2024-03-03 02:55:00
Last Friday it was officially inaugurated a new restaurant in Buenos Aires. But it is not just one of the thousands of gastronomic ventures that Buenos Aires is home to: it is “Alamesa“, the first rest of Latin America whose staff –complete– is composed of a neurodiverse person. That is, its chefs, waiters, waiters, cleaning team, additions and all the rest of the team necessary for a gastronomic venture to work are people with different types of disabilities.
In total they are forty employees, divided into two teams that work every other day, along with half a dozen “facilitators”, in charge of helping to solve any possible problem. The forties, and the rest that may come after, are people included in the autism spectrum disorders (TEA), were born premature with some degree of maturational commitment or pass through some other neurocognitive challenge of that style.
But “Alamesa” has another peculiarity: it is not a cooperative or a social enterprise. It operates as a public limited company and is for profit. Fernando Polakrenowned Argentine scientist and creator of the idea, he explained to PROFILE that “we will know that we did well and that we will have truly integrated people with disabilities if we manage to be a profitable company, competing with other restaurants in the neighborhood (Las Cañitas) and sustaining ourselves over time.”
Polack, Julia’s father (25) and a neurodiverse person, has been hatching this gastronomic idea since before the pandemic. “Going out to eat with my children, I realized that the climate of those spaces lent itself especially to a company of this type, one that tried serious integration and allowed them an area of personal, social development and interaction. In short, what happens in any job. Even due to its own functioning, it also generates a certain therapeutic action through learning among peers,” he recalls to this chronicler.
“But I also knew that I did not want to a charitable enterprise nor that it would generate pity. There are companies that have a disabled person on their staff. But it also usually happens that, if they are missing, nothing happens and HR doesn’t even register it. Here it is different, if someone doesn’t come we have a problem, because this is a business that has to be of excellence in service to be sustainable.”
To achieve this idea Polack got together with others enthusiasts. They polished the project and put together a team winner. “We made up the initial team with Sebastián Wainstein and Raúl Borgiali. And we added others like Diana Arroyo, and people with experience in business and gastronomy like Claudio Arévalo – one of the managers – who has spent three decades working in the field and Martin Akamine , a former manager in important chains of gastronomic establishments. Also the chef Takehiro Ohno, who worked in restaurants awarded two Michelin stars. Ohno is responsible for designing and supervising the menus of Alamesa.
This is not a minor issue since people with neurodisorders, for safety, They do not use knives and there are no fires in the kitchen, but they use electric furnaces of high technology. Furthermore, due to the characteristics of neurodiversity, the way of combining the ingredients, assembling and cooking each order, plating and serving follows a procedure clear, orderly and secure. That’s why there are a dozen options on the menu and the tableware, jars and storage places are made of various uniform colors or have letters that make it easy for the staff to follow the process.
All of these cooking secrets are set in an environment of demanding aesthetic taste, which is seen in details such as the uniforms are designed by Martín Churba and the tableware was created by ceramist Natalia Marín.
Business growth
To grow as a company in the coming times they have several projects in the pipeline. From the point of view of social inclusion, they began offering sponsoreo of each table for any organization interested in advertising. These institutions may also train on inclusion issues with their teams joining a work day in Alamesa.
On the other hand, in addition to serving the diners who arrive at the premises, They will offer a smooth food servicefor companies that have food services for their employees.
Beyond the business, the essence of the project was summed up by Polack this way. I think the existence of schools and day centers that are a great refuge for these kids is very good. But with ‘Alamesa’ we are betting on something more. And he concluded: “I want it to become a space for growth for when they are older. I thought about it so that they have a chance to work, a path to their own growth. And that Julia, like everyone else, can aspire to a normal life.”
History not streaming
The project Alamesa was born from the mind of Fernando Polack, pediatrician, university professor and scientist. Throughout his professional life, he dedicated himself to the research and development of vaccines and treatments against various viruses. And he did it successfully, both in the US and in Argentina, countries where he became publicly recognized for his trials and tests of treatments against the respiratory syncytial virus and against Covid. Fernando is also Julia’s father (25) and he often thought, like all her parents, about the future and the happiness of her daughter with neurodiversity. “A restaurant like this doesn’t exist anywhere. I know cafes, pizzerias or fast food chains that have these people on their staff, but they tend to be simpler businesses. We are a real restaurant.”
As it is an original project at a global level, to the filmmaker Juan José Campanella It occurred to him to record the Alamesa process. So he is already finishing filming a documentary film, along with Pablo Aulita and with music by Leandro Polack, Julia’s brother. The creative team aims to release the film on a streaming platform between April and May of this year.
Special details
The restaurant is designed as a typical gastronomic company, but due to the particularities of its staff – 40 people with various forms of neurodiversity – it has an infinite number of design details and special procedures to make it work efficiently. The thing is that although there are half a dozen facilitators, they do not intervene in the work, except in some emergency or unforeseen accident.
As is often the case in modern companies, especially large technology companies, the staff has a special break room, where they can retreat to relax for a while.
For now, it is a normal company, which has all its staff blank.
And although it is a private, for-profit company, its creators admit that it also becomes, at times, a therapeutic space, although it operates in a original. For example, many times the points, controls and suggestions for the best joint work effort are provided by – among themselves – the neurodiverse employees themselves. Therefore, there is usually learning and traction for improvement among peers. These kids learn to move alone in a space, gain autonomy and independence. It is not a traditional therapy Nor is the idea of the restaurant to be a therapeutic space.. But if she became a powerful tool for personal improvement and real integration.
At the same time, it is also a very special team since it does not occur in these groups – as it happens in “normal” work teams – that there is work jealousy, personal hostility or competition and floor ‘sawing’ that makes daily work difficult. All situations that occur in any organization but are difficult to find in a group made up of people with neurodiversity.
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