“Fresh & Light” is a dietetic restaurant that opened 3 years ago. For the past year, the facility has been providing the Hematology Department of the Farhat Hached Hospital. A new know-how is then acquired on the job. Interview with Hamadi Maroui, the owner of the premises that makes this new service a career in the making of. By Amel Djait
1001tunisie: Fresh & Light is a restaurant that delivers the hematology service of the Farhat Hached Hospital. How has this service been set up and in which context?
Hamadi Maroui: We work exclusively with the hematology department of the Farhat Hached hospital in Sousse. We are contracted and have been selected through a call for tenders after verification of our sanitary and food safety standards. Here, everything is sifted: the premises, the teams, the food, …
At the base Fresh & Light is not it a dietetic restaurant?
Absolutely. We started with a dietetic restaurant, which we continue to do. Our concept is to offer our services to customers who want to eat healthy and balanced. Our offer is based on the combination of food and easy digestion with no calculation on caloric intake. It is common for us to make natural treatments on certain foods such as removing starch.
How does the restaurant work? What are your prices?
The important thing for us was to anticipate costs in advance. We therefore set up a monthly subscription system based on 4 weeks, ie 24 baskets of meals that our subscribers can retrieve from 8:30 am to 9:00 am. The restaurant also receives for lunches on site and our subscribers Can then withdraw their evening baskets.
As for the subscription, it is at 395Dt HT. This amounts to 16,250 dt / d for two complete meals including a salad, a main course with meats and vegetables / starches and a dessert. For Fresh & Light, the week consists of 6 days. Sunday is a day off but we still deliver recommendations for not too much abuse!
Who are your clients ? What are their needs ?
Fresh & Light has been around for 3 years and we have had customers following us since our opening. Our customers are people who want to lose weight but others just want to eat healthily or balance their constants because they are not good. We also offer follow-up with an optional dietician.
Our menus change every week and we try to avoid making the same dish in the month.
Fresh & Light also caters to seniors or seniors with reduced mobility or those who do not want or can not cook. It goes without saying that we deliver them for a supplement.
But with these options, does Fresh & Light not do the local service?
Absolutely. We even want to create a Fresh & Light club! The idea is to discover new flavors together, to exchange experiences … You know, our chef follows customer returns on a daily basis and refines his menus by taking into account even the preference of certain customers.
But this solicitude and quality of service can not be valid for the patients of a hospital
Think again ! At the Farhat Hached Hospital, we deliver 20 meals a day for 365 days. For its patients, the hospital requires a precision of watchmaker, with the grammage close. We must serve only cooked, without any crudity. Meals are served under very restrictive hygiene standards.
This summer, in Sousse, drinking water presented some problems. It was infected with the smell and the taste … So even to rinse our utensils, we had to use boiled water. Our customers are very fragile and require a more than adapted and neat service. Our hospital team starts at 5am and everything is cleaned and disinfected before and after delivery. Then, we attack the regular service of the restaurant Fresh & Light.
What lessons have you learned from this new experience?
First a lesson of life. Working with Professor Abderahim Khelif, head of the hematology department of the Farhat Hached Hospital in Sousse is an honor. He really did a miracle in the public hospitable field by creating through generous donors 12 sterile rooms. For his patients who had no contact with the outside world, it was necessary to ensure a service of an exceptional rigor. This collaboration is of a precision which obliges us until we keep a plate witness in case of problem.
As a result, you move on to another level of expertise
We did not think we would find ourselves in this field but, finally, with the rigor, the progress and the means put in the company, we are developing in another sector in addition to that envisaged at the beginning. The experience is extremely interesting but the costs are enormous.
The question is whether it is worth the effort to model this. We still take time to reflect. In the mind of the patient and his family, in hospitals or private clinics, the patients’ meals are brought back. Clinics do not want to invest in this area and our benefits are too high. On the other hand there is no doubt that Fresh & Light will settle in Tunis or we will already deliver on order.
Does Fresh & light intend to settle in Tunis? Would a franchise be in gestation?
We are thinking of the franchise. But for now, the restaurant’s premises are ready and we are attacking Tunis next year
For further information:
Phone: (+216)29555000
http://www.29555000.com
FB Page:Â https://www.facebook.com/freshANDlight.ClubDiet
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