A restaurant with an unusual business plan and an even more unusual name has opened on the ground floor of Booking.com’s Amsterdam headquarters, providing not only an eclectic international menu but to provide jobs and training in food service to 425 refugees and asylum-seekers.
The opening of the restaurant, called A Beautiful Mess, is a project of Refugee Company, a Dutch organization, was attended by Dutch Queen Maxima. It’s the eighth opening by the group, although five of its sites were closed by the Covid pandemic. There are other locations in Utrecht and Arnhem.
Sarah, one of the employees and a refugee from Uganda who works two days a week, explained the name in a promotional video: “A beautiful mess is about different cultures…Different cultures, different countries, different people. It’s a mess, but it’s a beautiful one!”
Fleur Bakker, founder of Refugee Company 15 years ago told press that “At the moment, there are 70,000 people staying in asylum centres. There are 210 emergency shelters in total and 187 normal ones. Your life can be put on hold for five years, but in the meantime, it is important that you can contribute.” She says “I was a bit frustrated. I thought: how can it be that these people are in asylum centres for so long and then move on to benefits?”
