Last year’s GELINAZ Stay at Home tour could not have been more pre emptive. What started off as a political message ended up being the prelude to a world that is today defined as pre-COVID and post-COVID when in the most global manner, most of us have been forced to stay at home.
The GELINAZ! is striking back with a second The Grand GELINAZ! Shuffle Stay in Tour – Silent Voices. This time, it is being played in two parts. It is also giving a voice to chefs that have lost their voices during the pandemic either because they have had to close their restaurants, or because they are in lockdown or because they found themselves in between projects.
“Silent Voices because we really need to support these talents,” says Andrea Petrini, the man who continues to run the GELINAZ! collective of chefs from around the world who are ready to take risks and send powerful messages to the world.
This time, Silent Voices on Tour will come in two phases and with two different chapters. The first on December 3, the international Stay In Day. This will be the day when restaurants that are not experienced a lockdown at the moment will remix dishes of the ‘silent voices’.
For the time being this includes Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taiwan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Taipei, Mumbai, Lisbon, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Taichung, Lima, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. That’s may or may not change depending on the ever changing situation.
The second chapter towards the end of January will, COVID permitted, take place in various cities across Europe. So far there is Berlin, Copengagen, London, Lucca, Lyon, Milan, Stockholm and Vienna lined up and these are likely to be joined in Asia, Australia, Latin America and the United States by other GELINAZ! supporters.
“This is a disaster to organise, we have no cent except for the support from Choco,” said Andrea Petrini. “At the same time, it is the most exciting and the most versatile because every participant is really deciding what they are going to do. We have delegated everything to the participants. They are the chefs, the hosts, the organisers, the project managers and the curators of the event,” he told Food and Wine Gazette.
“The situation is ever changing so even the ideas are changing as we speak. There were groups that have had to change plans three times already but this is the beauty of the event,” Andrea said.
What’s going to happen is that the ‘Silent Voices’, the chefs like Thomas Frebel who lost his restaurant, Sergio Mesa, Mathieu Rostaing-Tayard who are in between projects, Ana Ros forced into a lockdown or David Thompson whose restaurant opening has to wait, to mention a few have presented matrixes to Andrea and the team at Le Grand Cuisine (Patricia Meunier, Mat Gallet and Maxime Maupeu). These matrixes are not recipes but rather ideas that serve as a starting point for the teams that will interpret them in different cities around the world.
In Canada, Colombe St Pierre will go on a driving tour in Montreal with her food truck. The other restaurants and cities taking part in December are Don Julia Parilla in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lasai in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Corrutela in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Kjolle in Lima, Peru, Happy Paradise in Kong Kong, Festa by Mingoo in Seoul, South Korea, Nightbird in San Francisco, La Docena Polanca in Mexico, Logy in Taipei and JL Studio in Tachung, Taiwan, Masque Lab in Mumbai, India and Belcanto in Lisbon, the only European restaurant to take part in the first chapter.
The second chapter will include Sanchez x Noma in Copenhagen, KOL in London, Il Giglio in Lucca, Potager Gerland in France, VIVA in Milan, Petri in Stockholm, a secret place in Vienna, and Michelberger Hotel in Berlin, Germany.
“Rene Redzepi and the team at Noma together with other chefs from Copenhagen will organise their event at Rosio. It will be up to each and every chef and restaurant to decide how to organise it. For example, il Giglio in Lucca will invite Antonia Klugmann, Riccardo Camanini, Niko Romito and Mauro Colagreco to cook with them. Colombe St Pierre in Canada has her restaurant closed till at least April 2021. And for four months this summer, she cooked in a huge container doing take away and deliveries. So she is now taking the truck to Montreal for this event.”
Some restaurants and organisers will be raising money for charity or other causes. “Every event in every city is going to be different. It will change depending on the circumstances and also on what is possible and what’s not possible because of the pandemic.”
“In this dark and difficult moment for everybody, it is also interesting to see who the real troops of GELINAZ! are,” Andrea said.
Organisation and planning of such events is difficult. Who knows what is likely to happen by 3 December or even more towards the end of January. One thing is sure, GELINAZ! will be as bold and versatile
One thing is certain. Except the unexpected.
[…] will also be working more on his informal restaurants Mirabelle and Baest and even when it comes to GELINAZ!, Redzepi together with Rosio Sanchez have decided to organise their Stay at Home event at Rosio’s […]