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Fulfilling a wish: “He wanted that”

Surinam Airways Fête de la Cuisine: A tribute to Paul Nolet

Paramaribo, May 21, 2019 – In tribute to the late Paul Nolet, co-founder of Surinam Airways Fête de la Cuisine, the seventh edition of this tasty event will be organized from  June  4 to 9.

The proceeds from the amuse evening in restaurant Passie Food and Wines and midweek dinner in Moments restaurant will also go to the Surinam Airways Fête de la Cuisine Medical Fund, with which medical expenses of the very poorest are co-financed.

Five top chefs are again preparing to travel to Suriname, not only to cook during dinners but also to transfer knowledge to apprentice chefs and this time for the first time to treat homeless people with a free meal. The organization has the Independence Square available for this.


With this event, Suriname is in the spotlight of the international culinary world. It is therefore with pride that this event may usher in the seventh edition thanks to the generosity of the Surinamese business community.

Dutch chefs cook for the homeless in Suriname

Written in Dutch by: Anna Wielkens | Translated by Victuals.me


“We are going to cook for the less fortunate at Independence Square,” Gerard Wollerich says enthusiastic, de chef d’équipe of the annual Suriname Airways event Fête de la Cuisine. After seven years he is still looking forward to the trip full of excitement. Gerard goes to Suriname with a handful of fellow chefs every year. Together they cook special and mouth-watering dishes during three special evenings to raise money for the Surinam Airways Fête de la Cuisine Medical Fund that pays the costs for sick poor children in the country. “The special thing is that we have to prepare dishes with Surinamese ingredients that were totally unknown to us and sometimes still are”.

Gerard has embraced the event and is cooking with the specially assembled team full of fun. The purpose of the event convinced him and gives him a good feeling, “especially when I hear what has happened all year round”. In addition to charity, cooperation with the local cookery school and knowledge transfer are a nice side effect. In between scheduled appointments, the chefs take a special day off to spoil mentally and physically handicapped children of the Tyltyl house with pancakes. However, the event will be conducted in a modified form this year. “The entertainment evening, traditionally on Tuesday, will continue. On Saturday there is no gala dinner but a ‘normal’ three or four-course dinner”.

The initiative that was brought to Suriname by Joan and Paul Nolet has since grown into one that people look forward to every year. The organization is doing it without Paul for the first time. He past away in August 2018. The event on the Independence Square, an important attraction in the historic center of Paramaribo, is a wish from Paul that will be fulfilled. “He wanted that. He always gave something to every wanderer or gave them some money. We only do it in adapted form and not as exuberantly as in previous years,” Joan says.

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One Response

  1. Never knew the story behing Fête de La Cuisine! Very interesting and I love the fact that they are going to give food to the less fortunate 🙂

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