Supplying chefs with fruit and vegetables from Rungis: an expert's challenge

The product, the product, the product. If there's one word that sums up the philosophy of contemporary cuisine, it's this one. The quest for the best product, respect for the product, the man behind the product...If the producer or the chef's kitchen garden are essential elements in the storytelling accompanying the chef, traditional distribution networks remain major players in this equation, especially as soon as we move away from haute gastronomy and the countryside.

It was through retail that Yoni Cohen entered the fruit and vegetable distribution business, first by creating Ferme de Levallois, a 2,000 m 2 supermarket, and then by buying Maison Colom, a small delicatessen on Paris's chic Victor Hugo avenue. It was here that he realized that, to grow the business, it was imperative to develop the distribution side. Three years later, he moved to Rungis, and today, under the name Maison Emali, he delivers with his own fleet to 150 restaurants in the Paris region, as well as to some of the finest restaurants in Haute-Savoie. Interview.

How do you respond to the new demands of the restaurant industry?

Yoni Cohen: When I started out 17 years ago, the vast majority of customers were obsessed with having the best and most beautiful products. It didn't matter the price, the origin, the season or the environmental impact. The priority was to have everything, all the time. That was before 2008 and the subprime crisis. At that point, everything turned upside down, whether you were a Parisian palace, a gourmet restaurant or a neighborhood brasserie, you were suffering from the crisis. And so the priority was no longer quality, but price. Whereas you'd usually have three or four months' visibility, we were content to stock what we needed, and no more. And above all, we were ordering almost daily and wanted to receive the products immediately. This prompted us to set up highly efficient logistics, enabling us to deliver practically 2 hours after placing an order. Then came Covid. This crisis gave rise to a new awareness, a desire to consume seasonal, more responsible, quality products with taste. We found ourselves with chefs who wanted to do well, but were unable to do so because of hiring problems. We also had to improve our logistics and find solutions that would enable our customers, especially chefs from brasseries or local restaurants, to save time and produce good food with the minimum of staff they had left. For example, we now deliver raw, peeled, pre-cut French fries. Our producers have adapted to this and can produce them in different sizes, vacuum-packed, ready to be cooked in one or two batches. We've found these solutions for French fries, vegetable brunoises and other peeled products. It's part of our job to be the link between the producer and the chef, to find and select the best products for him.

How have you integrated environmental awareness into your business?

Y.C.: We're based at Rungis for obvious logistical reasons, since we can buy and deliver our products on a daily basis. So we don't really have any losses. Just a little because we sort our products and some don't arrive in the best conditions, but that represents a tiny fraction. What has evolved is our commitment to the treatment of non-organic waste. Today, we package our products in reusable bins. All our customers are delivered in Maison Emali branded bins. On the one hand, this enables them to comply with HACCP hygiene standards, i.e. all crates can be put directly into cold rooms - which saves time - and on the other, it means they can be stored in the refrigerator. This saves time, and also means they don't have to deal with non-organic waste (cardboard, wood, plastic crates, etc.). What we're in the process of setting up is packaging in our crates at origin, by the producers. So there will be no more waste treatment, either on their side or ours. It's interesting from an environmental point of view, but also financially, because cardboard and wood are expensive. In the end, the customer is rewarded by our benevolent, eco-responsible approach. That's how we come full circle in an intelligent way.

How do you reconcile the demands of some of your customers with these environmental criteria?

Y.C.: For me, the most important thing is taste. For example, I wouldn't buy French tomatoes grown in soil-less conditions when we're in the middle of open-field tomato season. Our priority is to promote seasonal produce. I wouldn't say that I don't sell strawberries in December. I do. Because in Courchevel, in Val-d'Isère, they still want them, even if it's less and less common. Yes, tomatoes are eaten all year round. But why? Because the biggest seller in the restaurant business is the Mozza tomato! Unfortunately, tomatoes are imported from Morocco or Spain out of season. We manage to find tasty products in southern Europe, particularly in Sicily, Morocco... What I want to say is that I'm not into extremism. Mangoes, shipped by air, travel on regular routes with passengers. And it remains a seasonal product in their country. I'm not going to stop people eating mangoes by telling them they've come from the other side of the world. Tourism won't stop, air travel won't stop. It's not the biggest consumption in the world, but my customers want it, and I have no interest in not offering it. On the other hand, I don't mind eating a tomato that's "local" but really out of season and tasteless.

Even if it's complicated in a city like Paris, many chefs insist on working directly with producers. What do you think about this?

Y.C. : I encourage them! Sometimes I even put them in touch with each other. Our producers then rely on us for logistics, but they deal directly with us. But in reality, unless you're a huge hotel with large volumes, you order three bunches of parsley. A parcel of mushrooms... It's going to cost a lot to have three boxes delivered. It's good to have this approach, but it's not realistic on a day-to-day basis. Our business exists because we bring these producers together. We love working with small producers. They have small volumes, but we know who to offer them to: a few palaces, the Tour d'Argent, chef Lignac's cafés... Obviously, when we work with a brasserie, it's going to be more standard products.

Has it become easier to find good products?

Y.C. : It's more complicated with fruit. Fruit doesn't lie: it's either good or not. You can say whatever you like about a leek with a good vinaigrette, and the same goes for a bell pepper or cabbage. These days, you can hardly find good raspberries or apricots. The same goes for tomatoes. What actually happened? 15 years ago, in the wake of the subprime crisis, people wanted to pay less for the average price of fruit and vegetables. But lowering prices doesn't allow us to have a good production or to respect the seasonal nature of a product, which is between three weeks and three months. So, when you work for three months of the year and prices are squeezed, as a father and a farmer, you tell your children not to go into this profession! So yes, things have become more complicated.

Is your profession better understood and valued than before?

Y.C. : 17 years ago, the centerpiece of a main course was a meat or fish dish, and vegetables were a bit like the last wheel of the carriage. Nowadays, vegetables are given pride of place in recipes. And that's great. I used to be called the market gardener, the vegetable seller. Today, I'm called a fruit and vegetable grower. My job has become sexy, not because selling fruit and vegetables is trendy, but because it's good! It's good to talk about our producers and, above all, it resonates. My business is here to stay for a very long time, because we'll be consuming these products for a very long time. I want my children to continue to eat well 20, 30 or 50 years from now. And that's only going to work if we have that little spark of responsibility to say to ourselves that we have to eat seasonal produce, produce that tastes good, and make producers want to continue doing their job and paying the right price so that they can continue to live well and give us pleasure.