Joke Michiel

Souvenir is a small, gourmet restaurant in Ghent. Vilhjalmur Sigurdarson is the chef. The food is determined by nature’s rhythm. Seasonal produce is transformed into avant-garde creations, netting them their first Michelin star in 2019. The year after that, they also received a green star for their sustainable practices. “Simply cooking with organically grown produce doesn’t make a restaurant sustainable in and of itself, though,” says Michiel, who is responsible for the staffing.

“A restaurant that cares more about its carrots than its staff is setting the wrong priorities in my eyes. I want to make a case for us to start treating staff better. Hospitality shouldn’t be an industry where people work themselves to the brink of exhaustion for a few years before looking for a ‘real’ job or leaving because they want kids.”

To guard their own work-life balance, the restaurant closes at weekends. “We have three children. If we worked weekends, we’d have no time together as a family. By strictly limiting our hours, we can still pick up the kids from school after serving lunch. That way we can continue to combine work and family life.”

Gender equality is another sore point in hospitality. “If you receive a star, it’s automatically assigned to the name of your chef, while there’s a whole team working to provide that unique dining experience. Too often, I am seen as the ‘wife of’, even though I play an essential role in making Souvenir what it is. We have a long road ahead of us, but I’m up for it. We will only come out stronger as an industry.”