Just one day after Dana destroyed lives and homes in Valencia, Chef Bosquet’s latest book, ‘All at the table’ (Espasa), went on sale. His agenda was full of interviews, presentations and events in various cities in Spain to promote the work, but Roberto Bosquet canceled everything without hesitation. From the beginning he was clear that he wanted to help, out of closeness, affection and moral obligation. “Not only did I want to help the affected by Dana because it is an incredible misfortune, but because they are from my country (it is from Vila-real, in Castellón) and I know many people who have either directly suffered the damage or it has been their families who have been affected. But in addition, everything I have always done has been focused on trying to help people, so in this case I also felt that it was a moral obligation for me,” he explains.
He wanted to get to work doing what he does best, which is culinary creations, but he soon became aware that during the first days several initiatives organized around gastronomy had already been launched that were already providing concrete solutions to the affected by ground zero (as stated in this article by Adrián Delgado, from ABC Gastronomía), that is why their initial help focused on physical action, with a shovel in hand and providing different materials to contribute their efforts to the cleaning work. But he quickly realized that he could contribute much more than with this type of task by offering culinary alternatives to all those people affected by Dana who are celiac or have any intolerance (gluten, lactose or nuts), because despite the fact that thanks to the solidarity action of many organizations and people they were receiving food, they could not actually consume it due to their allergies or intolerances. «No one was paying attention to these nutritional particularities, that is why together with Naked & Sated Valencia (Convento Santa Clara, 8) we decided to get to work to provide celiacs and those intolerant to gluten with hot food that they could consume without risks. Many of them were feeding on cans and that could not be sustainable over time,” he explains.
Once the structure was organized to prepare the dishes together with the Naked & Sated team, with extra effort on the part of the workers, it was necessary to access the affected populations and that was, as Chef Bosquet explains, a task that turned out to be more difficult than he initially believed, but which little by little took shape. “I always say that to achieve things you have to want to do them and give everything to achieve them,” he explains. And with that maxim he launched.
On the first day, about 100 portions were cooked at Naked & Sated Valencia, which Chef Bosquet collected and loaded into his car. After contacting several people through Instagram (his account is @chefbosquet and he has more than two million followers) he decided to distribute them to the different locations where they told him they needed them. The next day he set out to do the same but in a more organized way, as he contacted Acecova, which is the celiac association of Valencia, which gave him guidance on the places in the affected populations where there was a greater need for food. gluten free. On the third day, his wife, Laura (@lapediatralaura), accompanied him and they visited towns in need of gluten free food which were also very difficult to access. So much so that they traveled part of the way by car and part on foot, walking through the mud for hundreds of meters and transporting the food with the cart seen in the image accompanying this news. On the fourth day the device was even better organized and Chef Bosquet visited, with the help of Ingrid Betancor, his partner’s wife Ibai Gomezto different celiac groups from Alfafar and Benetusser, who are the ones who later organized individual access to food. Yesterday they visited Algemesi with the same operation and as of today they have already organized a small infrastructure of small orders that are distributed by bicycle to the points agreed upon with Acecova in order to reach many more celiac families.
In the operation, as Chef Bosquet recalls, all the staff of Naked & Sated Valencia are participating, led by the director, and they are doing it by working in shifts to cover the demand and making a overexertion with the spirit of contribute and help in this very difficult situation. But in addition, those staff members who are not part of the kitchen also contribute to logistics and transportation. Chef Bosquet, who has been in charge these days of taking the food to the places where it was needed, has also had the collaboration of his Instagram followers who have sent everything from individual containers to all kinds of ingredients so that could continue with the work supportive. Likewise, an organization of cyclists offered to transport more than 300 portions of gluten-free food in their backpacks for Catarroja.
Most of the dishes that have been prepared during this solidarity action are from hot meal (stews, soups, vegetable creams, dishes with legumes…) well, as Chef Bosquet explains, they not only wanted through these shipments for those affected to be fed and nourished, but also for them to enjoy delicious dishes so that experience was a small relief in the very dramatic situation they are experiencing.
After an intense week of aid and cooperationChef Bosquet plans to resume the agenda of promoting his book ‘All at the table’ starting November 11 but, as he clarifies, without leaving aside the help to the areas affected by Dana through the implementation march of collection pointsas he will remain in contact with Acecova, who will be the ones who continue coordinating the requests of those who need gluten-free food. “We trust, however, that little by little access to transportation and logistics will be recovered, that houses will begin to have electricity, water and basic supermarkets so that families can cook at home,” he declares.
The truth is that there is still a lot of work to do because, as Chef Bosquet has seen during his solidarity initiative with Naked & Sated, access is difficult in most of the towns affected by the passage of the Dana, as priority is being given to work of the machines who are trying to remove the vehicles and clear the roads and tracks so that some normality can be restored as soon as possible.
#Dana #Valencia #Chef #Bosquets #solidarity #action #bring #glutenfree #food #affected
