25 July 2011

Elle Formica wants your votes

| johnboy
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Belconnen’s Elle Formica has announced she’s in the running for the category of the American Express Room for
Thought project and would like your votes.

The Room for Thought project seeks big ideas from Australians in the areas of community, fashion and music. The winning idea from each category will be turned into reality through the direction and experience of a high profile mentor – Miranda Otto, Peter Alexander or Paul Mac.

Chosen from hundreds of entries from across Australia, Formica submitted the idea to create a restaurant that showcases cuisine that is under-represented in Australia. It would be run in partnership with people from different cultures, with help and training offered by hospitality professionals.

“My idea is not just a place to eat, but is a unique experience where the focus is on connection, breaking down prejudice, broadening your understanding and having an incredible time in a festival type atmosphere,” said Formica.

To vote for her you need to hit up the AMEX facebook page

elle formica

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BimboGeek said :

She’s hiring refugees as what? Waiters? Waiters need to be good communicators and I’m not sure random immigrants have good enough English skills to work in a customer service role.

This reminds me of a stop-over in Seoul years ago. My one goal during my 36 hours in the city was to have an authentic Korean meal. So I walked into some random restaurant where noone spoke even one word of English. I tried to communicate verbally with the waiter, but he just shook his head and talked back in Korean. So eventually I made a “spoon to mouth” gesture, sat down at the table and was served a meal that to this day I have no idea what it was. It was absolutely one of the best restaurant experiences I ever had.

If you go to a restaurant to have waiters suck up to you in grammatically perfect English, this idea is obviously not for you. But I like it and I’d go!

As for the dancing, recently in Singapore (I swear I didn’t write this post just to boast about my globe-trotting!) I watched a belly-dancing performance outside of a restaurant. It was to draw people in and they obviously did this every night. This was in a bustling trendy nightlife area, so obviously wouldn’t work everywhere, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I’ve never eaten at a restaurant where there’s dancing, but I think I’d enjoy the experience.

mrjasperjones3:26 pm 31 Jul 11

Wow, I’ve just signed up so I can comment on the atrocious baiting from some of you. I can’t believe the whole of Canberra and whomeverelsesubscribestoriotact can be as braindead. It’s like the Girabogan disease had spread. At least the Charnybogan aren’t able to read and write so are usually excluded from forums but the next step up the evolutionary chain to Girabogan and they are unusually represented whenever a young person attempts a positive initiative.

Give the girl a break and support something in your miserable lives!

Thanks for your comments. hahaha @ being ‘plastic’ and ‘cuesine’ my family was taking the piss out of me for my “posh video voice” too.

The idea is to implement the kind of vibe you might have at the multicultural fest for example into a working restaurant. Where you are exposed to different dishes you can’t find at any other restaurant and there is also a music/dance aspect. The other aspect is to train refugees who might be struggling to get work in hospitality through chef apprenticeships or front of house/hospitality management etc. I imagine it would be a bit like Jamie Oliver’s restaurants run by street kids or The Social Studio which does similar work with refugees but with fashion design.

Anyway I only had about 50 secs of video so it was difficult to get all the details in there, but if i win there is about 5 weeks in which I get to sort out the logistics and practicalities. So hope you can check it out and vote to give it a chance!

BimboGeek said :

Also I think “interacting” with a culture by going to a restaurant is pretty hollow, surely I’m not the only one who feels this way? Do you really feel like you learned about India because you had a curry or Japan because you ate sushi?

That was my first reaction, but I wonder whether Chinese (in particular) and Asian integration and ‘acceptance’ in Australia (my view – Asians are generally accepted, certainly more so than immigrants from Africa and many Middle Eastern countries) – anyway, is this in part influenced by people eating at lots of Chinese restaurants?

Sure it probably lead to a general view that Chinese people just ran restaurants (and market gardens), but that is better than a view that they were worthless or lazy or whatever.

That said, people who go to a restaurant like this will inevitably be the sort of people who are either genuinely accepting of foreign cultures anyway, or wish to at least show to their friends that they claim to be accepting.

BimboGeek said :

She’s hiring refugees as what? Waiters? Waiters need to be good communicators and I’m not sure random immigrants have good enough English skills to work in a customer service role.

What about the chefs? Is she going to get in random people from war-torn countries on a 457 or advertise around Canberra for chefs who trained in the cuisine of the war-torn country of the week?

Dancers? Is she planning to import a dance troupe from the troubled country of the week? Sounds complicated and expensive. Or did she hope to see performance-level dancing from locals or random refugees?

Actually dancing in restaurants is generally not such a good idea, people like a cheerful vibe but they also want to talk and relax as they eat. Witness belly dancers – they’re generally considered embarrassing!

Also I think “interacting” with a culture by going to a restaurant is pretty hollow, surely I’m not the only one who feels this way? Do you really feel like you learned about India because you had a curry or Japan because you ate sushi?

Seriously? Way to s*** all over her idea with little to no information about what it is.

Sounds interesting to me, and fabulous if done right. Well done, her!

What’s a cuesine?

“I think my idea will work because… people are craving a unique experience where they can try different cuisines”.

Maybe. But we already have a thousand restaurants offering “different cuisine”. It seems to me the real difference with her idea is the targeted employment of refugees. That doesn’t seem like the best idea considering the current the lack of assistance for refugees in assimilating and adapting to the cultural differences in Australia. Could be interesting though…

Beserk Keyboard Warrior3:24 pm 25 Jul 11

Good on her for having a go.

Isnt the Red Herring closed ?

She’s hiring refugees as what? Waiters? Waiters need to be good communicators and I’m not sure random immigrants have good enough English skills to work in a customer service role.

What about the chefs? Is she going to get in random people from war-torn countries on a 457 or advertise around Canberra for chefs who trained in the cuisine of the war-torn country of the week?

Dancers? Is she planning to import a dance troupe from the troubled country of the week? Sounds complicated and expensive. Or did she hope to see performance-level dancing from locals or random refugees?

Actually dancing in restaurants is generally not such a good idea, people like a cheerful vibe but they also want to talk and relax as they eat. Witness belly dancers – they’re generally considered embarrassing!

Also I think “interacting” with a culture by going to a restaurant is pretty hollow, surely I’m not the only one who feels this way? Do you really feel like you learned about India because you had a curry or Japan because you ate sushi?

Eh, she’s a bit plastic.

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