BBC seeks Monaco resident for coronavirus challenge

BBC Radio 1 is searching for a person from Monaco to send coronavirus a big ‘go away’ message as part of its worldwide challenge. Do you think Monaco will rise to the challenge?
Led by Radio 1 Breakfast host Greg James, the station will attempt to find one person from every country on earth to tell coronavirus to go away, using a similar phrase to “up yours” from their own country. Though such a mammoth task may prove impossible, all Radio 1 shows across the week will be supporting Greg and calling on listeners around the world for help tracking people down to take part.
Among the 193 people from 193 countries they are hoping to get involved, the station is looking for someone from Monaco in time for the end of the breakfast show (10:00 BST) on Wednesday 29th July. Listeners can apply to get involved via bbc.co.uk/upyours
“The modern world has never faced anything like this before. Everyone has been affected by the same thing, and it’s been devastating and stressful and sad for many of us,” said Greg James. “As my old nan used to say, ‘If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’ – so let’s take her advice and have a bit of light relief by bringing everyone together to treat this thing with the disdain it’s showing us. Radio 1 used to tell me off for saying ‘up yours’ on air but because there’s a pandemic on, there aren’t really any rules anymore. So, up yours!”
Applicants must be aged 18 or over, physically located in the country they are applying to represent, and able to speak basic English.
A live blog on the Radio 1 website will chart the project’s progress throughout the week.
BBC Radio 1 is the UK’s No.1 youth station, targeting 15 to 29-year-olds with a distinctive mix of new music, entertainment and programmes focusing on issues affecting young people. Radio 1 has an audience of around 10 million listeners, 14 million weekly viewers and 9.5 million social users.
 
 

Talks to “limit social damage” at SBM Offshore

A restructuring plan by Single Buoy Moorings Offshore (SBM Offshore) in June has raised fears amongst employees that jobs will be cut. Talks are now underway between staff representatives and management to come up with a feasible solution.

First Monacair, now SBM Offshore. The company that specialises in oil extraction solutions announced a restructuring plan in June that instantly put thousands of employees around the world on alert.  

“It is with deep regret that I must say that a reduction of positions is inevitable (…) This is what is needed to ensure the survival of the company in the long term,” wrote Bruno Chabas, the then CEO of SBM Offshore, in a letter dated 24th June.

The Monaco branch, which is in Fontvieille, has almost 1,000 employees, 180 of which may become redundant in the coming months, according to a report in Monaco Matin.

“Constantly having to adapt is nothing new for the oil and gas industry. But the conjunction of exceptional events in recent months – the Covid-19 health crisis and the OPEC-Russia situation – has had unprecedented consequences for the energy market,” SBM Offshore’s communications department said by way of justification in a company-wide email. “This requires an acceleration of our transformation in order to remain competitive in a context where many major projects are postponed or cancelled by the major oil companies, including our customers.”

Unions are now suggesting several avenues, of which the company has been open-minded to hearing. Both sides are looking first at voluntary departures and reassignments while information sessions have been launched to allow a dialogue between reps and employees so that their questions can be asked and answered in due course.

The staff, for their part, have banded together saying they are ready to adapt in order to preserve employment, thus giving both sides the leeway they will need to come to the best possible solution for all.

“In addition to the ideas for the development and adaptation of industrial activity, the suggestions presented testify to a great solidarity and a great sense of the collective,” said Maître Delphine Frahi, attorney for the staff representatives, to Monaco Matin. “One of the proposals overwhelmingly relayed by the staff consists of a temporary reduction in remuneration at all levels. It has also been proposed to use more teleworking to free up, at least temporarily, certain premises which are currently under-occupied. They have also been shown to be in favour of part-time work, even sabbaticals, to give the time to allow the group to have more visibility.”

As for management, the forecasts they are projecting run to the conservative, meaning that the actualities in the coming months may not be as dire as predicted, but only time will show the reality.

 

 
 

Digitising Monaco

Three new digital tools are now available for Monaco users – the Your Monaco website, the Urban Report and Waze applications for smartphones and tablets.  

Minister of Equipment, Environment and Urban Planning and Georges Gambarini, responsible for the Smart City program at the Department of Digital Services, met on 23rd July at the Ministry of State to unveil three new ways to make life easier for people living, working and even visiting in Monaco.

“These three new digital tools, labelled DEEU and Extended Monaco, aim to better inform the population and listen to them. They open up new accesses and offer new opportunities with the aim of strengthening the link between our Administration, Monegasques and residents.” declared Marie-Pierre Gramaglia.

The website www.yourmonaco.mc is broken down into four themes: my daily life, my city, my environment, and my urban services. Within each theme, there are a series of information articles complete with maps and illustrations.  

Some of the useful information that can be found includes where the play areas are located, where to find defibrillators, housing plan operations, bus and transit lines, and how and where to recycle household waste, amongst many other topics.

My Urban Services includes 50 administrative services available online such as vehicle registration information, energy transition plans, and town planning rules. Moreover, these services are obtainable in three clicks.

The site is in French, English and Italian and will be upgradable to include news articles and a news feed.

As reported by Monaco Life in an earlier interview with Georges Gambarini, Urban Report is an application that allows people to report a problem on a construction site, road works, or passenger shelters, for example. A report is transmitted directly to the DEEU service which is analysed, processed and sent to the “user”.

“More than an application, it is a direct, unfiltered link between Monegasques, residents and the services of my department”, said Marie-Pierre Gramaglia.

Georges Gambarini adds that, “Users can thus support and direct the strengths of the Administration where they are most useful. They allow the State to better meet their needs by co-constructing a better urban environment.” 

Waze is a popular and widely used navigation app that offers real-time traffic information. Monaco is part of the ‘Waze for Cities’ programme, which allows located specifics to be integrated, such as temporary road closures for events or heavy traffic due to closures or accidents. Drivers can go to the app and mark an area that is blocked or disrupted, thus sending out an alert to all Waze users. This allows others the chance to avoid the area or use an alternate routing. Data collected by Waze will also be linked to the yourmonaco.mc site.

 
 

Interview: Leader of ‘Modern Cuisine’ Yannick Alléno

There was only one way the Grande Dame of Monte Carlo could celebrate its reopening after three months of slumber, and that was with a three Michelin star bang. It came in the form of powerhouse chef Yannick Alléno who, on Tuesday 21st July, teamed up with the chefs at Le Vistamar* for a one night only culinary event.

The concept is to provide visitors and residents of Monaco with a new and exciting experience, an exclusive dinner that can be enjoyed in Monte Carlo for one night only. Coinciding with the reopening of the Hermitage Hotel in early July, the evening was part of SBM’s ‘The Art of Gaming’ philosophy and its commitment to offer exclusive, luxurious experiences.

Yannick Alléno has long been a reference for fine dining in the French capital, obtaining his first Michelin star in 1999. He currently holds 10, including the three Michelin starred Alléno in Paris, two Michelin starred sushi restaurant l’Abysse, and one Michelin starred Pavyllon, which has only been open since October 2019.

Nicknamed the “Prince of Palaces” by the press in 2008, Yannick Alléno is a member of an elite circle of the world’s greatest chefs, driven by a passion for creativity and innovation.

After accepting an invitation by Hermitage Hotel General Director Louis Starck to showcase his talents to an audience in Monaco, the French Chef designed a clever eight-course menu celebrating the best of Mediterranean produce, revealed to a select group of local media ahead of the main event. From the courgette flower tartelette with sweet peas and lightly spiced red mullet filet, to the pomponettes of sole and wood-fired suckling lamb, each dish was as light and flavoursome as the last, perfectly capturing a Mediterranean summer’s eve on the terraces of Le Vistamar.

Over a unique cheese and smoked eel souffle, I asked Yannick why he is considered a leader in ‘Modern cuisine’.
“In fact, the only thing you can really talk about in terms of ‘Modern cuisine’ is sauces,” he responded. “Sauces are like the verbs of French cooking.”

It is in the culinary art of making sauces where Yannick Alléno, who had effectively reached the top of his game, became reinvigorated.

“In the end, I was sad to be serving the same food, so I decided to quit and concentrate my time on researching and finding a new way of cooking,” revealed the 51-year-old Frenchman. “I started my career at age 15 and I was always in ‘competition’, I didn’t have time to breathe and see what was happening around me, and sometimes you need that.”

No-one in the culinary world has dared rewrite the process of making sauces since Auguste Escoffier, the “king of chefs and the chef of kings”, codified the recipes for the five “mother sauces” at the end of the 19th century.

For a French chef, it seems almost blasphemous to tackle the classics. Yet that is exactly what Yannick Alléno did.
“If you put your hand on a fire for 12 hours, you can understand what happens to the product you treat for sauces. So, I decided to do it differently. I decided to cook elements at the perfect temperature for a certain amount of time. A celeriac, for example, is cooked at 83°Celcius for 12 hours, dover sole is cooked at 64° for four hours. Then I make a chilled reduction, the water crystallises and pushes out the raw materials that we are looking for. After that I blend it with champagne or cognac.”

It is one of the processes of “extraction” that Yannick uses to preserve all of the raw minerals and vitamins of each ingredient, eliminating the need to add salt or sugar. From his laboratory in Paris, the chef has now developed a repertoire of around 500 extractions. “I have reinvented sauces,” he said. “I have added two more pages to the Escoffier.”

Escoffier: a guide to modern cookery is the “culinary bible” written by Auguste Escoffier in 1903, and still remains a classic reference for professional chefs today.

“So, what is modern cuisine?”, Yannick said, bringing our conversation full circle. “Well now, we no longer want the additions of sugar or salt in our food, but we still want the taste. Extraction gives us this. It is the new gastronomy.”

If that wasn’t enough to make Escoffier roll in his grave, Yannick is also rewriting how to approach another classic – French service.

“Next, we tackle ‘what is modern service?’, we try to retrain the mind to consider what it means to be three stars. But for that,” concluded Yannick, “you will have to read my book in September.”

The question on everybody’s lips now is whether this rockstar of French cuisine will take on Monaco’s only other three Michelin star giant, Alain Ducasse, and open a restaurant in the Principality?

“It’s a sweet dream,” said Yannick, “but I don’t want to fuel any rumours. For now, I am happy with the collaboration this evening with Louis Starck and the Hermitage Hotel.”

Click on the photos in the gallery to enlarge…

Photos by Monaco Life, all rights reserved

Minister meets with medical and pharmacy students

Minister of Social Affairs and Health Didier Gamerdinger has met with Monaco’s medical and pharmacy students to impress on them the future needs of the Principality.

The government minister was able to meet with 11 medical students and two pharmaceutical students, ranging from their first through their eighth years of study.

The gathering was also attended by representatives of the Order of Physicians, of the Order of Pharmacists, of the Department of Princess Grace Hospital (CHPG), the Department of Health Action and the Commission for the Integration of Graduates, and a free flow discussion ensued regarding the future of their professions.

Mr Gamerdinger wisely pointed out that “students are the future of our healthcare system. With this meeting, I wanted to let them know about the professional future prospects that will be offered to them in the Principality in the coming years. We will continue to support them positively.”

In light of the current health crisis, the need for skilled medical professionals has never been greater. The students will be coming away from their studies having learned not only their trade but will also be equipped with the latest and most recent medical training to handle pandemic or emergency situations. Their contributions, therefore, will be immensely important to the future of healthcare in the Principality.