Restaurant Day: Chef for a day

Many dif­fe­rent cul­tures found a home in Wed­ding – but truth told: How many Ger­mans have ever visi­ted a Tur­ki­sh cul­tu­re club? Or which Ara­bic fami­ly has ever had a par­ty in a typi­cal Ber­lin corner-pub?

A gre­at idea from Hel­sin­ki might help to con­nect neigh­bours: Restau­rant Day. So far, over 7,000 restau­rants ope­ned their doors for one day, enab­ling 28,000 hob­by chefs to cater for over half a mil­li­on peo­p­le. Restau­rant Day hap­pens four times a year, the next one on the 17^th of May.

Anyo­ne can open a restau­rant for a day – the defi­ni­ti­on of a restau­rant being very wide here. You can turn your flat into a pub, or may­be sell your goods from the bal­c­o­ny. “This is per­fect for Wed­ding”, thinks Patrick Neu­mann. “In rich living are­as, alarms go off when you get too clo­se to your neigh­bor – but in Wed­ding peo­p­le and cul­tures can find each other through a shared meal”, explains the 36-year-old who adver­ti­ses Restau­rant Day in Ger­ma­ny. Patrick hims­elf comes from the Ruhr dis­trict and lives in Neukölln.

Cooking for friends

Sarah from Euler­stra­ße in Gesund­brun­nen took part in the last Restau­rant Day. Her vege­ta­ri­an Quiche was the cen­ter of her minia­tu­re restau­rant. Her place ope­ned in the ear­ly evening – every chef can deci­de how much to con­tri­bu­te to Restau­rant Day. By the way – Sarah’s crea­ti­ve coo­king expe­ri­ments can be found here: “Epi­cée“.

Slow Food, full of pleasure

“Using the inter­net to chan­ge things in real life intri­gues me“, says Patrick Neu­mann. Par­ti­ci­pa­ting in Restau­rant Day is easy – just sign up for it on the web­site . Patrick likes coo­king too – and accor­ding to his fri­ends, he is not too bad at it eit­her. “I offe­red some­thing at a Restau­rant Day as well”, he explains, “we just coo­ked grandma’s favou­ri­te recipes…”

If you like it more old school, you can adver­ti­se your restau­rant through ads in your hall­way, too – ano­ther oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet your neigh­bors! A gre­at idea to con­nect Wed­din­gers with all sorts of cul­tu­ral backgrounds!!
Regis­ter here for the next Restau­rant Day on Satur­day, May 17^th.

trans­la­ti­on: Danie­la Hombach

More on Wedding’s Eng­lish Lan­guage Face­book-Page “Der schö­ne Wedding”