This culinary festival in this student town brings together recipes from refugees and locals...and it only lasts a few days

In Lille, cuisine serves as a passport. In some restaurants, the usual menus give way to menus imagined with refugee cooks, during the Refugee Food Festival. At Les Oiseaux, this meeting takes place as close as possible to the stoves.

From June 11 to 20, 2026, eight Lille brands will host the 10th edition of the festival. Part of an 11th national edition, from June 6 to 28 in 12 French cities, the Refugee Food project brought together more than 100,000 guests around menus imagined with refugee cooks.

Refugee Food Festival Lille 2026: the framework

Present in Lille since 2017, the festival defends three axes: changing the way we look at exiled people, highlighting their cuisines and facilitating their professional integration.

This year, Les Oiseaux, a CROUS brasserie and university restaurant, are concocting four-handed menus, based on cuisines from Afghanistan, Sudan or Nigeria. On June 20, 2026, a finale at the Bazaar Saint-Sauveur will bring together an associative village, workshops, concerts and street food.

In the kitchens of Les Oiseaux in Lille

In the middle of the lunch rush, Afghan chef Suhrab Naderi prepares a cardamom firni dessert. Concentrated on his plates, he sums up his desire: , he explains, quoted by France 3 Régions. An Afghan refugee who arrived in France in 2021, he has been cooking for ten years, completed a CAP in Lille and already works in a restaurant in the city.

In the dining room, the kabuli, an Afghan rice dish, seduces Aline and Léna who discover this cuisine. Aline confides: , she comments, quoted by France 3 Régions, while Léna underlines: Suhrab Naderi now dreams of opening his own restaurant in France.

Lille chefs, refugees and the universal language of cuisine

Behind the scenes, this collaboration is shaking up the brigade. The cook Sylvain Manouvrier appreciates the emulation created by the arrival of Suhrab Naderi: , he explains, quoted by France 3 Régions.

For Margaux Dujardin, co-sponsor of the Refugee Food Festival in Lille, this mix of know-how and meetings is the strength of the event. She sums it up: , she confides, quoted by France 3 Régions.