GLAD 20 YEARS - Flipbook - Page 29
The Tartlet’s
Dad
Food has been central since Glad Foundation’s earliest years. CEO Mikkel Holmbäck explains:
“We find it important that you participate in preparing the food you eat. It has to do with liberating
ourselves from the institutionalization of this field as well, that someone decides on your behalf what
you should eat.”
This very concrete view on food was translated into the series of TV programmes, Mary’s Kitchen,
in which the renowned and original chef, Søren Gericke took part. This was the beginning of a close
relationship that became the foundation of the considerable business that Glad Food has since
become.
In 2007, Søren Gericke started teaching at Glad Vocational School’s food department, and
when soon after we needed a lunch arrangement of sorts, Søren was associated as the chef, with
everything it entailed in the way of creativity, cheerfulness, and original approaches. Lunch was
eaten in the canteen, which Søren named The Tartlet.
“It was organised chaos,” explains Søren Gericke. “We had a blazing kitchen without rigid rules,
but everyone knew what to do and it was terrific teamwork.”
Interaction with the young alternative-thinkers, as Søren Gericke describes the target group,
was in his own words by far the most rewarding and inspiring experience during his five years at
Glad Food.
Sometimes, others wondered how it might all work out, when in the kitchen they juggled with
lobsters, crayfish and smoothies, but Søren never faltered in his belief that everyone was capable.
Their motto was Before You Walk You have to Stumble.
” Everyone cooperated doing everything, we complemented one another, and struggled together, and to me this was most rewarding,” says Søren Gericke.
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