Twelve women from the Paris suburb of Sarcelles have been awarded cooking qualifications in a scheme sponsored by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse.

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Top chef trains up women from disadvantaged suburb

Twelve women from the Paris suburb of Sarcelles have been awarded cooking qualifications in a scheme sponsored by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse.

Published: 21 December 2011 10:14 CET
Top chef trains up women from disadvantaged suburb
InterContinental Hong Kong

Nine of the women have already been employed, most of them in restaurants within the Ducasse group, which includes the Jules Verne in Paris and Benoit in New York.

One of the women has been taken on at the official residence of the French prime minister, François Fillon.

Fifteen women were originally selected to join the one-year CAP cooking diploma from a group of 84. 

The women, all aged between 25 and 45 and mostly mothers, began their training in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel in September 2010. 

The project, known as “Quinze femmes en avenir” (fifteen women of the future), was sponsored by the three-star Michelin chef and aimed to help women from one of the country’s most disadvantaged areas.

Education website vousnousils.fr quoted one of the successful students, Lynda Kabchou, as saying “the pace during the training was intense, but it was definitely worthwhile. 

A TV programme to be shown on January 1st on TV channel M6 will tell the story of the women and how they coped with their year of training.

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POLICE

Mob attacks Paris police station with fireworks and metal bars

Around 40 people staged an hour-long fireworks attack against a police station outside Paris early Sunday, authorities said, the latest in a string of incidents targeting security forces in recent months.

Published: 11 October 2020 12:40 CEST
Mob attacks Paris police station with fireworks and metal bars
The police station at Champigny-sur-Marne had already been attacked several times by youths. Photo: Stephane De Sakutin/AFP
The station's entrance and several police vehicles were damaged but nobody was injured during the raid launched just before midnight in Champigny-sur-Marne, around 12 kilometres (8 miles) east of the capital.
   
The city's mayor, Laurent Jeanne, told BFM television the police might have been targeted in retaliation for an “incident” involving a scooter driver who was stopped by officers a few days ago, without providing details.
 

 
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that “these little dealers don't scare anyone, and will not discourage our anti-drug work,” though police officials did not identify the attackers, and no arrests were made.
   
But police union officials said the attack underscored a growing threat against law enforcement in depressed suburbs of Paris and other large cities.   
 
 
The Champigny-sur-Marne station had already been struck by youths wielding fireworks, most recently last April, and several others across France have sustained similar attacks this year.
   
The assault came after two officers were attacked and shot with their own guns in a Paris suburb last Wednesday, prompting renewed calls for stepped-up efforts to tackle crime and insecurity.
   
“There is no longer any respect for law enforcement, and unfortunately the government has not succeeded in changing this trend,” Frederic Lagache of the Alliance police union said Sunday.
   
“What will it take for the government to commit to protecting its security forces?” he said.
   
Tensions have long run high between police and residents in poor cities, often with large immigrant communities, where protests erupted this summer over claims of brutality and racism in their ranks.
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