“We feel an evolution”, “it’s better than usual”. At the Resto U on the Paris-8 campus in Saint-Denis, many students were waiting from 11:30 a.m. for the doors to open. And for good reason, this Tuesday, it is the starred chef Julia Sedefdjian who is in the kitchen. Arriving at 6:45 a.m. to discover the Crous kitchens with her team for the day, the youngest starred chef in France does not hide her enthusiasm. “I’m here to showcase a beautiful kitchen on a budget. “Here, there is no question of reproducing haute cuisine, but of offering “a balanced and healthy meal”. On the menu of the day, there is hummus or a carrot salad as a starter, a fish or sweet potato curry as a main course and a tiramisu or vanilla cabbage for dessert. As every day, the meal is priced at 3.30 euros and 1 euro for scholarship holders.
This Tuesday, the chef is preparing food for more than a thousand people. A challenge certainly, but not a novelty for the owner of the gastronomic restaurant Baita, located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. “Student precariousness is a subject that particularly affects me. I know what it’s like to pay rent in Paris while earning the minimum wage. So when the Crous de Créteil contacted me, I didn’t hesitate for a second”.
Still more students in the Restos U
Cooking good for cheap, of course, while coping with rising raw material costs. And on this too, we had to adapt: “I favored basic products, avoiding butter for example, the price of which is increasing. In the kitchen, the 27-year-old chef was supported by Crous employees. Among them, Kadiatou Traoré and Maïmouna Dramé. The two women are delighted with the experience and admit to having learned “a lot of things, like making a marinade”. A new skill that they intend to apply for their future meals. Because the goal is also there. “Leave the technical sheets available so that the students can reproduce the meals at home, but also send them to other Crous and other university restaurants”, explains Dominique Marchand, president of the Crous.
This close friend of Valérie Pécresse (of whom she was deputy director of the cabinet in 2009, when the latter was Minister of Higher Education and Research), recalls that the issue, in terms of the fight against student insecurity and against Junk food is all the more important as attendance at university restaurants has increased by 17% since 2019, across the country. “A historic increase. “. Thus, on the Paris-8 campus alone, which has 22,000 students, almost a third of them go to Resto U for lunch.
“The challenge, on the kitchen side, is also to deal with supply difficulties,” adds Dominique Marchand. But she assures him: “The price of meals will not increase. We will ask for additional help from the ministry. On the other side of the room, even if we admit never having set foot in a gourmet restaurant, “we expected something else”, confesses Mélina, a political science student. On the quality, however, nothing to complain about. “It’s better than usual and prettier, especially in the presentation of the desserts,” observe Giada, Éloïse and Clémence, who are studying foreign languages and European politics.