisby, Daniel Boulud, Douglas McMaster, Enrico and Roberto Cerea, Francesco Mazzei, Giorgio Locatelli, Isaac McHale, James Lowe, Jason Atherton, Jess Murphy, (The Fat Duck), Leandro Carreira, Lee Tiernan, Margot Henderson, Michel Roux Jr., Monica Galetti, Nuno Mendes (Chiltern Firehouse Chef), Oliver Peyton, Sat Bains, Roberto Ortiz, Lima Head Chef and Robbin Holmgren (Fifteen Head Chef).
More than just cooking a hot meal, Food for Soul wants to recreate a sense of dignity at the table. According to Bottura himself, “a delicious meal shared with others is much more than the sum of its ingredients. It’s a gesture of love.”
Even after the end of the London Food Month, Refettorio Felix will remain active, as the festival’s legacy. With the support of Food for Soul and its partner, The Felix Project, meals will be prepared by two resident chefs with the assistance of a guest chef each month. The community canteen spaces will also be used to host events, workshops and social entrepreneurship programs aimed at involving the entire local community in the fight against food waste.
