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Loubna Ksibi enables women of all ages and backgrounds to live their passion for cooking by combining their skills as chefs with those of independent entrepreneurs.
During the summer break, the teams at impact.info invite you to (re)listen to one of our episodes published this year.MeetMyMama co-founded by Loubna Ksibi .
Enjoy listening!
Juliette Boulegon
impact.info journalist
Published on 25 July 2024
Transcript Audio in Français — text automatically translated· AI-generated transcript
0:00 Hello, this is Juliette, and welcome to the podcast for those who want to make 0:08 a difference within their company. 0:10 Out of the 627 Michelin-starred restaurants in France, only 32 are run by women chefs, 0:16 a number that is increasing, but still struggles to be equitable. 0:19 Yet, in households, it is still women who do most of the cooking. 0:23 So to counter these numbers, Loubna Ksibi decided to give a chance to women 0:28 with untapped culinary talents by creating Meet My Mama, and giving them 0:33 an opportunity to use their knowledge, and also to escape a certain precariousness. 0:37 Hello, my name is Loubna Ksibi, I am 31 years old, I was born in Lorraine, in Thionville. 0:45 I currently live in Paris, and I am the co-founder of the social enterprise Meet 0:50 My Mama, of the association Empower My Mama, of the school La Mama Academy, and I am 0:55 also on the board of the Impact France movement. 0:59 Today we will focus on the association Meet My Mama, could you briefly 1:02 introduce it to us? 1:04 Yes, so we created a structure a few years ago to allow as many women as possible 1:08 to live from their culinary skills, to become chefs, caterers, entrepreneurs, independents, no matter their background, no matter their 1:13 history, the idea was to say we will remove all the 1:18 barriers they might encounter, we will train them, we will empower them 1:23 to succeed in becoming chefs. 1:26 These are women I imagine with very diverse backgrounds, how do you determine 1:29 once these women come to you what level of training they need? 1:33 So we created several pathways based on their level, we have a first pathway 1:37 for inspiration to create sparks, to allow them to discover the restaurant professions and help them refine their professional project. 1:38 Then we have a more training-oriented pathway so they can acquire all the 1:44 necessary skills both in culinary skills, food hygiene and safety, cost calculation, how to create a recipe, culinary design, etc. 1:48 But also on more entrepreneurial skills, soft skills like self-confidence 1:51 and everything related to management, HR, etc. 1:56 And for those who are launching, we created an incubator 2:00 where they have access for a year and a half to a professional kitchen provided 2:05 free of charge by the association, cooking coaches, entrepreneurial coaches, and initial services, which allows them to have first clients to start 2:06 their activity. 2:12 And finally, for those who have launched, we created the catering platform Meet My Mama 2:15 which offers companies catering services in different formats such as 2:20 cocktail, banquet, dinner, and it is a way for them to live decently from. 2:26 2:32 2:36 2:37 2:43 2:47 2:53 their activity, to be paid. 2:55 So broadly speaking, can you tell us a bit about who 2:58 these women are who come to you? 3:00 These women are very diverse, what brings them together is their passion for cooking 3:05 but they are of all ages, we have very young mamas, I think the youngest must be 3:09 23 years old and much older mamas, we have mamas from all social backgrounds, we 3:15 have mamas who were already in the restaurant world and others who are in 3:19 professional retraining, mamas who had never worked before and others 3:27 who already had a restaurant for example, they really come from all types, from all 3:32 origins as well. 3:33 Let's go back a bit to the genesis of Meet My Mama, the potential triggers that 3:37 you may have had in creating this association and especially why you chose to only 3:42 train women? 3:43 So the triggers, because there were several, at the time I was doing an internship 3:48 and at that moment it was the arrival of refugees, notably from Syria, and we really 3:53 wanted to change the narratives we could have about these people who 3:58 were arriving in France, that was really the trigger, we said to ourselves, but these women 4:03 who are coming, we really saw them as talents arriving, we thought 4:06 we really want them to be able to share their cuisine with us, we don't know it. 4:11 It started from there and it also came from our personal experiences, we 4:12 always grew up with women who cooked wonderfully well but who never managed 4:16 to make it their profession. 4:20 One of my aunts who cooks like no one else, she was a housewife for a long time and once 4:21 her children grew up, she was told now think of yourself and you have this talent, 4:27 you need to do something with it and she started but she failed because 4:32 she knew how to cook super well but not necessarily manage a business, find 4:36 clients. 4:39 There’s all of that around which is quite complex when you’re not from the industry so the trigger 4:40 came notably from there. 4:47 Especially since in France, there are still very few women who achieve the status 4:48 of chef. 4:51 It seems to me that behind the name of your association, there is indeed a little nod 4:52 to this subject. 4:56 It's true that when we started thinking about the project, we realized that 90% of chefs were men and that when we asked them where their 4:57 inspiration came from, it often came from their mother, their grandmother, etc. 5:01 And so, we tried to understand why this had happened since it 5:08 wasn't necessarily the case forever. 5:12 We often take the example of the Lyonnaise mothers who are a bit the mothers of gastronomy. 5:16 5:19 5:24 in France and who ran the best restaurants, especially in Lyon, and who trained amazing 5:31 chefs like Bocuse, etc. 5:33 So, it hasn't always been the case, and we tried to understand where this 5:38 transformation came from, and we realized all the barriers that women could face in this 5:43 field, discrimination, sexism, conditions that weren't necessarily 5:50 suitable. 5:51 And so, we decided to really focus on women to try to 5:56 reverse the trend and create more role models. 5:59 And beyond the job security that you provide them, which is already 6:03 quite significant, what else does your training bring? 6:06 What we say is that we don't just provide them with a job, but what 6:11 we do is empowerment. 6:12 We really tried to give a definition to this term empowerment. 6:17 And so, the definition we give is giving the power to have power. 6:22 We realized that to achieve empowerment, six ingredients were needed. 6:26 The first ingredient is inspiration. 6:29 You need to create triggers, you need to inspire. 6:30 Then, what you need is training. 6:33 That's why we created the Mama Academy, to really equip them, to 6:37 allow them to start in professional life. 6:40 The third ingredient is income. 6:42 What we try to measure is the income level to really help them 6:45 get out of precariousness, to change social class. 6:49 The fourth ingredient is community. 6:52 Then, support and guidance, especially to overcome all the peripheral 6:57 and personal barriers. 6:59 And visibility. Visibility is also very important to ensure 7:03 a person's empowerment. 7:04 Do you have a nice story to share about one of these mamas that 7:08 you helped to emancipate and become a chef? 7:11 We have plenty, plenty of stories. 7:13 The first mama is Nita, who is a mama from Sri Lanka, who first 7:19 was a refugee in Malaysia, then in France. 7:22 We met her in the corridors of France Air d'Asile, and Nita has always 7:26 used cooking as a means of integration and simply 7:30 to get by in life, even in Malaysia. 7:33 When she went to seek refuge in Malaysia, she quickly used her 7:37 cooking talent to start making meals and selling them. 7:41 And that's how she got noticed. 7:42 She even won several contests in Malaysia. 7:45 And similarly, once she arrived in France, she said, it's the baggage I have, 7:50 it's my talent and so I'm going to make it my activity. 7:54 We met her in that context and today, we are super proud because 7:59 Nita is thriving. 8:02 She learned French, she has her driver's license, she has her own place, she has her 8:07 catering business, she has her own lab. 8:09 And today, she's one of the ambassadors of Sri Lankan cuisine, which is 8:12 still very little known in Paris. 8:14 And the idea with Impact.info is to give a voice to those who 8:18 are changing the game within their companies. 8:21 In your opinion, how do your actions change the game? 8:25 We try to bring more women into the restaurant world. 8:29 By inspiring and training as many women as possible, we contribute to bringing more 8:34 female chefs into society. 8:36 We try to talk about the cultures of the world, the cuisines of the world differently, 8:40 to highlight them. 8:43 Impact.info, doing business differently. 8:46 And Louna, to conclude this interview, 16 years in France, that's the legal age 8:50 to start your first business. 8:52 What did you dream of when you were 16? 8:55 I wanted to fix injustices, I couldn't stand injustice. 8:59 In fact, my siblings called me the nose of justice, because 9:01 I really stuck my nose in everywhere whenever there was an injustice. 9:04 I come from a fairly rural area and so we don't necessarily have an awareness of the 9:09 different professions. 9:10 And I had no idea what the business world was, a business school, a prep. 9:15 Really, at 16, I think I had no notion of these subjects, but I 9:17 already knew that I wanted a job where I could fix the 9:21 world, or at least build it. 9:26 Thanks to Loubna Ksibi, who is the founder of Meet My Mama, an 9:28 association that allows women to become chefs and more. 9:31 You can of course find this interview on Impact.info, in the 9:35 insertion section, which brings together all the episodes about the employability of the most 9:39 vulnerable. 9:42 This was Impact.info, doing business differently. 9:43 Embed this interview on your site
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