In a three-sided tent backstage at a music festival in woodland on the eastern outskirts of Paris, a pair of radio DJs are pumping gas to prepare for a performance by one of the headliners, broadcast live across France.
It’s not We Love Green’s opening night centrepiece, Nigerian Afrobeat superstar Burna Boy. French dance legend Justice, who tops Saturday night’s performer list, won’t be returning. And it’s not Sunday’s main stage closer, American R&B stalwart SZA, who plays the same slot at Glastonbury later this month.
No, that’s the chef.
“I’d like to introduce you to Alain Ducasse,” he said, referring to BBC Radio 1’s “left-wing, very cultured, [for] According to one member of the team overseeing the outdoor broadcast, the show is popular with “young people”.
And then, speaking to the 67-year-old guest, a man wearing gala-inappropriate white Armani sneakers and a designer baseball cap that read “Captain,” he said: “You’ve run 34 restaurants in nine countries with 19 Michelin stars. You’ve fed presidents, kings and queens. And 1717351263 You’re co-chair of the We Love Green food committee. It’s very classy to have a food committee with Alain Ducasse. What are you doing at a music festival where eating Merguez is the norm? [sausage] Better than Michelin-star cuisine?
(Image courtesy of We Love Green)
Absolutely. Music festivals, particularly in the UK, have historically served up both fried and greasy food; gig-goers with heads full of booze and (not uncommonly) feet in mud demand it, and get it. Despite a culinary revolution fuelled by the spread of “street food” culture and the wider offering of alternative cuisines at the likes of Glastonbury, the core of their filthy food remains the same: killer burgers, sloppy noodles, doughy pizza, slug-like chips.
Chef Ducasse, chair of a jury of French culinary experts who selected some 50 “authentic” restaurants and pop-ups to cater for We Love Green, is here to change that mindset — and reality.
“I’m trying to make my vision of food diversity accessible to everyone,” he told DJ. “Simple, efficient food that satisfies every palate… I think people need to taste everything and they need to be flexible.” [in your tastes]I can’t do anything stupid. [sic] Eating – When you eat, you must know and be interested in what you are eating. Every dish tells the story of the men and women who made it. Patience is necessary, because with patience comes pleasure. [in what you’re eating].
(Image courtesy of We Love Green Festival)
You can’t be stupid. You have to know and be interested in what you eat. Every dish tells the story of the man and woman who made it. You have to be patient, because with patience comes joy. [in what you’re eating]
Alain Ducasse
We Love Green is a three-day, five-stage event taking place in the Bois de Vincennes, and, as its name suggests, it’s built around the principles of sustainability. True to its ethos, it also intends to revolutionise the festival’s food, which includes bao buns and eggplant burgers with rice patties. Time Out Paris wrote last year when the event decided to go meat-free on site: “We Love Green’s vegetarian dream! A revolution! For food, the festival will be 100% vegetarian – a first in France.”
Thomas Grunberg, head of food selection and curation at We Love Green, explains the shift, or pivot: “We’ve been thinking about this for years, but we were a little scared. Maybe we thought that neither we, nor the public, nor the restaurants that we work with were ready. But last year we thought: OK, now is the right time.”
Grünberg is speaking to me at the end of a tour with Ducasse of the stallholders selected by the Superchefs judges to serve African street food at BMK, artisanal baguettes at Les Pains, and plant-based kebabs (“Oshi”, which translates to “for meat lovers”) at Saisonde.
“The biggest thing is we didn’t want to use fake meat or fake cheese, and we didn’t want to use burgers or hot dogs. [using those products]”It’s fake vegetarian food,” Grünberg continues. “The question was: how do you create original, relevant French vegetarian food for a festival, using local, seasonal ingredients, and serve sexy food – food that you want to eat at a festival, not some stupid salad,” he says dryly. “So it was complicated.”
Part of We Love Green 2024’s “secret sauce” was its collaboration with Chef Ducasse.
(Image courtesy of Michaël Bendasak)
“I worship Wallpaper*.” These are the words of the world’s most Michelin-starred restaurant (second only to Gordon Ramsay) as we meet over lunch three days before the festival. We’re talking about Le Dalí, one of two fantastic restaurants run by Ducasse in the historic five-star Le Meurice, part of the Dorchester Collection hotel. Having had the opportunity to dine at both of these temples of gastronomy during my stay, I can honestly say that Wallpaper* lives up to that adoration.
I asked this culinary icon, whose gastronomic career spans five decades, what he knew about music festival cooking before he got involved with We Love Green.
“We knew it was oily, fried, full of sugar,” he said in English, then switched to French through a translator. “So we wanted to try something different, to change the perception of this kind of proposal. More seeds, grains, leafy greens, vegetables. More healthy. Not too many additives, fats, salt.”
Diversity was equally important, as he told the France Inter team on air: “The food at the festival is a sober but serious and modern proposal. It’s about freedom and we want to represent how people will eat here in 2024. There will be Asian, Greek and South African food, a real mix and a representation of society today.”
(Image courtesy of We Love Green Festival)
To succeed, the kitchen team needed not only culinary skill, but also logistical ability. The festival attracts around 100,000 music fans over three days, so they had to serve around 150,000 dishes quickly. [for the chefs] To be involved, you can talk lip service, but you have to actually deliver the food, feel good about what you do, and make people happy. But I’m so happy to see We Love Green on this path. This is a real evolution that I want to be a part of.”
And it’s an evolution, not a revolution. Ducasse, Grünberg and the festival team know that the food on offer must be sensitive to the tastes of their audience – especially when, as it so often is, the weather is bad and home-cooked food is called for. So, at the start of the UK summer festival season, in a woodland setting where there’s no escaping the slushy, muddy action, they were pleased to see chips being served. But they were being sold by Frito 3000, the 2023 Arras Fries World Champions. So these are nationally renowned, award-winning chips.
(Image courtesy of We Love Green)
But Alain Ducasse wouldn’t let that happen: after browsing the concession stands and before the live music began, he headed for the exit, hopped into the back of a motorbike taxi and sped off to his next stop, Roland Garros, where local hero Corentin Moutet was playing in the third round of the French Open (he won, becoming the final Frenchman in the tennis tournament).
Returning to Le Dali, I ask him what message he hopes UK audiences take away from his mission with ‘We Love Green’ – how he wants to change the way music festivals serve food.
“We must immerse ourselves in new experiences,” Ducasse replied. “It’s time to be open-minded and take risks.”
Yes, chef.
