The ecovillage BENU in Esch-sur-Alzette will soon open its restaurant. BENU SLOOW will reflect the spirit of the place: rescued food, zero waste, mismatched crockery and above all, surprising and quality recipes.
Post-gastronomic, you don’t know what that is? Don’t worry, neither do they. But at BENU, they like to shake things up, go further, and test things out. And that is what makes this new gastronomic establishment, which will open to the public on the 13th of May in Esch-sur-Alzette, so charming.
Two experienced Chefs
Led by two chefs with extensive CVs, including previous experience with Michelin-starred restaurants and heads of state, the BENU SLOOW restaurant promises to surprise its customers to the fullest.
The concept? Working with “rescued food”. But here’s the thing. What does “rescued food” mean? “Fresher products than in your supermarkets”, will smile the founder of the village, Georges Kieffer, if you ask him the question. “Three-quarters of the products that we collect are of 1-A quality, that is to say, the best quality on the market”.
Local products
For this new project, BENU has found some excellent partners. “Many daily orders from supermarkets are regularly cancelled because many of them over-order. This means that kilos and kilos of food will have to be disposed of. We are going to work with BioGros, for example, which supplies organic and regional products in Luxembourg,” says Georges Kieffer.
100% organic and plant-based
Naturally, at BENU SLOOW, everything will be organic. “And not 80% of it, as in some restaurants that claim to be organic,” explains one of the chefs, Thibault Bera. “We have done a lot of work upstream to be able to offer such high-quality products. Sourcing rescued food is not cheap! It’s an organisation, it requires us to go on-site ourselves, to constantly rethink the dishes, the preparations, the equipment, to multiply the controls, etc.”, adds the former chef of the President of Azerbaijan.
Not a restaurant, a concept
Everything will be organic, but also vegetarian with a vegan offering. “We chose to go vegetarian because it fits in with our way of thinking. The ecological footprint of meat and fish is too significant,” notes Georges Kieffer.
“But I can guarantee you that you won’t feel like you’re eating salad leaves,” smiles Thibault Bera. “I’m not a vegetarian myself, and I’m going to offer dishes that go beyond what you’d expect from a vegetarian restaurant”
A demonstration
“We are not opening yet another restaurant. We’re opening a concept. A demonstration of the circular economy. To show the public everything that can be done without going through the big industrial groups,” says Georges Kieffer. We want to show that it is possible to do things differently. Hence the name SLOOW: S for sustainable, L for local, O for organic, OW for zero waste. The chefs will also be using “old techniques”, fermentations, pasteurisations, etc., in a more imaginative way.
A table in the restaurant is filled with dandelion bouquets: “It’s the season! Leaves, stems, buds, petals, seeds and roots, everything will be used,” says Chef Bera. “We’re not inventing anything! We’re going back 60 years in time. At that time, everyone applied these techniques. Today, with industrialisation, we have lost all of it.”
Table d’hôtes and other events
Before opening its doors to the à la carte menu, the restaurant is offering a table d’hôte evenings (12 people), from Wednesday to Sunday, from 13 May to 4 June. But beware. This will not be a simple dinner. It is the BENU experience that you will discover. With workshops, as well as meetings and lots of surprises! ” Something you’ve never tasted and never seen before “.
The à la carte restaurant, which will seat around forty diners, will open for lunch and dinner on Wednesday the 7th of June. As for the prices, although they have not yet been determined for the menu, the project manager is completely transparent: “We won’t be so cheap…”. Because BENU SLOOW does not offer a simple meal. But a meal that has become increasingly rare…
And anything that is rare…
More information: www.sloow.benu.lu
Pictures: BENU SLOOW