Catering revolution in capital city - After Monte Carlo, Asja and Marta cook for citizens of Belgrade

(Marta Rajnović)

Will employees in Serbia want to exchange their breakfasts in nearby bakery for healthier meals, will burek and muffins be replaced with new sandwiches, salads or pasta - we will know once Marta and Asja Rajnovic's idea "comes to life".

After they spent more than 20 years in Australia, New Zealand, and France, the two sisters came back to their hometown Belgrade where they are now trying to organize a "catering revolution".

The guiding idea is that the employees of Belgrade-based companies be offered "home made" meals from various cuisines, slightly adapted to our conditions.

La Cuisine de Lady Luck is the name of the company that these two ladies formed few months ago. Their aim is to become specialized for delivery of meals to people in large companies, as well as that their "kitchen miracles" make it possible for private dinners or celebrations to get a new dimension.

When they were 8 and 10, they moved to New Zealand because their mother, a cellist, got the job there. They later move to Australia, and they have spent the last three years working in Monte Carlo.

Asja is not a fan of fast and "take-away" food. She loves to make a meal complete with her innovative way of serving it. She finds cooking an art, a job that enables people to show their creativity.

- I graduated from Swiss International College of Hotel Management and, thanks to my Le Cordon Bleu and Hotel Management diplomas, I was able to work in the kitchens of top hotels in London and Melbourne for years – Asja Rajnović told eKapija.

Marta has spent last few years working as the chef in Baobab restaurant in Monte Carlo. The two of them will also be chefs in newly formed company, which is expected to employ another 7 cooks.

Lady Luck's food is "hand made" in the true meaning of that word. It is prepared in Belgrade's borough of Voždovac, in an apartment whose kitchen is specially designed to satisfy all the needs and quality they got used to from the time they were making dinners for friends in their apartment.

When clients take a look at the photo of Marta in the kitchen (see the photo on the top of the text), they mainly think it is a photo-montage. However, it is not. Every detail perfectly fits in the real environment where food for employees will be prepared.

As they say for our portal, the advantage of their food lies in variety, international recipes, favorable prices, as well as their formal education in the cooking "science". They do their best to make everything both healthy and delicious, they use fresh ingredients and serve all dishes nicely.

French breads with ham, kashkaval cheese, tomato, and lettuce, and the one with marinated eggplant, dried tomato and kashkaval cheese, are only a part of the offer of "sandwiches" they prepare.

The price of these sandwiches will be at the same level as their average price in bakeries and other fast food restaurants.

The lovers of the Mediterranean spirit, light nutrition, and "colors in plates" will be, most probably, happy to try the salad made of cherry tomatoes, light mozzarella cheese, olive oil, smoked ham, and rocket salad, or maybe the salad of tuna fish, celery, lettuce, olives, mayonnaise, radishes, eggs, and caper. Or they may prefer the salad whose ingredients are fresh string beans, olive oil, boiled potato, caper, and smoked ham? We believe it won't be easy to decide, especially because Lady Luck plans to change the menu every week.

They are also preparing various pastas and pizzas with seasonal vegetables, and they are ready to prepare a meal of the ingredients chosen by each employee.

Although they also use ingredients that are not typical for Serbian cuisine, such as avocado, rocket salad, some spices and dips, Asja and Marta say that they have no trouble finding them in Serbia.

- Our people think that healthy dishes are either expensive or difficult to prepare. For example, we can buy avocado in a supermarket and it is very delicious. Fresh spices are also available and they are not as expensive as abroad. On the other hand, food in Serbian restaurants is extremely expensive - says Asja.

Because of that paradox, they are trying to change something in their fellow citizens' awareness. They want to try to show them, at least, part of what they have seen and learned, as well as share that positive atmosphere with the employees in local companies. Maybe this new food will increase productivity and, in turn, raise incomes... We can now only wait to see the results of, as they call it, "catering revolution".

J.Đ