ROMMELAERE Pierre Yves

La Nouvelle Cantine, France

• Pierre Yves trained for the BEP-CAP certificate in Cuisine in the Aude département in 1998, specialising in traditional and semi-gastronomic cuisine. In 2000, he perfected his technique in bistro and gastronomy in Toulouse.
• In 2006, he chose to work in collective catering in a nursing home in the Aude, where a simple apple tart triggered his interest in social catering.
• Since 2016, he has been the canteen chef at the Joseph Anglade middle school. With his team of four, he prepares 500 meals a day for pupils aged 11 to 15 years. Everything is cooked on site, from 6am to 3pm, with quantities calculated precisely to avoid waste and control costs. The menus follow the seasons and feature local produce, changing throughout the year. Every month, the team works on a large volume of raw products: pork, poultry, veal and almost 3000 eggs. Festive products – trout, scallops, fresh foie gras and oysters – also appear throughout the year, alongside a very popular weekly vegetarian meal.
• Committed and keen to teach, Pierre-Yves Rommelaere likes to ring the bell between two services to talk about a product or highlight the work of a pupil, and make the canteen a real place for knowledge transmission.
• He is co-author with Marc Perrenoud of the book Une autre cantine est possible, Editions du Croquant