LOCKDOWN LEADER: Hotel Chais Monnet
Hôtel Chais Monnet today prepared and delivered 365 freshly cooked meals to the town’s central hospital. This is the first of the hotel’s multiple planned meal deliveries during the pandemic.
The five-star hotel, which is currently closed in line with regulations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, reopened its kitchens yesterday, to cook up a three-course menu for the frontline workers who are helping to keep Cognac safe. Cognac-born pastry chef Isabelle Bovy has paired up with Hôtel Chais Monnet’s very own pastry chef Camille Roché to create a substantial yet balanced menu to sustain and satisfy these health workers during this difficult time. The hotel is planning to repeat the initiative weekly.
The two chefs have created a delicious menu which includes a starter of quinoa salad, followed by a main course of beef and Grenailles potatoes and finishing with a sweet and sticky lemon cake. "We have enough kitchen space to ensure that everyone can cook safely. If we can help those in need, let's do it!” says Hôtel Chais Monnet’s General Manager, Arnaud Bamvems.
The community outreach is part of a wider movement established across France called ‘Chefs with Caregivers’, a network of top restaurants cooking for doctors, nurses and caregivers in this time of crisis, as they fight to keep France fit and well.